The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a fiction novel published in 1925 by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Inspired by Fitzgerald’s experiences during the Jazz Age of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby captures the prosperity and the hedonism of the era through a cast of characters who reside in the fictional Long Island towns of West Egg and East Egg. Despite a cold reaction from critics and audiences upon its release, many modern scholars include The Great Gatsby in the canon of great American novels, deeming it a classic. In 1998, the Modern Library selected The Great Gatsby as the second best English language novel of the 20th century.

Plot Summary

The narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to Long Island after returning from World War I. Although he is from Minnesota, he feels restless after the war and believes that the east coast is more interesting and exciting than the Midwest.

After he relocates to the fictional town of “West Egg” and begins his job as a bond salesman, Nick becomes reacquainted with a distant cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. Both Tom and Daisy are from very wealthy families, and Tom is a successful businessman. Nick also meets their friend, Jordan Baker, a professional female golfer. Tom and Daisy live in East Egg, the more prestigious “old money” counterpart to West Egg, where people with “new money” live. Tom also has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a gas station and car dealership owner named George. Nick meets her and finds her unattractive.

One night, Nick meets Jay Gatsby, his neighbor. Although Gatsby is extremely rich and holds lavish parties at his home, he has few close friends. Rumors constantly circulate about his origins and the source of his money. He invites Nick to one of his parties, and they become acquainted. Jordan and Nick spend more time together until they become romantically involved, mostly due to Jordan’s own desires, although Nick is attracted to her. One day, Jordan approaches Nick to inform him that Gatsby and Daisy were once romantically involved–Daisy almost called off her wedding to Tom because of her feelings for Gatsby. Jordan asks Nick’s assistance in facilitating a reunion. They meet at Nick’s house one day, and then Gatsby shows Daisy to his own house. She marvels at his luxurious belongings and cries when she sees his beautiful collection of shirts. Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby alone together.

Gatsby and Daisy begin an affair and see each other often with Nick. Daisy and Tom attend one of Gatsby’s parties, and although Daisy finds the party distasteful, she defends Gatsby to Tom. Gatsby hopes that Daisy will leave Tom for him, and he stops throwing parties, since he only ever threw them hoping that she would show up. One day, Nick, Gatsby, and Jordan attend lunch at Daisy and Tom’s house. The affair between Daisy and Gatsby becomes apparent to Tom and he attempts to assert his dominance. They all drive to town to ease tension, where they fill up on gas at George’s gas station. George informs them that he and Myrtle are moving, implying that he knows about he and Tom’s affair. Myrtle mistakes Jordan, sitting next to Tom in the car, for Daisy.

Tom confronts Daisy and Gatsby about their affair, and she admits that she loves Gatsby and wants to leave Tom. Tom informs Daisy that Gatsby is a criminal. This is true: Gatsby is not from a family with money but is instead a self-made alcohol smuggler from a modest Midwestern family. After the revelation, they all drive away, and Jordan, Tom, and Nick come across the gas station again, where they find out that Myrtle is dead after being hit by a car. Tom convinces a distraught George that Gatsby drove the car.

It transpires that Daisy was driving Gatsby’s car and hit Myrtle after Myrtle ran into the street in a fit of rage and jealousy. Gatsby wants to cover for Daisy’s culpability, and Nick tells him that the police will eventually identify his car. George pursues Gatsby, murders him, then dies by suicide. None of Gatsby’s party guests, nor any of his criminal associates, attend his funeral; his father travels from the Midwest to attend. Disillusioned, Nick makes up his mind to return to the Midwest. He breaks up with Jordan. Daisy and Tom leave East Egg to an unknown location, and Nick and Tom speak one last time. Tom admits that he suggested Gatsby’s guilt to George.