The Great Gatsby
(F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Chapter One

The narrator has obviously grown up with privilege, as one of the first sentiments in the novel is a memory of the advice that he got once from his father; “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” The narrator is a non-judgmental guy which makes people trust him very easily and causes them to reveal their deepest and darkest secrets to him. The narrator is a Carraway, which means that he comes from wealth, and his family is of a very high-class stock. The narrator is well-educated, as he received his Ivy League education at Yale.

Carraway (whom we soon find out is named Nick) reveals that the setting of the novel is New York City as well as East Egg and West Egg Long Island. East Egg is a very wealthy and classy area of Long Island and West Egg, while not too shabby in its own right, is where people of “new money” tend to live; this is where the narrator resides. The people who live in West Egg do not have the connections that those with “family money” have that will allow them a place in East Egg. Nick is an exception of this as his Yale education and family ties in East Egg would likely earn him a place there. It is the spring of 1922 and Nick has moved to New York to work in bonds. Nick’s home is next door to a gigantic mansion which is inhabited by Mr. Gatsby, a man who is a bit of a mystery but very popular. Nick’s second-cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan live in East Egg where Nick visits them for dinner one evening. Tom is a large and aggressive man who has a ton of money, used to play football, and went to college with Nick.

Daisy and her friend Jordan Baker are lounging on the couch, dressed totally in white. As the group enjoys some cocktails Nick casually mentions his neighbor, Mr. Gatsby and Daisy seems very interested. Daisy appears to always be happy and excited about life in general, and Nick notes that she has a bruise that Tom gave her “accidentally”. Tom is trying to get everyone interested in a book that he read called “The Rise of the Colored Empires” by Goddard, which supports white-supremacist views, which Tom seems to believe in. The gathering is interrupted when Tom gets a phone, and Daisy goes ballistic. As Tom and Daisy fight, Jordan reveals to Nick that Tom is having an affair, and the woman whom he is having an affair with calls the house often. Jordan tells Nick that the affair is no secret; everyone knows. Daisy comes back into the room and starts talking about her daughter, and when she was born all she wished for her was to be a “beautiful fool” because she thinks that is the best thing that a girl can be. Nick learns that Jordan is a golfer, and he is overcome by the feeling that he has heard about her before, but he cannot think of where or when; Daisy likes to joke about Nick and Jordan getting together.

When Nick returns to West Egg that evening he sees Mr. Gatsby standing on his lawn just staring into space, apparently contemplating something about his “blue lawn”. Gatsby is not just staring at his lawn, however; he is looking across the bay at a green light and stretches his arms out to it.

Chapter Two

Between the Eggs and New York is a place called the “valley of ashes”, which is watched over by a billboard adorned with the blue eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, an eye doctor, wearing yellow glasses. Nick and Tom are traveling to the city together, and Tom insists on stopping to see his mistress, and introducing her to Nick. His mistress is named Myrtle Wilson and her husband, George B. Wilson is an auto mechanic who owns a repair shop. They stop by the shop with the pretense of having Tom’s car worked on; Tom is a total jerk to George Wilson and shoots Myrtle a not-so-cryptic message to meet with him later. George is clueless about the affair; he just thinks that Myrtle visits her sister when she goes to the city. Myrtle joins them on a train ride to the city, and, during the trip, she expresses her desire to have a puppy. Tom gladly buys Myrtle a puppy and it becomes clear that, to Myrtle, Tom’s purpose is to buy her whatever she wants. Nick is extremely uncomfortable being involved on their situation and tries to leave them, but they will not allow it.

In the city, the trio heads to the apartment where Tom and Myrtle spend most of their adulterous time at Morningside Heights. They are joined at the apartment by Myrtle’s sister Catherine, a man named Mr. McKee, and some others. They group lets loose a bit by playing a drinking game with cards and Tom’s whiskey; this is only the second time Nick has ever been drunk in his entire life. Nick shares with everyone that he lives in West Egg, which prompts one of the inebriated people to mention Gatsby, and the amazing parties that he throws. Catherine says that she has heard Jay Gatsby is related to Kaiser Wilhelm, ruler of Germany during World War I. Catherine begins speaking quietly to Nick and tells him that Tom and Myrtle both hate their spouses, though Tom will never divorce Daisy. He seems to be telling a series of lies to Myrtle to convince her that he will eventually leave Daisy, and she should stick around, which she does. The discussion turns to the fact that people should not marry beneath their own social class, and it seems obvious that Myrtle had done just that. Nick is completely disgusted by the people surrounding him, and he wants to leave the party, but he is somewhat fascinated by the lurid scene in front of him. Myrtle keeps mentioning Daisy and Tom tells her to stop saying Daisy’s name. When Myrtle cheekily responds “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” Tom backhands her, which results in Myrtle having a broken nose. Nick is very drunk at this point and has trouble remembering how the night ends though he does recall taking a train back to Long Island at 4:00 AM.

Chapter Three

Jay Gatsby throws very elaborate parties throughout the summer, neatly every night. Most of the people who come to the parties do not know Mr. Gatsby, nor do they ever meet him, and were not invited. Nick, however, does receive an invitation to the first party he attends at Gatsby’s house, via Gatsby’s chauffeur. At the party, Nick sees Jordan and hears many people gossiping about Gatsby and the fact that he is rarely ever seen at his own parties. There are rumors that he may be a member of the CIA or perhaps a murderer. Nick leaves the bustle of the party, as he is not really a party kind of guy, and heads to the library. In the library, he sees an owl-eyed man looking at the books in awe of how many there are; he tells Nick that he came into the library because he has not been sober in a week and he thought that a library would sober him up as good as anything.

When Nick leaves the library he meets a man who thinks that Nick looks familiar. As they are chatting, they find that both served in World War I and Nick learns that the man he is speaking to is none other than Jay Gatsby himself. Nick is surprised to find that Gatsby is about the same age as he is; he had assumed that Gatsby would be an older man. Gatsby excuses himself from his conversation with Nick to take a telephone call and tell his butler to get Jordan because he wants to have a private conversation with her. Nick observes the people at the party and sees a woman with red hair playing the piano and crying to the point that her black mascara is running down her cheeks. He also sees that all of the couples at the party are fighting, as the men are not allowed to look at all of the hot young women and the wives are upset that the men want to look at all of the hot young women.

When Jordan comes back from her talk with Gatsby, she talks about the “tantalizing” news she has just heard, but she does not elaborate and instead excuses herself for the night and asks Nick to come visit her at her aunt’s home. Gatsby bids goodnight and confirms that he and Nick have plans the next day to go up in his “hydroplane”. As Nick is leaving he sees a car leaving the driveway has run into the wall, and lost a wheel; the driver appears to be the owl-eyed man from the library. It turns out that he was not the driver; instead it was the other person in the car with him, but it is not immediately obvious who that is.

Nick continues on with his daily routine for the first half of summer and does not see Jordan again until summer is about half over. They begin hanging out together quite often, but Nick does not feel that he is in love with her. Jordan tells Nick a small lie one day and he remembers the thing that had come to mind about her the night they met; he had heard once that she cheated in a golf tournament. Nick decides that women cannot be blamed for their dishonesty. Nick also notices that Jordan is not a good driver and when he asks her to be careful she says she doesn’t need to be careful, as long as everyone else is. She also tells Nick that she does not like careless people and that is why she likes him so much. From that moment, Nick is hooked on Jordan and knows that it is time for his to break off whatever he has with a girl back in Chicago. Nick decides that he does not know many honest people, but he is one of them.

Chapter Four

There are many guesses as to what Jay Gatsby may do for a living; the most common ones are murderer and bootlegger. Nick tells about all of the people who come to Gatsby’s infamous parties, what they do for a living, and who they do it with. Gatsby comes to pick Nick up for a lunch date in a very fancy and very yellow, Rolls Royce. He tells Nick a little about himself; his parents were from the Midwest, very wealthy, and sent him to Oxford. Nick remembers that he heard from some people, especially Jordan that there are doubts as to Gatsby’s claim that he was educated at Oxford. Jay tells Nick that he grew up in San Francisco, which is apparently Midwest in his mind, and he goes on to talk about his participation in World War I. He even shows Nick a medal that he received in the war that says “Major Jay Gatsby” on it as well as a photo of himself and some other guys at Oxford. Nick decides that he believes Gatsby, despite the doubts of the general public.

Gatsby, after being unfailingly kind to Nick, asks him for a favor. Nick feels as though he has been played for a fool by Gatsby just to get something in return, but he listens anyway. Gatsby wants Nick to speak to Jordan for him, but he does not tell him what about. Jay is further annoyed, by the way, he is being treated by Gatsby. When Gatsby is pulled over by a policeman he simply tells the man who he is and he is let off the hook; just like that. When the two men get to the city, Nick is introduced to Mr. Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s business partner. Nick feels that there is something slightly off about this business pairing, as Wolfsheim is a shady character; he supposedly fixed the World Series of 1919 and he also wears cufflinks which are made from human molars. Nick sees Tom Buchanan across the room and heads over to introduce Gatsby to him, but Gatsby has disappeared.

Later that day Nick meets up with Jordan who spills the beans about the history between Gatsby and Daisy. In October 1917, Daisy met Gatsby who was a young officer, while she was basically at the top tier of high society and eighteen-years-old. When Gatsby had to leave Daisy’s family forbade her from going to say goodbye to him which caused Daisy to confine herself to her bedroom in anger toward her parents. Daisy was upset about this until the next fall when she began to rule the social scene once again where she met Tom Buchanan. Daisy married Tom in June 1919, probably because he was extremely wealthy, though she almost called the wedding off. On the eve of her wedding day, she was drunk and waved a letter in the air telling Jordan that she had changed her mind about the marriage. The message was never delivered, and Daisy and Tom were married; in April 1920, they welcomed a baby girl. After the honeymoon Daisy seemed to be head over heels for Tom, but as rumor has it Tom began cheating on her immediately with a hotel maid, amongst others. Daisy heard about Gatsby again about six weeks ago and started asking questions about him immediately; she decided that he was the same Jay Gatsby that she had fallen in love with when she was eighteen. Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby bought his house so that he could be close to Daisy, and he has a plan for Nick to invite Daisy over one day, without Tom, and Jay will just casually stop by and be reunited with her.

Chapter Five

Nick returns home after he has spoken to Jordan and he finds that Gatsby is there waiting for him. Gatsby seems very excited though he tries to act like he is not and play it cool. Gatsby tells Nick that he has an opportunity for him to make some extra money if he would like, but Nick declines and pretends that he is far too busy to take on any more responsibilities at the moment. When the day comes for Gatsby to be reunited with Daisy he is very nervous and obsesses over the smallest details, as though nothing can be perfect enough for her. Daisy gets there and again Nick comments on how unique her voice is and how it always sounds super excited. Nick tried to leave Gatsby and Daisy alone together, but he can hear the awkward silence and decides to rejoin them. Gatsby pulls Nick aside and starts flipping out about how everything is going terribly, and it is not working out nearly the way he had hoped. Nick tells him that Daisy probably just feels uncomfortable, and perhaps she would feel slightly more comfortable if she couldn’t clearly hear them talking about her from the next room.

When Gatsby goes back in to see Daisy, Nick leaves the room and goes outside to stand in the rain while they get reacquainted. He comes back in, and Gatsby looks very happy and satisfied while Daisy is in tears; supposedly all they did was talk. Nick and Jay look at Gatsby’s house in awe of all of it and decide to explore to look at all of the nice things. Gatsby lets it slip that he had to save up for three years to buy the house and everything inside of it, despite telling Nick earlier that he inherited his money; Gatsby is defensive and uncomfortable when Nick mentions this fact. Nick realizes that the only reason that Gatsby purchased such an extravagant house is because he was trying to impress Daisy. Nick realizes that the green light Gatsby was looking out at must have represented Daisy to him and now that Daisy is there the light is insignificant. As they are going through the house, they come across a picture which Gatsby says is of Dan Cody, who is an old friend of his. When they get back downstairs a man named Klipspringer plays “The Love Nest” on the piano and Nick leaves the newly reacquainted couple alone.

Chapter Six

A guy who writes for a newspaper in the city comes to see Gatsby to try to get him to speak about himself, as there are many rumors going around. Nick tells the reader the truth about Gatsby, which he does not actually find out until much later but wants to talk about now. Gatsby was born James Gatz to a very poor family. At the age of seventeen, he changes his name to Jay Gatsby and rows himself out to a yacht owned by Dan Cody (the man in the picture) to let him know that the wind is coming in. Dan takes Jay aboard as his steward, skipper, sometimes babysitter, and basic Jack of all trades. Dan is basically Jay’s best friend for a long time. Cody had written in his will that Jay was to inherit all of his money; unfortunately, Cody’s mistress decides to keep everything for herself and Jay gets nothing.

Nick is at Jay’s home when three people stop by; a man named Sloane, a girl, and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby makes it a point to entertain these people although they stopped by unannounced and unexpectedly. Gatsby knows that Tom is Daisy’s wife, and now that Gatsby thinks that he has secured Daisy once again he taunts Tom a bit, saying to him “I know your wife”. Tom instantly dislikes Gatsby and Gatsby goes on toying with him. He asks the trio if they would stay for dinner and while the men refuse and seem wholly uninterested the woman asks if Gatsby would like to join them for dinner instead. Gatsby agrees, much to the dismay of the men, but when he returns downstairs after getting ready they have already left; Nick thinks this much be humiliating for Gatsby.

The next weekend Daisy and Tom come to a party at Gatsby’s home together. Gatsby keeps introducing Tom to people as “the polo player” just to get on his nerves. Daisy and Gatsby sneak off to Nick’s house to have some alone time together. When dinner rolls around, Tom moves himself to another table, and Daisy knows that he is going over there to flirt with a girl who she describes as “common but pretty”. Daisy even gives Tom her gold pencil just in case he has to write something down, knowing that he is likely getting her phone number or giving her the address to his love nest in the city. Nick feels as though this party is much different from the past parties he has been to at Gatsby’s as everyone seems to be quite hostile and very drunk.

There is a famous actress at the party who everyone seems to have a bit of a fascination with, especially the director she is there with who leans in to kiss her neck. Daisy thinks that West Egg is a crude place and is not at all impressed with the sort of people who are at the party, except the actress of course; though she pretends to be greatly interested in and impressed by everything as soon as Tom begins to knock it. Tom’s desire is to know the absolute truth about Gatsby, which entails how Gatsby came about his money because money is all that matters to Tom. Daisy seems insistent and certain that Gatsby’s money comes from drugs; she and Tom leave the party together. Nick is at the party until the very end, and he speaks to Gatsby who is frustrated with Daisy; all he wants is for Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. Nick tells Gatsby that the past cannot be repeated by Gatsby does not buy it. He recalls being eighteen and wanting to take in everything that surrounds Daisy including herself, her culture, and her wealth. Nick is suddenly reminded of something he has not thought about in a long time, but he cannot remember exactly what it is.

Chapter Seven

When the next Saturday comes Gatsby stays locked up in his room and does not throw a party. He has fired every one of his servants and hired new ones whom he hopes will not spread gossip about him. Daisy comes by to have an affair with Gatsby most afternoons, much to Gatsby’s delight. He sends Nick to East Egg to hang out at the Buchanan house where he finds Daisy and Jordan hanging out on the couch in their white dresses and listening to Tom talk to his mistress on the phone. When Gatsby shows up Daisy asks Tom to go into the other room to make some drinks and when he does she begins to kiss Gatsby passionately and tells him that she loves him. Daisy’s daughter comes into the room for a moment before she is ushered out by the nanny and Gatsby tries to hide his disappointment that Daisy and Tom have a child.

The group has cocktails together, and the atmosphere is very strained. It is extremely hot out, but Daisy says to Gatsby “You always look so cool”, which Nick explains to the reader means “I love you” in Daisy speak. Unfortunately, Tom knows Daisy speak so the atmosphere becomes even more strained after her comment. They decide to grab some whiskey and go into town, hoping that it will relieve the tension though it certainly will not. As everyone is getting ready to go Gatsby and Nick begin to talk about Daisy’s voice again, and agree that it is “full of money”. Daisy and Gatsby ride together in the Buchanan’s blue car while Tom drives Gatsby’s yellow car, accompanied by Nick and Jordan. Tom comes to the realization that his wife is having an affair with Jay and also that Nick and Jordan are aware of the affair. They stop to get gas at Wilson’s station where Wilson reveals that he needs money to move out West because he has learned that his wife is having an affair, though he does not know it is with Tom. Nick sees the bespectacled eyes looking down at them from the billboard and notices that another set of eyes are watching as well; the eyes of Myrtle Wilson looking down from a window. Myrtle is staring at Jordan, obviously thinking that Jordan must be Tom’s wife, and Tom realizes that he does not have control over either of his two women anymore.

The group ends up at the Plaza Hotel in a suite where tensions are higher than ever. Tom comes right out and accuses Gatsby of never attending Oxford; Gatsby admits that he did attend Oxford but only for a short time. Tom explodes and reveals to everyone that he knows about the affair; he seems absolutely appalled at the idea that his wife would have an affair with a “nobody”, more so than the fact that she is having an affair. Gatsby realizes that Daisy is not going to tell Tom she never loved him, so he announces it instead. Tom refutes this and admits that he loves her as well, despite his numerous affairs. Daisy tells Tom that he is a disgusting person and finally admits that she never loved him. Tom reminds her of the times he did nice things for her, like carry her over a puddle, so she doesn’t ruin her shoes, and she admits that she did love him once but does not anymore. Gatsby freaks out and tells Tom that Daisy is leaving him and Tom retaliates by telling everyone that Gatsby is a bootlegger, which he denies and gets defensive about.

Daisy decides it is time to leave and she and Gatsby ride together in Gatsby’s yellow car. Through all of this excitement, Nick remembers that it is his 30th birthday. Tom, Nick, and Jordan take the Buchanan’s blue car and make a pit stop at Wilson’s on their way home. When they get there, it is obvious that something terrible has just happened. Michaelis, neighbor to the Wilsons, tells the group that Myrtle ran outside in a fury when she saw a yellow car and the car ran her over, killing her. It is apparent to the group that the car in question belongs to Gatsby and when the policeman interviews Tom he is sure to remind them that his own car is blue, not yellow. On the drive back home, Tom says that Gatsby is a coward for hitting Myrtle and then driving off. Back at the Buchanan house Gatsby waits for Tom to get home because he wants to make sure that he does not erupt in violence toward Daisy. Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was driving, but he is prepared to tell everyone that he was the one driving and take the blame for the whole thing. Nick sees Tom and Daisy have an intimate moment together and realizes that they have gotten back together. He sees Gatsby watching over the house still, but Nick observes that he is really “watching over nothing”.

Chapter Eight

Gatsby waits outside the Buchanan house all night long, but nothing exciting happens, as Nick knew it wouldn’t. In the morning, Nick tells Gatsby that it would probably be wise for him to disappear for a while in light of recent events. Gatsby tells Nick that he could not possibly leave Daisy now and then he tells Nick his life story, which Nick already revealed to the reader in chapter six. In addition to previously revealed details, Nick finds out that Gatsby had never met a “good girl” like Daisy before, and he was immediately taken by her. At first he just wanted to fool around with her but then he fell in love. He felt extremely uncomfortable inside of Daisy’s home and inside of her world because he was not wealthy or cultured as she was. Gatsby misled Daisy when they were younger, promising her a secure future though he really had nothing to offer her other than love. When Gatsby was in the war he earned medals, and did a good job, but he could not wait to get home; unfortunately for him, he ended up at Oxford instead of going straight home and Daisy married Tom because she was sick of waiting for Jay. Gatsby is convinced that Daisy still loves him and that the two can build a life together.

One of Gatsby’s servants comes by and tells him that he is going to have the pool drained, but Gatsby does not see the point as he has not used it that summer. As Nick is leaving he tells Gatsby that the East Egg crowd is totally rotten, and Gatsby is worth more than all of them put together. This is interesting because Nick tells the reader that he never once actually approved of Gatsby. Jordan gives Nick a phone call later, but there is a negative vibe between the two of them, and it becomes apparent that they will no longer be seeing one another. Nick does not seem to want anything to do with Jordan or her crowd of people.

Nick found out from someone that Wilson found out about his wife’s affair when he found a fancy dog collar in her room and also found some bruises on her face, both of which were courtesy of Tom. Wilson decided that the person who was driving the yellow car must have been the man who Myrtle was having an affair with, and he needs to find that man to get his revenge. Wilson ends up at Gatsby’s home and sees that Gatsby is swimming in his pool, ironically. There are shots fired, and Nick runs over to Gatsby’s home; it seems as though Wilson killed Gatsby and then committed suicide.

Chapter Nine

Nick deals with the scene at Gatsby including the police and photographers and then he tries to get in touch with Daisy. He finds out that the Buchanan’s have moved away and have not left a forwarding address to reach them at. Nick makes a strong attempt to find some friends or family of Gatsby’s to inform of his death and invite to his funeral, but he cannot find any. He hears a message on the answering machine at Gatsby’s that confirms his involvement in illegal activities; he also hangs up on a man who calls stating that he wants back a pair of shoes which were at Gatsby’s home. Nick does get ahold of Mr. Gatz, Jay’s father, who seems to believe that his son was going to change the world someday. He reveals that Jay was always determined to break away from the life of poverty he had been raised in and to do something great with his life.

The day of the funeral is very rainy, and Nick finds that only one other person has shown up – the owl-eyed man. He and Nick discuss how awful it is that Gatsby had so many great parties, and invited so many people, yet none of them could be bothered to attend his funeral. Nick begins to think about waiting at train stations in the Midwest and decides that he, Jordan, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby were not cut out for the East; they were all Westerners who needed to get out of the fake life they were living. He recalls an El Greco painting he saw once with a woman dressed all in white who is carried into the wrong house on a stretcher. He decides that he must move back home. Nick meets up with Jordan one last time before he heads back West and she tells him that she trusted him, but he was dishonest and was even more careless than she, as a driver. Nick tells her that as a thirty year old he is five years past being able to lie to himself under the pretense of being honorable. He also tells her that he is “half in love with her” and apologizes as he leaves.

A while later Nick runs into Tom Buchanan who has come back into town. He tells Nick that he was the one who told Wilson that the yellow car belonged to Jay Gatsby. Nick wonders if he should tell Tom that Daisy was the one driving the car; he always wonders if Daisy really was the one driving the car or if Gatsby had lied to him. Nick comes to the realization that Tom and Daisy were actually a lot alike; they were both extremely careless people who were not responsible enough to clean up their own messes. Nick wanders around outside Gatsby’s house, on his blue lawn. He looks across the bay and sees the green light that Gatsby was always staring at; the green light on Daisy’s house. He determines that Gatsby’s problem was that he was always reaching out toward his dream, rather than realizing his dream was all in his past.