F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

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Nick Carraway

Nick Carraway is the narrator of the entire novel, he is also the protagonist of his own plot. He is a practical and conservative man who turns thirty during the course of the story. Raised in a small town in the Midwest, in New York he is in the bond business. He rents a small bungalow out from the city on a fashionable island known as West Egg. His next door neighbor is Jay Gatsby, and his distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan, lives across the bay with her husband, Tom. Nick plays an important role in the main plot of the novel, for he is responsible for reuniting Gatsby and Daisy.

Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is one of the most interesting and memorable characters in this novel. Born as James Gatz to poor farmers in North Dakota, he decided at an early age that he wanted more out of life than North Dakota could offer. Gatsby comes to the East Coast after the war and makes a fortune in bootlegging and other questionable business activities due to the help of characters such as Meyer Wolfsheim. He buys a mansion on West Egg, in order to be directly across the bay from Daisy Buchanan. He gives his wild, extravagant parties and drives his flashy automobiles in hopes of attracting Daisy's attention. She becomes his reason for being and Gatsby never loses sight of his dream and often reaches out to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. After Nick arranges for Daisy and Gatsby to meet again, the two become close again. Gatsby believes that she loves him as much as he loves her and that she is going to leave Tom and be with him. Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, who believes that Gatsby murdered his wife, Myrtle Wilson.

Daisy Fay Buchanan

Daisy is an attractive, wealthy, and shallow lady with luscious voice, which seems to have a sound of wealth. Daisy is wealthy and comes from a prominent family in Louisville. She marries the very wealthy Tom Buchanan. Daisy is a bored and careless woman. She is incapable of entertaining herself and wonders what she will do with her life for the next thirty years. Although she is the mother of a young daughter, she is incapable of any depth of maternal feelings.

Tom Buchanan

Tom is Daisy's wealthy husband. He is a shallow, egotistical, rude man and the living personification of the shallowness and carelessness of the wealthy He plays with cars and race horses, has many affairs, and treats Daisy like a meaningless object.

Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby
1599 Words | 4 Pages
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby's neighbor in West Egg. Nick is a young man from a prominent Midwestern family. Educated at Yale, he has come to New York to enter the bond business. In some sense, the novel is Nick's memoir, his unique view of the events of the summer of 1922; as such, his impressions and observations necessarily color the narrative as a whole. For the most part, he plays only a peripheral role in the events of the novel; he prefers to remain a passive observer.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
705 Words | 2 Pages
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Daisy Miller by Henry James, most of the characters are under illusions during the majority of the plot. The plots are carried out with the characters living under these illusions, which are mainly overcome by the ends of the stories. The disillusionment of most of the characters completely diminishes the foundation in which the plots were built upon, leading to the downfall of some of the main characters and the altering of the other characters.
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gatillus Illusion Vs. Reality in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
462 Words | 1 Pages
Fitzgerald presents Jay Gatsby as one character who cannot see reality. "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"(Pg. 116) He focuses so strongly on trying to get what he had in the past that he cannot face the reality that he cannot have Daisy. When Gatsby meets Daisy, he tells her that he is from a wealthy family to try to convince her that he is worthy of her. He also thinks that he can buy Daisy with his money. In addition, Jay Gatsby's real name is James Gatz. He changes his name because he wants to be a different person. Gatsby stakes everything on his dreams, but he does not realize that his dreams are unworthy of him. He loves Daisy so much that he cannot see how money corrupts her.
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Daisy Buchanan Manipulation Essay
778 Words | 2 Pages
From the outside, Daisy seems like the demure wife of a wealthy ex-football player, Tom Buchannan. The relationship the two share is far from a perfect marriage, but it is functional for upper-class society. Daisy often speaks nonsense, putting off the impression that she lacks intelligence, but there are moments when Daisy shows her true nature. The first moment occurs when Daisy shares
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
727 Words | 2 Pages
Crossing the porch where we had dined that June night three months before, I came to a small rectangle of light which I guessed was the pantry window. The blind was drawn, but I found a rift at the sill.
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The Fight for Daisy: Tom vs. Gatsby
895 Words | 2 Pages
Daisy Buchanan, this woman is crazy, uncaring, and many would argue cold hearted. She is married to Tom and yet, has an affair with Gatsby. Tom is her husband, a very well-off man that goes off and has affairs, and never attempts to hide the fact. Then there is Gatsby. Ah, Gatsby. The young man she was so in love with as a teenage girl. Tom and Gatsby have many similarities; from the fact that both Tom and Gatsby want Daisy all to themselves to the fact that they both love her. While they share many similarities they have far more numerable differences between them. The differences range from how they treat her to how rich they and what social class they are in, to the simple fact that Tom lives in “East Egg” and Gatsby in “West Egg.” Both the similarities and differences between these two men are what ultimately cause Daisy to believe that she is in love with Tom more than she is with Gatsby.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1437 Words | 3 Pages
The Value of Jay Gatsby Jay Gatsby, who is one of the main characters of the Great Gatsby, is a man with a mysterious background and an unknown personality. He doesn't mention too much about his past except certain fabricated highlights of his life which were designed to impress others. The strange and humorous thing is that he carries articles of evidence that back up most of his lies to prove that he isn't lying. Gatsby is also the kind of man that is used to getting what he wants no matter what the consequences are, causing him to be a very determined man that once has an idea in his mind won't let it go until he accomplishes it. The things that Jay Gatsby values the most is money, to impress others and gain acceptance and most of all, having things his own way.
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Corruption In The Great Gatsby
1539 Words | 4 Pages
Nick Carraway is the narrator of this story. He can keep secrets and is known to be trust worthy which gives the reader a better view of the story. They can see everything that is happening because the characters in this book trust him with secrets. He does not really go into the action much. He is more of an observer. This does not mean that he does not do much in the story though. He explains where he lives, the areas at where the events take place and introduces other characters. He is a neighbor and a friend of one of the main characters, Jay Gatsby.
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The American Dream Destroyed Willy Loman and the Great Gatsby
1895 Words | 4 Pages
In the Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, many had pursued the American dream of material wealth and others could not. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are a married couple that seem to have everything they could possibly want and need. They had pursued the American dream of material wealth. Their lives were full of every materialistic object that one could imagine of, however they were very unhappy and seek to change their way of living. Tom drifts off to "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(Fitzgerald 10) and he begins to read "deep books with long words in them"(17) just so that he could have a topic conversation with others. Tom is married to Daisy Buchanan; however he has an apartment in New York and has an affair with Myrtle Wilson there. Daisy Buchanan is one who is empty on the inside, and she demonstrates herself to the world as if she is oblivious to her husband’s affair with Myrtle. Daisy has no drive, ambition or desires that she wants to complete in her life; she is a characterless person, with a beating heart...
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Failure of the American Dream in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
714 Words | 2 Pages
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1422 Words | 3 Pages
According to the dictionary, the definition of dissatisfaction is the quality or state of being unhappy or discontent. Dissatisfaction is a disease that theoretically knows no prejudices, has no cure, and almost everyone has it. This is a global epidemic, that can destroy a man in the time it takes to snap your fingers. Physically most people will be alright but discontent will rot you to the core on the inside. Unfortunately, not being content seems to be a very common part of society today and in the past. The theme of not be satiated by life is especially seen in the famous novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. All the characters in this novel seemingly have achieved the american dream but they are all unhappy and never get what they really want in the end. Also, no character is satisfied with their marriage, with love, and with life in general. They are all unhappy with their lives and they destroy the lives of others in order to satisfy themselves. The Great Gatsby teaches us that even being wealthy and powerful, people can still be dissatisfied and will do anything in order to be happy. Therefore, despite believing that we have it all, dissatisfaction still plagues the human spirit.
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1486 Words | 3 Pages
Jay Gatsby is the protagonist in the story. The protagonist is the leading character. Gatsby has a huge fortune and lives next to Nick Carraway in a huge gothic mansion. Every Saturday night he throws lavish parties in hopes that the girl he loves, Daisy Buchanan, will notice that he is there. Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity. So he is obviously deeply flawed. But he has a big heart and everything he did was so that he could win the woman that he loved back. Nick Carraway is the Narrator of the story. He had just moved to West Egg, Long Island from Minnesota to learn about the bond business. He is honest and tolerates a lot of things, but most importantly, he is Daisy 's cousin. Daisy Buchanan is the woman that Gatsby loves and at one point, she loved him too. She even told him that she would wait for him but when she met Tom she couldn 't turn down the opportunity. She is a beautiful socialite, sardonic, and a little
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780 Words | 2 Pages
Tom Buchanan is Daisy’s rich, uptight, rude husband. He is a racist bigot and thinks the world revolves around him. Tom makes himself out to be a powerful man through
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Examples Of Courage In The Great Gatsby
1829 Words | 4 Pages
The relationships between the personas are not only convoluted, but they serve as another interruption from their everyday lives. For one person in particular, they are a hypocritical situation that they cannot escape — Tom Buchanan. Tom, a lavish man out of Chicago, who “gave [Daisy] a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” to win her heart over, then forgot about the commitment that marriage required (70). Just as Daisy had spent her socialite years following bank accounts, Tom has spent his time following seductive mistresses with little power. He establishes his dominance over women who are powerless to divert from the root of his issues — his relationship with Daisy.
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How To Write A Book Report For The Great Gatsby
944 Words | 2 Pages
A seemingly easy read, The Great Gatsby has won over critics around the world, and rightfully so, has become one of today's greatest classics due to its complex literary content. The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, grew up in the Midwestern United States and went to school at Yale University. Returning home after traveling a great deal, he is discontent and decides to move to the East in 1922, renting a house in Long Island's West Egg section. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy neighbor living next door in a lavish mansion where he holds many extravagant weekend parties. His name is mentioned while Nick is visiting a relative, Daisy. As it turns out, Jay Gatsby had met Daisy five years before while in the military. Meanwhile Gatsby spent all of his effort after the war to buy his mansion through shady business dealings in order to be nearer to Daisy in the hope that she would leave her rich husband, Tom, for him. Daisy is impressed by Gatsby's wealth and the two begin spending much time together, raising the suspicions of Tom who had also has his own affair with a gas station owner's wife, Myrtle Wilson.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby