The Great Gatsby
(F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Nick Carraway, the narrator, is from the Midwest but moves himself to Long Island for work. He lives in an area known as West Egg, where the people of “new money” live. It is across the bay from East Egg where the more fashionably rich people reside. Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom live in East Egg where they spend their days with their friend Jordan, entertaining the high society. Nick lives next door to a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby who throws the most lavish parties at which he rarely makes an appearance. When Nick finally meets Gatsby the two form a fast friendship and Nick finds out that Gatsby is in love with Daisy, whom he has known for a long time. Daisy’s husband Tom has been cheating on her for their entire marriage, currently with a woman named Myrtle Wilson whose husband owns the auto garage where Tom and Nick stop on a trip to the city. Nick feels very uncomfortable in this dishonest crowd of people, though he is slightly intrigued by the dangerous web they have all woven around and between themselves. As the secrets and affairs begin to unravel Nick finds himself as a front-row observer in tragedy resulting from jealousy. When Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, is struck by Gatsby’s car and killed he allows Wilson to believe that Myrtle was having an affair with Gatsby, rather than himself; little does Tom know that his wife was driving the car that killed Myrtle. Wilson, seeking revenge for the affair as well as his wife’s death, kills Gatsby and then himself. Nick realizes that he is disgusted by the world he has immersed himself in and decides to move back West.