Gatsby Reading

The narrator describes Gatsby as having something gorgeous about him. He also says that Gatsby is optimistic about life, has an extraordinary gift for hope, and is romantic in a way that no one else is.

The narrator left his home city in the Middle West to go East to New York City and learn the bond business. He also wishes to experience the excitement he felt during WWI.

The narrator's house is a small, weather-beaten cardboard bungalow in one of New York City's commuting towns on an island overlooking the bay and sandwiched in between two huge mansions.

The Buchanan's house is a red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay with a lawn stretching from the beach to the front door and covered in vines. The front had a line of French windows. The yard also had roses and a sunken Italian garden.

Nick knew Tom in college and Daisy was his second cousin once removed.

Tom is a huge guy who was previously one of the most powerful ends that ever played football as New Haven. He is a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a hard mouth, arrogant eyes, and power body. He has always been wealthy, and seems to be a somewhat cruel man, very opinionated, and judgement. Upon first impression, he doesn't seem to be very likable.

Daisy is a kind and charming person who is engaging and makes people feel like there is no one that she would rather see. She seems to be a happy person while also having an underlying sadness to her. Having bright eyes, a passionate mouth, and a face full of excitement, she has a certain innocence to her. She seems to fake a lot of her innocence though.

Miss Baker tells Nick that Tom has a mistress in New York City.

He doesn't like the people in the East and feels that it is not moral. Gatsby was the only man in the East that he didn't hate. Something happened to Gatsby that made him hate the East even more. So in other words, everything surrounding Gatsby is what made Nick hate the East.

When questioned, Daisy at first just says that they don't know each other well and that hardship has made her cynical, but eventually she just says that when her daughter was born, she said that she was glad it was a girl but hoped that she would be a fool because the best thing that a girl can be is a beautiful fool.

Gatsby is introduced into the novel by him coming up during dinner discussion. When he gets home, Nick sees him standing outside his house with his hands in his pockets staring up at the sky. He means to call out to him, but then he raises his hands while also trembling and looks out at a green light on the water. Soon afterwards he disappears.

The "valley of ashes" is a slum between the West Egg and Manhattan that is a dumping ground for all of the industrial ashes and filth of New York City and is where the poorest people live.

The "eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg" is an abandoned advertising billboard overlooking the "valley of ashes." It has a pair of bright blue eyes surrounded by a pair of yellow glasses on it. The eye doctor that put up the now faded sign either forgot about it or moved away.

Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle Wilson, who is his mistress.

Myrtle is Tom's mistress and George is her clueless husband that is friendly with Tom and works in the auto business.

Mrs. Wilson bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving-picture magazine, some cold cream, a flask of perfume, and a puppy from a man selling them on the corner of the street.

They go to an apartment building at 158th Street where Tom and Mrs. Wilson secretly have an apartment together.

Catherine is Mrs. Wilson's younger sister and Mr. and Mrs. McKee are friends of Tom and Myrtle that have in a flat below them.

Catherine tells Nick that Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's and that is where his money comes from. She also mentions that she is scared of him.

He broke her nose by slapping her in the face.

Myrtle says that she married George because she thought that he was a gentleman and was rich, but later found out that he wasn't and had been faking.

Gatsby's wealth comes from "new" money, which means that it was recently acquired, not passed down through his family. This money is spent on fancy things that show off his wealth. Some of these things including his extravagant mansion and grounds, the huge parties he throws all the time, a fancy Rolls-Royce, several aquaplanes, the multitude of hired help, the crates of food, the library full of unread books, and just overall lifestyle.

A variety of types of people come to Gatsby's parties, but a lot of them are rich, young, and famous people from New York City. A lot of the guests are never actually invited and are friends of the invited and/or just come to have a good time. Some of these people never actually meet Gatsby.

Nick goes to the party because he was invited that Saturday morning by Gatsby's chauffeur bringing over a formal note.

When Nick meets Gatsby, he doesn't realize at first that that is who he is talking to. Nick starts talking to Gatsby when him and Jordan sit down at a table with him and a little girl. After realizing that they had seen each other while in the army, Nick makes a comment about it being strange that he hasn't even seen the host of the party. At this point, Gatsby reveals who he is, and Nick is embarrassed.

One of the stories about Gatsby says that he killed a man, another one states that he was a German spy during the war, and yet another story says that he was an Oxford man. A girl also tells Nick that when she ruined her dress at one of his parties, Gatsby had an expensive dress sent to her within a week later.

Gatsby is not a phony. He acts regular enough that Nick doesn't realize who he is talking to. He is also genuine and open when talking to Nick about the war, and even invites him to go up in his hydroplane the next day.

At first, Nick describes his relationship with Jordan as curiosity instead of love. After the party, he doesn't see her again until later in the summer. They then start going to parties together and develop a friendship. Even though he realizes that she is a habitual liar, he still starts to like her more and more. After a conversation that ended with Jordan telling Nick that him not being careless is why she likes him, he decides that he needs to officially break it off with a girl back home in Chicago.

Klipspringer is at Gatsby's house so much that summer that he becomes known as "the boarder." Nick doubts that he lives in a house of his own at all.

Gatsby tells Nick that he is the son of some wealthy people from San Francisco that was educated at Oxford even though he grew up in America. He came into his wealth at the death of his family. After that, he lived an exciting life traveling in Europe and doing stuff like collection jewels, hunting big game, and painting. He did all of these things in an attempt to forget a painful event of the past. He then joined the army, and accepting a commission as first lieutenant, worked his way up to becoming a major. For his great service during the war, he was given a decoration by every Allied government.

Gatsby had Jordan discuss with Nick the matter of him setting up a way for Gatsby to see Daisy again by inviting her over to tea at his house.

Mr. Wolfsheim is a business associate and good friend of Gatsby's.

According to Jordan, Gatsby and Daisy were in love when they were younger, but it is assumed that something happened to break them apart. Daisy started seeing other men and ended up marrying Tom. On the day of her wedding though, she got a letter that caused her to cry and get drunk. After their honeymoon, she seemed to perk back up, and had her daughter. Jordan then ran into Gatsby. He told her that the only reason he bought his house was so that he could be close to Daisy. He has evidently been consumed with the thought of getting an opportunity to see her again for the last five years.

Mr. Wolfsheim tells Nick that Gatsby is handsome and a perfect gentleman. He also says that Gatsby went to Oxford, and that he had met him shortly after the war.

At first, the meeting is extremely awkward. Both Gatsby and Daisy are extremely embarrassed, and Gatsby even accidentally knocks over the mantelpiece clock. After a strained half hour or so with only Daisy and Nick talking, Gatsby tells Nick that this was a horrible mistake. Nick then tells him he's been immature and leaves them alone. When he comes back in, he finds them in a completely different state. Daisy has tears of joy on her face, and Gatsby is glowing with happiness.

It took Gatsby three years to get enough for the mansion.

Gatsby wants Daisy to see his house and clothes because he realizes that, coming from money, Daisy has been taught to look for a man with wealth and a good social standing. So, since he is still in love with her, he wants to show off all of his accomplishments and prove to her that he is a worthy "match." He has to be better than Tom.

Gatsby is obsessed and had turned Daisy into the perfect woman and the representation of all his hopes, dreams, and goals.

The green light had represented to Gatsby a future with Daisy and the hope of being close to her again.

Gatsby is actually James Gatz of North Dakota. His parents had been poor farmers. Leaving the farm, he traveled looking for work, and ended up at the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in Minnesota. Not liking it there, he went back to looking for work along Lake Superior, and was walking along the shore when Dan Cody's yacht dropped anchor there. He went aboard, and was offered new clothes and a job by Cody. When Cody died mysteriously later on, Gatsby inherited $25,000, but was then cheated out of the money by Cody's mistress, Ella Kaye.

Dan Cody asked Gatsby a few questions, found out that he liked him, and then took Gatsby to Duluth to buy him expensive clothes, including a blue coat, six pairs of white duck trousers, and a yachting cap. He then offered him a job on the yacht. Even though Gatsby didn't end up getting the money, Cody also left him a large sum of money.

Gatsby's party offended Daisy. She didn't like how busy it was or the people that were there, and she was appalled by how much it went against the rules of the old society. Because these parties were thrown for her benefit, Gatsby is disheartened by her reaction, and it makes him reevaluate the whole thing. Basically, he is basing everything off her at this point.

Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. After she is free, he wants to go back to Louisville and get married from her house. He basically wants things to go back to the way they were five years ago.

When Daisy tells the child to say hello, Gatsby and Nick both bend down to greet her. But afterwards, Gatsby continues to seem surprised to see the child. Nick says that he isn't sure Gatsby ever thought the child was actually real. He now has to acknowledge her existence.

Wilson locked Myrtle upstairs because he found out that she had been having an affair and wanted to keep her from leaving him until they left to move West the next day.

They drive into the city because Daisy wants to do something fun and is tired of the heat, so she insistently suggests it. Tom suddenly agrees that it is a good idea as soon as Daisy indirectly tells Gatsby that she loves him. He wants to get away from the situation because he realizes the relationship that exists between Gatsby and his wife.

Gatsby thinks that Daisy never loved Tom, but instead just married him because Gatsby was poor and she was tired of waiting. According to Gatsby, Daisy never loved anyone but him and is now going to leave Tom.

Daisy reacts to both men by trying to get them to stop talking. She won't completely agree with either of them, and seems to be torn between them and what she wants. She just keeps asking if all of them can leave and go home.

On the way home from New York, Daisy is driving Gatsby's car with him in it and Tom is following in his car with Nick and Jordan. When Tom arrives at George's garage, they discover that Myrtle has been killed by a car, and from Michaelis' description, they realize that it was Gatsby's car that did it. Nick later finds out from Gatsby that Daisy was the one driving.

He is completely distraught and just keeps mumbling to himself. He blames himself for her death. He also feels that his inadequacy caused her to have an affair in the first place.

His first reaction after finding out whose car did it was to protect himself and make it known that it wasn't him. He is also genuinely saddened by Myrtle's death, though, and even cries on the way home.

He is saddened and disgusted by the whole thing. He just wants to be left alone and get away from all of the people involved, even Jordan.

He doesn't seem overly concerned by the fact that a person actually died, but instead only seems to care about Daisy's reaction and how she feels.

When together, Daisy and Tom are not happy, but they are also not unhappy. Their relationship is more of a conspiring agreement between one another. While they were once in love, their relationship is now based on money, status, and getting materialistic things out of it. Tom can be the controlling man he is while Daisy stays quiet because she knows that Tom will always take good care of her money wise. Tom also connects with Daisy more than Gatsby in the aspect understanding her old life and love of materialistic things.

Gatsby tells Nick that he started going to Daisy's house alone mostly out of interest in the surrounding mystery and wealth. He never told her that he was poor during their month long romance, even though he fell in love with her. Being sent overseas, he did extremely well in the war, but when he tried to come home to Daisy, a mix-up sent him to Oxford for schooling. Meanwhile, Daisy was being pressured by the world, so when Tom came along, she decided to not wait for Gatsby. He came back from Oxford while they were still in France on their honeymoon and spent the last of his money on a trip to Louisville to reminisce.

Michaelis believe that Myrtle was just running away from Wilson because he had locked her up.

Myrtle actually ran because he had seen that Tom was driving Gatsby's yellow car earlier that day, so she thought that he was still driving it and was flagging him down.

Wilson believes this because Tom told him that the yellow car belonged to Gatsby.

Wilson shoots Gatsby and then kills himself.

Nick couldn't get anyone to come because Gatsby has no friends or people in his life that actually care about him. Everyone that came to his parties during the summer were only there to have a good time. Most of them didn't even know Gatsby. Daisy left town with Tom, Wolfsheim just makes excuses and is too shady to come, and Klipspringer cares more about getting the shoes he left at Gatsby's back.

Henry C. Gatz is Gatsby's father.

Henry shows Nick Hopalong Cassidy. It has one of Gatsby's old schedules in it.

its important because it shows how he plans things out and his desire to become a morally good person. It shows how much money has really corrupted him.

Nick breaks up with Jordan because he can't get over how easily it seemed to be for her to go along with everything that had happened.

Nick says that people like Daisy and Tom are careless. According to him, they "smash up" or ruin things and people and then just retreat back into their money and the carelessness that keeps them together. In doing so, they leave the cleaning up of the mess they made to other people.