The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Alex Ridley
Andrew Dreelin
Catherine Hudson
Claire Galbraith
Jackson Mansour
Meghan Twigg
Neely Kennon
Taylor Timmons

About the Author
o Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American
author of numerous novels and short stories
usually about the Jazz Age
o Finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The
Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night,
most famously, The Great Gatsby
o Fifth novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, was left
unfinished because of his death
o Wrote many short stories about the themes of
youth, along with despair and age
o Lived a short life of parties and careless
spending
o Died at the age of 44

More about the Author
o While living in Montgomery, Alabama, he fell in love
with Zelda Sayre
o Zelda had great influences on his writings and he
sometimes used direct quotes from her writings
o After his publication of This Side of Paradise, he
became almost instantly famous. Fitzgerald and
Zelda lived an extravagant life as young celebrities.
o Fitzgerald had been an alcoholic since he was in
college, leaving him in poor health by the late 1930s
o Fitzgerald suffered two heart attacks in the late
1940s
o His manuscript was edited by his friend, Edmund
Wilson, and published in 1941 as The Last Tycoon

Characters
Jay Gatsby
o Around thirty years old
o Protagonist of the story
o Changed his name from James Gratz to Jay Gatsby
o Born in North Dakota
o Lives in a mansion in West Egg
o Throws parties at his mansion every Saturday night in
order to gain Daisys love
o Parties are elaborate and over the top, they do not
seem to please him as he is usually found standing
alone, watching the crowd
o Met Daisy while training to become a military officer in
Louisville, Kentucky and fell immediately in love with her
o Daisy said she would wait on Gatsby to return home, but
while he was at war, Daisy got married Tom
o Killed on property by George Wilson because George
believes whoever killed Myrtle in the car accident must
have been her lover


Nick Carraway
o Narrator of the story
o Young man originally from Minnesota
o Moves to West Egg to learn about the bond business
o Lives next door to Gatsby
o Daisys cousin
o Nick becomes great friends with Gatsby
o As a favor for Gatsby, he invites Daisy over to his house,
so that he can see Daisy
o One of the only people who still supported and missed
Gatsby after his death
o Arranged a funeral and no one attended except
Gatsbys father and himself





Daisy Buchanan
o Is married to Tom Buchanan
o Nicks cousin
o Originally from Louisville, Kentucky but
moved to East Egg
o Kills Myrtle Wilson in a car accident,
but lets Gatsby take the blame

Tom Buchanan
o Daisys husband
o Extremely wealthy and lives in East Egg
o Is in love with Myrtle Wilson also
o Becomes angry when he begins to think that Daisy is cheating
on him
o Tells George Wilson that Gatsby was the owner of the car that
killed his wife so that he could get rid of Gatsby
o Moves away with Daisy in the end of the book without telling
where he is going
o Nick describes Tom and Daisy after Gatsbys death by saying, I
couldnt forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had
done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and
confused. They were carless people, Tom and Daisy-they
smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into
their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that
kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess
they had made. (179;ch.9)
Jordan Baker
oDaisys friend
oMeets Nick at Daisys house one
night while having dinner
oIs a competitive golfer
oSometimes referred to as a
cheater
oFalls in love with Nick

Nick Describes Jordan
o Nick describes Jordan by saying, At first I was flattered to go places
with her, because she was a golf champion, and everyone knew her
name. Then it was something more. I wasnt actually in love, but I felt
a sort of tender curiosity. The bored haughty face that she turned to
the world concealed something and one day I found what it was.
When we were on a house-party together up in Warwick, she left a
borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about
it- and suddenly I remembered the story about her that had eluded
me that night at Daisys. At her first big golf tournament there was a
row that nearly reached the newspapers- a suggestion that she had
moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round. The things
approached the proportions of a scandal- then died away. A caddy
retracted his statement, and the only other witness admitted that he
might have been mistaken. The incident and the name had
remained together in my mind. Jordan Baker instinctively avoided
clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt
safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be
thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. (57;ch.3)
o Nick later describes Jordan again by saying, She was dressed to
play golf, and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration,
her chin raised a little jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf,
her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee.
(177;ch.9)

Myrtle Wilson
o Lives in the Valley of Ashes
o Married to George Wilson
o Has an affair with Tom Buchanan
o Is in a fatal car accident
o Nick describes her by saying, Then I heard footsteps
on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a
woman blocked out the light from the office door.
She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but
she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some
women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of
dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or
gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately
perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her
body were continually smoldering. (25;ch.2)
George Wilson
o Myrtles husband
o Owns a old auto shop in the Valley of
Ashes
o Shoots Gatsby after he finds out that
Gatsby killed Myrtle and then shoots
himself

Important Facts
o Narrator: Nick Carraway
o Setting: Summer of 1922 in New York
o Point of View: Nick tells the story from
the first and third person point of view

Plot Summary
o Nick Carraway moves beside Jay Gatsby
o Nick travels to New York City with Tom and
Myrtle
o Nick attends Gatsbys party
o Gatsby and Daisy have an affair
o Tom finds out about the affair between
Gatsby and Daisy
o Daisy kills Myrtle
o Gatsby is murdered
o Nick holds a funeral and ends his relations with
Jordan
Symbols
The Green Light
o Situated on Daisys dock in East Egg
o Represents Gatsbys hopes and
dreams
o First associated with Daisy in chapter
one
o Gatsbys desire for Daisy is associated
with the American Dream
o Chapter 9 Nick compares the light to
how America looked to settlers


The Valley of Ashes
o Between West Egg and New York City
o Desolate land created by dumping of
industrial ashes
o Moral and social decay resulted from
pursuit of wealth
o Poverty: living among ashes


Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg
o Pair of eyes painted on an old
billboard over Valley of Ashes
o Suggested to be God looking down
upon American society
o Fitzgerald suggest characters instill the
meanings
o Symbol of God exists in George Wilson

East Egg and West Egg
o Two imaginary communities on Long
Island
o East Egg is the posh, wealthy, old
money community
o West Egg is the extravagantly wasteful
new money community
o Both show class levels

Themes
o Prevailing theme of love
o Decline of the American Dream in the
1920s
-Over shadowed by greed and
pursuit of pleasure
-Declining social and moral values i.e.
Gatsbys opulent parties
o Shallowness of the Upper class
-New money vs. old money

Important Quotes Explained
o I hope shell be a foolthats the best thing a
girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool
-Daisy says this while talking to Jordan and Nick
about how she hopes her daughter will grow
up to be. This comment shows a little bit of
who Daisy is, a woman in a society where
womans intelligence is insignificant. Daisy
says this in a tone of sadness because she
conformed to societies expectations, so that
she would be more appreciated and her
hopes is that her daughter will be the same.

Continued
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road
hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a
mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of
land. This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes
grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens;
where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising
smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who
move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.
Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible
track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to a rest, and
immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades
and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their
obscure operations from your sight. (23;ch. 2)
-Nick describes the Valley of Ashes as a dark and empty place
between two big cities. The quote also describes the
demeanor of one of the characters who lives there, George
Wilson.
Continued
o He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal
reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five
times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole
external world for an instant and then concentrated on
you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It
understood you just as far as you wanted to be
understood, believed in you as you would like to believe
in yourself.
- Nick describes Gatsbys character after getting his first
close look. It shows the way Gatsby looks to everyone in
the outside world. His smile is an important part because
it acts as a characteristic of the life Gatsby has planned
for himself. Additionally, Nick talks about how Gatsby has
the power to make anyone feel important just by his
smile or a compliment.

Continued
o The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long
Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of
himself. He was a son of Goda phrase which, if
it means anything, means just thatand he must
be about His Fathers business, the service of a
vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he
invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a
seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent,
and to this conception he was faithful to the
end.(98;ch.6)
-After just describing Gatsbys early life, Nick
continues in describing the invention of the
Gatsby name. The comparison of Gatsby and
Jesus illustrates Gatsbys formation of his life of
luxury.

Continued
o Thats my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh
bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a
story of the West, after allTom and Gatsby, Daisy and
Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we
possessed some deficiency in common which made us
subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.(176;ch.9)
-Nick concludes the geography theme. When Nick says
this, he realizes that although he lives on the east coast,
he has an acquaintance with Midwestern values and
morals, and this person is the one causing all the tension
and drama in his life. Nick also blames peoples attitudes
on the New York desire for wealth and a good name.
This quote offers insight as to why Nick left The East Coast
and went to Minnesota.

Continued
o Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic
future that year by year recedes before us. It
eluded us then, but thats no mattertomorrow
we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . .
And then one fine morning
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne
back ceaselessly into the past.(180;ch.9)
-This concludes the novel. It shows Nick returning
back to his old ways and dreams. There is a focus
on the determination of people to reach their
goals by reverting to the past. However, it shows
that people cannot move along from the past,
being illustrated with boats against the
current

Important Question for the Reader
o Is Nick a reliable narrator? Why or why not?
-Yes
-Says he is the most trustworthy person he knows
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues,
and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have
ever known. (59;ch.3)
-He says that he is not judgmental or prejudiced
-He does not stop arguments or interrupt (in this sense, he is
removed)

-No
-He has physical interactions with the characters (biased towards
some)
-He is human (innate prejudices of the time)
-Relationship with Jordan Baker
-Alcohol
Citations
o http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi
d=20090509211839AAnRqWX
o www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fit
zgerald (About the author)
o www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/biography.html
(About the author)