Short Summary of The Great Gatsby
While The Great Gatsby is a highly specific portrait of American society during the Roaring Twenties, its story is also one that has been told hundreds of times, and is perhaps as old as America itself: a man claws his way from rags to riches, only to find that his wealth cannot afford him the privileges enjoyed by those born into the upper class. The central character is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy New Yorker of indeterminate occupation. Gatsby is primarily known for the lavish parties he throws every weekend at his ostentatious Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is suspected of being involved in illegal bootlegging and other underworld activities.
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.
Upon arriving in New York, Nick visits his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom. The Buchanans live in the posh Long Island district of East Egg; Nick, like Gatsby, resides in nearby West Egg, a less fashionable area looked down upon by those who live in East Egg. West Egg is home to the nouveau riche people who lack established social connections, and tend to vulgarly flaunt their wealth. Like Nick, Tom Buchanan graduated from Yale, and comes from a privileged Midwestern family. Tom is a former football player, a brutal bully obsessed with the preservation of class boundaries. Daisy, by contrast, is an almost ghostlike young woman who affects an air of sophisticated boredom. At the Buchanans's, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a beautiful, if boyish, young woman with a cold and cynical manner. The two will later become romantically involved.
Jordan tells Nick that Tom has been having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, a woman who lives in the valley of ashes an industrial wasteland outside of New York City. After visiting Tom and Daisy, Nick goes home to West Egg; there, he sees Gatsby gazing at a mysterious green light across the bay.
It is New York in the 1920s. Nick Carraway moves to the West Egg from Minnesota. He lives in a small house next to Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who throws lavish parties, and decides he wants to know more about him. Then conflicts ensue about affairs and the secrets about all of the characters’ pasts. Nick, Daisy, and Tom (Daisy’s husband) “hang out” and later on, Gatsby joins on their travels. One day, when they are on an outing, Daisy hits Myrtle (Tom’s mistress) accidentally with Gatsby’s car and Myrtle dies. Tom then assures Daisy that they will cover up who killed Myrtle. Wilson thinks Gatsby killed his wife, so in a fit of madness goes to Gatsby’s house and kills him and
He rents a house in the West Egg district of Long Island surrounded by newly rich people. Nick is happen to see the garish display of wealth by his next-door neighbor a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a colossal Gothic mansion. Nick plans to meet his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a former classmate of Nick’s at Yale, who belongs to the reputable upper class society in the East Egg, a fashionable area of Long
When they were married, they “spent a year in France for no particular reason” while Nick used the family wealth wisely and lived humbly. Daisy is aware that Tom is cheating on her when the phone rings and he answers because she mentions to Nick she hopes her daughter grows up to be a “beautiful little fool” (21) because ignorance is bliss. In The Great Gatsby, kids are not a significant part of the story; just like in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Dolls House”, they are simply just shown off and played with by the parents and later sent away to be taken care of while the adults did their normal activities. While Tom cheats on her with Myrtle Wilson, she does the same to him with Gatsby. When Gatsby was at the Buchanan house for drinks, as Tom left the room, Daisy grabs Gatsby and starts kissing him, proclaiming “I don't care!” (122) . She said this because she tried to show her love for Gatsby, this is not only a lie she told the others,but herself as well. Later on in the story, when she and Gatsby were driving, they ran over Myrtle Wilson and killed her but showed no signs of remorse later. Jordan Baker, a young golf player who is just as immoral as the other lavish rich people in her company , asks to see Nick after Myrtle Wilson was killed but he refuses because he is overcome with shock by the
Nick lives in the West Egg, but his cousin Daisy lives in the East Egg, Long Island, NY. East Egg is where the upper class people live in, unlike the West Egg. Nick goes and visits his cousin Daisy in East egg for dinner with her husband as well. Her husband was Nick’s friend from lectures they together in Yale. When he goes to their house, there he meets Jordan Baker. Jordan talks to Nick about Daisy and Tom’s marriage. Jordan tells him that Tom has affairs with another woman, Myrtle Wilson. She lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and NYC. Nick goes to NYC with tom and Myrtle to an offensive, rude, loud party in an apartment. That apartment as well is where Tom and Myrtle share together. Later on Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose because she mocks him about Daisy. That shows us that Tom is an aggressive, low tempered man.
The 1920’s was a time of prosperity, woman’s rights, and bootleggers. F. Scott Fitzgerald truly depicts the reality of this era with The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, an enormously wealthy man, is famous for his extravagant parties and striking residence. However, this is all that is known about Gatsby. Even his closest friends continue to wonder what kind of man Gatsby actually is. The mysteriousness of Gatsby is demonstrated by conceivable gossip, his random departures, and the missing parts of his past.
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.
The main characters, Daisy, Nick, Gatsby, and Tom are all from the Mid-west. While Tom and Daisy Buchanan live an East Egg, being attracted by its glamour, excitement and promise of success, Nick enjoys living on West Egg. He mentions the friendship between Mid-Westerners, who are brought together by their extremely long and cold winters (in contrast to the New York summers' heat).
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Nick Caraway, a man who moved into New York in West Egg. He soon finds out that his house borders a mansion of a wealthy man, named Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchannan. Nick describes his past experiences with Gatsby. He is an unreliable first person narrator, for he is extremely subjective being biased towards Gatsby and he is deceptive, with his lying and past actions. His evaluation of Gatsby is not entirely just, due to his close friendship with Gatsby.
Jay Gatsby is a wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg, where the New Money live. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night and represents the...
The book The Great Gatsby tells the story of Jay Gatsby who is an uber wealthy man. The book starts by a young man named Nick Carraway moves to New York. He rents a small home next to a mansion in the West Egg district of Long Island. Nick lives next to an extremely wealthy,
Gatsby is not so great because he is a liar. From the very start Gatsby is said to be an alumnus from Oxford, who fought in WWI, hunted big game, and had parents from the Midwest. He even justifies himself when Nicks asks and Gatsby pulls out a picture of him at Oxford and a WWI medal that he carried around in his pocket. He even changed his name, James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, but why? “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (6). Gatsby is mysterious and mystifying, known for his large parties yet no one knows why he has them. Keep in mind this is the prohibition era, but at Gatsby’s parties there is always plenty of alcohol to go around and no one knows where it comes from or how he acquires so much, one of the many mysteries. In attendance at these parties there are people like Meyer Wolfshiem “the man who really did fix the 1919 World Series” (118), to the mayors and governors. More questions arise in this company as to how Gatsby is associated with gangsters and why they attend these large parties. It is completely ironic how so many attend these parties but none ...
From the beginning of The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is developed as a reliable narrator. His honesty and sense of duty are established as he remarks on his own objectivity and willingness to withhold judgment. However, as the book progresses and Nick’s relationship with Jay Gatsby grows more intimate, it is revealed that Nick is not as reliable as previously thought when it comes to Gatsby. Nick perceives Gatsby as pure and blameless, although much of Gatsby's persona is false. Because of his friendship and love for Gatsby, his view of the events is fogged and he is unable to look at the situation objectively.
Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and close friend, considers Gatsby to have achieved greatness. Nick sees greatness in Gatsby that he has never seen in any other man; unfortunately, all great characters do not always have happy endings. Gatsby’s ambition from a young age, along with his desire to please others, pave the road to his prosperity, but, ultimately, his enduring heroic love for Daisy, steers him to his demise. Several individuals mark Gatsby as a man of great wealth, with a beautiful estate, and an abundance of friends.
In the next chapter, the reader is introduced the bleak stretch of land between New York City and West Egg. It was there that Nick first met Tom’s mistress. Nick and Tom were taking the train into New York City one Saturday when Tom signaled to Nick that they were going to get off the train halfway to their destination in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Tom walked into an auto garage where he talked with a man named George Wilson, who asked about a car Tom was supposed to sell him. Wilson’s wife, Myrtle, emerged from the upstairs of the garage. When Wilson went off to his office for a moment, Tom quickly told Myrtle that he wanted to see her and to take the next train into New York. They arranged where they would meet quickly and moved away f...
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.