Characters

• Nick Carraway – The narrator and Gastby’s neighbor
• Jay Gatsby – Nick’s neighbor who once dated Daisy Buchanan
• Daisy Buchanan – Nick’s cousin, and Tom Buchanan’s wife, having an affair with Gatsby
• Tom Buchanan – Daisy’s wife, and having an affair with Mrytle Wilson
• George Wilson – Myrtle’s husband and shop owner
• Myrtle Wilson – George’s wife and having affair with Tom
• Jordan Baker – Dating Nick

Quick Synopsis

At its most central point, The Great Gatsby is a story about social class, power, and the struggle to amass both. It takes place during the 1920s in a fictional resemblance to New York City disguised as West Egg and East Egg. Of the two, East Egg is the classier, born-into-riches city.

F. Scott Fitzgerald writes from Nick Carraway’s perspective. Nick, who comes from wealth, also studied at Yale and has recently moved to West Egg, where he is quick to realize that those who have come into wealth move there and try to flaunt it. Nick’s awareness of this foreshadows Jay Gatsby’s background. Jay is Nick’s neighbor.

Basic Plot

Nick learns from Jordan Baker, a woman he eventually dates, that Gatsby was once with Daisy Buchanan, Nick’s cousin. The only reason Gatsby ever lost her was because of the differences they had, and not Gatsby’s lack of wealth. Convinced that it was his class that lost Daisy, Gatsby involves himself in illegal activities and becomes wealthy. He moves to West Egg, near Daisy, and throws extensive parties hoping that she’ll show up one day.

Instead, he asks Nick to set them up. They meet and Gatsby shows her everything that he has become. This leads to further intimacy between the two and Gatsby is convinced he can steal Daisy away from Tom, her husband. Instead, this only leads to confrontation between Gatsby and Tom when during a party Daisy proclaims her love for Gatsby.

Gatsby tries persuading Daisy to leave Tom and to tell him that she will, but Daisy says she’ll never leave Tom. Tom, who is having an affair himself, is so convinced of Daisy’s faithfulness, that he even allows Gatsby to drive Daisy back home. On the way there, Gatsby let’s Daisy drive his car, and she hits Myrtle Wilson, which is George Wilson’s wife. Tom, who was having an affair with Myrtle, is also one of George’s friends.

This enrages George and he promises to kill the man who killed Myrtle. When he hears that it’s Gatsby, he finds him and shoots him before shooting himself. Eventually, Daisy and Tom leave East Egg, leaving only Nick behind.

Symbolism

• The Green Light – Early in the story, Nick sees Gatsby reaching toward a green light. Fitzgerald reveals that this light is where Daisy lives. It symbolizes the hopes and wants that Gatsby will never be able to have.
• West Egg – This part of the two Eggs is described as the area where those not born into wealth live once they reach it. Although many of the residents are better off than others, they are seen as inferior because they had to work to reach that class and were not directly descended from it.
• East Egg – This is the area of high class society. People who live here were born into it and are supposedly higher and better than others. They look down on the people of West Egg and even further outside their islands.
• Tom Buchanan – Tom is Fitzgerald’s symbolism for the old class, the high class. Tom uses his size and strength throughout the book to show his dominance. It’s symbolic of those who used to be higher than everyone else because of the families they were born into. However, Tom’s contradiction is his affair with Myrtle Wilson, someone seen as lower than people of West Egg.