The Great Gatsby Characters

The Great Gatsby Author Biography

F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short-story writer of the Roaring Twenties. Since his early work shows a romantic feeling for "the promises of life" at college and in "The East," he acquired the epithet "the spokesman of the Jazz Age." His first novel, This Side of Paradise. was the first American novel to deal with college undergraduate life in the World War I era. A handsome and charming man, Fitzgerald was quickly adopted by the young generation of his time. His second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned. is a lively but shallow book, but his third, The Great Gatsby. is one of the most penetrating descriptions of American life in the 1920s.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sept. 24. 1896, Scott Fitzgerald was the son of Edward Fitzgerald. who worked for Proctor and Gamble and brought his family to Buffalo and Syracuse, New York for most of his son's first decade. Edward Fitzgerald's great-great-grandfather was the brother of the grandfather of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner." This fact was of great significance to Mrs. Fitzgerald. Mollie McQuillan, and later to Scott. Mollie Fitzgerald's own family could offer no pretensions to aristocracy but her father, an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1843, was a self-made businessman. Equally important was Fitzgerald's sense of having come from two widely different Celtic strains. He had early on developed an inferiority complex in a family where the "black Irish half... had the money and looked down on the Maryland side of the family who had, and really had... 'breeding,' " according to Scott Donaldson in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Out of this divergence of classes in his family background arose what critics called F. Scott's "double vision." He had the ability to experience the lifestyle of the wealthy from an insider's perspective, yet never felt a part of this clique and always felt the outsider.

As a youth Fitzgerald revealed a flair for dramatics, first in St. Paul, where he wrote original plays for amateur production, and later at the Newman Academy in Hackensack, New Jersey. At Princeton, he composed lyrics for the university's famous Triangle Club productions. Fitzgerald was also a writer and actor with the Triangle Club at college. Before he could graduate, he volunteered for the army during World War I. He spent the weekends writing the earliest drafts of his first novel. The work was accepted for publication in 1919 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The popular and financial success that accompanied this event enabled Fitzgerald to marry Zelda Sayre, whom he met at training camp in Alabama. Zelda played a pivotal role in the writer's life, both in a tempestuous way and an inspirational one. Mostly, she shared his extravagant lifestyle and artistic interests. In the 1930s she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and was hospitalized in Switzerland and then Maryland, where she died in a fire.

For some time, Fitzgerald lived with his wife in Long Island. There, the setting for The Great Gatsby, he entertained in a manner similar to his characters, with expensive liquors and entertainment. He reveled in demonstrating the antics of the crazy, irresponsible rich, and carried this attitude wherever he went. Especially on the Riviera m France, the Fitzgeralds befriended the elite of the cultural world and wealthy classes, only to offend most of them in some way by their outrageous behavior. Self-absorbed, drunk, and eccentric, they sought and received attention of all kinds. The party ended with the hospitalization of Zelda for schizophrenia in Prangins, a Swiss clinic, and, coincidentally, with the Great Depression of 1929, which tolled the start of Scott's personal depression.

In the decade before his death, Fitzgerald's troubles and the debilitating effects of his alcoholism limited the quality and amount of his writing. Nonetheless, it was also during this period that he attempted his most psychologically complex and aesthetically ambitious novel, Tender Is the Night (1934) After Zelda's breakdown, Fitzgerald became romantically involved with Sheila Graham, a gossip columnist m Hollywood, during the last years of his life. He also wrote but did not finish the novel The Last Tycoon, now considered to be one of his best works, about the Hollywood motion picture industry. Fitzgerald died suddenly of a heart attack, most likely induced by a long addiction to alcohol, on December 21,1940. At the time of his death, he was virtually forgotten and unread. A growing Fitzgerald revival, begun m the 1950s, led to the publication of numerous volumes of stories, letters, and notebooks. One of his literary critics, Stephen Vincent Benet, concluded in his review of The Last Tycoon, "you can take off your hats now, gentlemen, and I think perhaps you had better. This is not a legend, this is a reputation and, seen in perspective, it may well be one of the most secure reputations of our time."

The Great Gatsby Introduction

In 1925, The Great Gatsby was published and hailed as an artistic and material success for its young author, F. Scott Fitzgerald It is considered a vastly more mature and artistically masterful treatment of Fitzgerald's themes than his earlier fiction. These works examine the results of the Jazz Age generation' s adherence to false material values. In nine chapters, Fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, as related in a first-person narrative by Nick Carraway. Carraway reveals the story of a farmer's son-turned racketeer, named Jay Gatz His ill-gotten wealth is acquired solely to gain acceptance into the sophisticated, moneyed world of the woman he loves, Daisy Fay Buchanan. His romantic illusions about the power of money to buy respectability and the love of Daisy—the "golden girl" of his dreams—are skillfully and ironically interwoven with episodes that depict what Fitzgerald viewed as the callousness and moral irresponsibility of the affluent American society of the 1920s. America at this time experienced a cultural and lifestyle revolution. In the economic arena, the stock market boomed, the rich spent money on fabulous parties and expensive acquisitions, the automobile became a symbol of glamour and wealth, and profits were made, both legally and illegally. The whirlwind pace of this post-World War I era is captured in Fitzgerald's Gatsby, whose tragic quest and violent death foretell the collapse of that era and the onset of disillusionment with the American dream. By the end of the novel, the reader slowly realizes that Carraway is transformed as he recognizes Gatsby's moral superiority to the Buchanans. In fact, the triumph of Gatsby's legacy is reached by Nick Carraway's ruminations at the end of the book about Gatsby's valiant, however futile, attempts to regain his past love. The discrepancy between Gatsby's dream vision and reality is a prominent theme in this book. Other motifs in the book include Gatsby's quest for the American Dream; class conflict (the Wilsons vs. the Buchanans and the underworld lowbrows vs. Gatsby); the cultural rift between East and West; and the contrast between innocence and experience in the narrator's life. A rich aesthetic experience with many subtleties in tone and content, this novel can be read over and over again for new revelations and continued pleasure.

The Great Gatsby Plot Summary

Preview of The Great Gatsby Summary:

A dinner party

Nick Carraway, the narrator, announces that he is writing his account two years after the events described. Aged twenty-nine, in the spring of 1922, he travels East from his mid-western home to work as a bond salesman III New York. He has rented a house on West Egg, sandwiched between the mansions along the shore of Long Island Sound. He knows nobody except his distant cousin Daisy Buchanan, who lives with her wealthy husband Tom on East Egg, across the bay. Nick drives over to dinner with the couple, whom he has not seen in years, and their guest Jordan Baker. Tom, an athletic polo player, betrays his boorish arrogance as he expounds a racist theory he has read. Daisy's magical voice compels Nick forward to listen to her, but he suspects her sincerity when she says she is unhappy. In contrast, dark-haired Jordan strikes Nick with her jaunty self-assurance. At one point, Nick's neighbour "Gatsby" is mentioned and Daisy catches the name in surprise. Dinner is tense; Jordan reveals that it is Tom's mistress telephoning him, and Daisy appears to know. Returning to West Egg, Nick first sees Gatsby. As Nick is about to call to him, Gatsby stretches out both arms towards the water or the green dock light opposite; Nick is mystified.

Myrtle's party

Commuting across the "valley of ashes" to the city, Tom suddenly pulls Nick from their train to meet his mistress, Myrtle. She is a blowsy, vital woman, the wife of servile garage-owner George Wilson. Myrtle catches the next train with them, and impulsively buys a puppy while she and Tom insist that Nick accompany them to their city apartment Nick reads discreetly while the couple are in the bedroom. Myrtle decides to throw a party, and the apartment fills with people and social chatter. The puppy blinks in the smoky air, the party gets progressively drunker, and Nick wonders what the scene would look like to an observer outside. Myrtle starts chanting Daisy's name, and Tom brutally breaks her nose: the sound of wailing accompanies Nick as he leaves.

Gatsby's party

Nick describes the lavish parties that nightly transform Gatsby's garden. One afternoon a butler brings Nick a formal invitation, and at the party Nick is relieved to spot Jordan in the swirling crowd. Nick hears many extravagant and contradictory rumors from the guests. He and Jordan come across comical "Owl Eyes," a bespectacled man trying to sober up in the library. Later, an elegant young man invites Nick for a hydroplane excursion next morning, and as Nick confesses he has never met their host, the man reveals himself to be Gatsby. Later still, Jordan is called to speak with Gatsby in the house, and then hints at his amazing story but won't tell more Leaving the party, Nick sees a car in a ditch with Its wheel off; the drunken culprit cannot understand the car's predicament Nick interrupts the story here to reflect that he was actually very busy in the weeks between these three parties described, enjoying the adventure of New York He catches up with Jordan again and learns more of her character: unlike Nick, she is incurably dishonest, and a careless driver.

Lunch in New York

Gatsby drives Nick to lunch in the city and tells him more about his past. Nick is unsure whether to believe It all but decides to trust Gatsby when he produces an authentic-looking medal as proof

Gatsby then hints of a favor he will ask Nick that day. They have lunch with a sinister friend of Gatsby's, Meyer Wolfsheim, who was apparently responsible for fixing the 1919WorldSeries. When Tom Buchanan appears, Gatsby looks embarrassed and disappears before Nick can introduce the men.

Tea with Jordan

That afternoon, Jordan tells Nick the story and makes Gatsby's request. Jordan met Daisy in 1917 and in the company of a young soldier. For a time after, Jordan heard only rumors of her before Daisy became engaged to Tom. As bridesmaid, Jordan witnessed Daisy's distress the eve of the wedding, as she held a mysterious letter until It dissolved. Yet the couple married and travelled, although Tom got in the papers after a car accident with another girl, and Daisy had a little girl. When "Gatsby" was mentioned at their recent dinner party, Jordan realized that this is Daisy's young soldier. Gatsby bought his house to be opposite Daisy, hoping she would appear at a party. As she hasn't, he now wants Nick to ask Daisy to tea so that he might meet her again. This afternoon, Nick first kisses Jordan, whose real presence contrasts to Gatsby's ghostly devotion to Daisy.

Reunion

Nick invites Daisy to tea and the day arrives, pouring rain. Despite Gatsby's nervousness, Daisy does arrive. The reunion is difficult, but after Nick leaves the couple alone they are "radiant" together on his return. They take Nick over to Gatsby's house so that Gatsby can show it off, and Gatsby is clearly overwrought by the significance of the occasion after such a long wait.

Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal Vitality of his Illusion It had gone beyond her, beyond everything He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to It all the time, decking It out WIth every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up In Ins ghostly heart.

Another party

Nick reflects on Gatsby's "notoriety," and to clear up misconceptions he provides a brief biography of "James Gatz" who, at seventeen, invented and transformed himself into Jay Gatsby. Nick is over at his neighbour's one afternoon as Tom Buchanan drops by with another couple. The three are rude guests, and leave before Gatsby can join them, as he had planned to. The following Saturday, Tom escorts Daisy there, dismissing the extravagance as a "menagerie" Gatsby and Daisy dance, then sit on Nick's porch together as Nick keeps a lookout for Tom. Afterwards, Gatsby says that Daisy doesn't understand. Gatsby obviously expects to repeat the past when Daisy renounces Tom, she and Gatsby can begin where they left off five years before.

Confrontation

Nick is invited to the Buchanans' with Gatsby and Jordan on a sweltering day at the end of the summer, during which Daisy has spent much time with Gatsby. Daisy's daughter Pammy says hello, then the group casts about for something to do

Daisy suggests the city. When an innocent comment betrays her feelings for Gatsby III front of Tom, the tension worsens. Daisy gets into Tom's car with Gatsby, and Jordan and Nick ride WIth Tom. Tom stops at Wilson's garage, and is dismayed to hear that Wilson plans to get away with Myrtle Nick sees Myrtle intent at the window, plainly thinking that Jordan is Daisy. They take a suite at the Plaza Hotel for mint juleps. Finally, Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy doesn't love her husband and they confront one another, as Daisy falters.

"Oh, you want too much I" she cried to Gatsby "I love you now—isn't that enough? I can't help what's past" She began to sob helplessly "I did love him once—but I loved you too".

Gatsby's eyes opened and closed.

"You loved me too?" he repeated.

Aftermath

The two men drive their own cars away, and Gatsby and Daisy go on ahead while Nick remembers that it is his thirtieth birthday. The story abruptly mentions a "witness" at the "inquest."

Wilson, acting suspiciously, revealed to the coffee-store proprietor Michaelis that he had locked his wife up. Later, Myrtle runs in front of a car from the city, and is killed. Nick resumes his perspective as Tom's car pulls up to the commotion at the garage. It becomes clear that the "death car" was Gatsby's. Arriving back at the Buchanans', Nick finds Gatsby keeping a watch for Daisy, worried about Tom. Nick gathers that Daisy was driving the car that Myrtle ran in front of because she probably believed that Tom was in it.

Nick warns Gatsby his car will be traced, but he will not leave Daisy, his "grail." Nick describes Gatsby's version of their courtship and Daisy's marriage. Gatsby plans to swim, and Nick leaves with a compliment of friendship and thanks for hospitality. Nick then pieces together the times and events that lead Wilson to find Gatsby in the pool, and shoot him and then himself.

Conclusion

Nick arranges the funeral at which only one former guest, Owl Eyes, appears, and meets with Gatsby's pathetically proud father. Nick reflects that the East is haunted for him, and he decides to go home. Nick has chance meetings with both Jordan and Tom, and is already distant from them. He looks at Gatsby's house before leaving, imagining past wonder at the sight of this new world, relating this with Gatsby's own belief and wonder.

Chapter 1 Summary

The Great Gatsby opens up with a comment by the narrator on some advice given to him by his father, advice which conditioned his relationship to many people during his young adulthood. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone�just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had." It is obvious, from the very beginning of the book, that the narrator, Nick Carraway, is well aware of his membership in the upper class of society and defines his outlook based on that position. His father is a successful hardware company owner, a business supervised by three generations of Carraways since its inception during the Civil War. Young Carraway, a graduate of Yale, has decided to move upwards into the bond business, an aspiration common among young men in his society.

In preparation for this new career, Carraway has bought several volumes of books dedicated to his emergence in the bond industry and has rented a small cottage on West Egg, an island in Long Island Sound. His humble dwelling is in plain sight of a prestigious mansion, owned by his neighbor, a Mr. Gatsby.

The summer begins for him with a visit to Tom and Daisy Buchanan's home. Tom is an old buddy from Yale, a football superstar, who may never recover from his moments of national notoriety in college. He and Daisy, a distant cousin of Carraway, have gotten back from Europe and are now dedicating their lives to the upper middle class society, with an emphasis on Polo, currently Tom's passion. They have a new baby, a little girl, who is sleeping soundly when Nick ventures in.

Nick joins Daisy and a Ms. Baker on a candle-lit patio with Tom, as Nick is initiated into this strange passionate world of sadness and subterfuge. Large and "hulking," Tom is carving out a new life on the East Coast, a life of passionate, racially motivated ideology, a none-too-well-disguised affair with another woman and an abundance of enormously expensive polo ponies. The affair is broken to Nick by Daisy's friend, Ms. Baker, with the understanding that this is nothing but an open secret. Daisy had called Nick a rose, but actually it is Daisy, alone for a moment with Nick, who is like a flower, a wounded flower, radiant, flowing with life but somehow abnormally disconsolate, a broken petal waving in the wind. It is the affair that is probably crushing Daisy and Nick wishes she would take her child in arms and flee from her wanton, racist husband. But this doesn't seem to be in the cards.

There is small talk. Nick, although related to Daisy, did not appear at her wedding. But she excuses him when he reminds her that he had not yet returned from the War. She hears he has been taken, meaning, perhaps engaged. But Nick denies this. It was a rumor, a reflection of a friendship, which he refused to bury. Still, he found solace from these rumors in his escape to the East. Daisy, half serious, promises to match him with Ms. Barker, who, in the end, turns out to be no less than the famous and athletic Jordan Baker, a high profile golf player. Nick has often seen on the covers of society magazines. Ms. Baker, hearing of Daisy's somewhat romantic intentions towards her friend, does not protest, but goes towards her own bedroom quite easily so as to be ready for the challenge of tomorrow's tournament.. Nick, a little puzzled by his experience of the Buchanans, returns home.

He stands outside his tiny house, overshadowed by his neighbor's mansion, when he sees no less a person, hands in pocket, eyes riveted on the star-studded sky, than Gatsby himself.

He motions to Gatsby but Gatsby makes clear that he is busily alone in his world and does not want to be bothered. He stretches out his arms towards the ocean, in a curious gesture. Nick almost thinks he sees him tremble and then, momentarily, looks away. He looks back and Gatsby has vanished.

Chapter 1 Analysis

The Great Gatsby takes place during a brief moment of peace between two major wars as the upper class, both old and nouveau riche, dance in the bright lights of burgeoning prosperity. Still, there is an undercurrent of all the normal attitudes and behavior that create an undercurrent of sadness and tragedy. Take Daisy and Tom. They are at the pinnacle of success. They have a new house, a stable of priceless ponies, a darling little daughter and the best in society for friends. But Tom cannot bridle his passion and carries out an affair almost publicly before his wife, driving her to a deep despair. All their money and friends cannot keep them from acting out a perennial human tragedy.

Nick, although on the outskirts of this, is the wiser and the more dispassionate. His comments at the very beginning of the chapter show that he is endowed with an unusual tolerance and that this has led to be the unfortunate recipient of many dark secrets of young men. Although the first chapter, especially in the beginning, seems scented with upper class snobbery, one shortly sees that this is a setting for some type of encounter with Gatsby, only alluded to in the beginning of the chapter and, at the end of the chapter, not much more than an apparition.

Chapter 2 Summary

The next chapter of The Great Gatsby is a melancholy romp through Tom Buchanan's torrid little affair with Mrs. Myrtle Wilson. The chapter begins with a journey through what Nick calls the Valley of Ashes, a quaint landscape of railroad track, colorless streets and smoke-filled chimneys. This gray, squalor-filled tableau is overlooked by the huge yellow spectacles created to promote the business of a long-vanished Dr. Eckleburg, whose gigantic blue eyes survey this grim scene of ash-laden fields and gray men whose identities dissolve, as well, in to the ashen gray of everything else.

Nick has followed Tom into disgruntled place after Tom impulsively dislodged him from his train seat. Tom has decided it is now time for him to meet "his girl." His girl, the somewhat chubby, but still intriguing, Mrs. Myrtle Wilson, lives with her husband, George B., over a garage. It turns out that Tom even has a kind of casual business relationship with George. When George complains that he has not yet been able to purchase his car, Tom nastily replies that if he cannot be patient, he can certainly find someone else to purchase his car. George appears to be blissfully unaware of Tom's ongoing romance with his wife. It is, for Nick, a somewhat unpleasant and seedy introduction to Tom's extramarital dalliance.

Without any problem what so ever, Myrtle leaves with Tom and Nick. They are off to an apartment to an apartment in New York. Myrtle is a kept woman with two homes, one over a garage and one in the city. But before they reach the apartment, Myrtle sees an old man selling some puppies that hang from a basket around his neck. Tom buys Myrtle a little Airedale, a gift that thrills her. Even so, as the afternoon progresses and they finally reach the apartment, it seems clear that Myrtle has become somewhat of an expert in spending Tom's money and has to do a bit of organizing so as that she can accomplish her manifold spending goals. The dog eats while Tom pulls out a bottle of whisky. Myrtle calls her sister, Catherine, and her friends. When Nick talks to her, he finds she is surprisingly well traveled and, in fact, has met Gatsby. She enigmatically tells him she is glad he doesn't have anything on her. Is he really a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm? Is that where all that great wealth comes from?

Mr. And Mrs. McKee, from the flat below, pay a visit. Mr. McKee is a photographer. He and his wife flatter Myrtle as she parades around the flat in her cream colored chiffon. Nick listens carefully to the chatter he hears through the whisky and the smoke. Apparently, Tom has told Myrtle that he can't swing a divorce because Daisy is a Catholic. So, again, Tom is swimming in duplicity.

But although the party pushes forward in a drab, lazy, drunken kind of way, it ends on a more nightmarish note. Myrtle and Tom have gotten into a fight. Tom has warned Myrtle not speak about Daisy or mention her name. But not only has Myrtle dared to mention Daisy's name- but has turned it into a continual harangue, a repetitious mantra of Daisy's name, invoking her right to voice the forbidden word and infuriating her disenchanted lover. Tom expresses his outrage quickly and simply by breaking her nose with an open hand.

Now blood is everywhere. People in the apartment are scrambling for towels, while a penetrating wail of pain soars over the angry confusion of the smoky room. Nick and Mr. McKee make a quick exit. McKee shows Nick his portfolio before Nick finally arrives at Pennsylvania Station, waiting for a train at 4:00 in the morning.

Chapter 2 Analysis

This is a revealing chapter about the harsh reality of Tom Buchanan's infidelity. In a way, it almost seems like a study in mediocrity- a drabby, smoke filled room with cheap conversation poised on the edge of violence. There does not seem to be a great deal of love here. The upper class posturing of the Tom Buchanan in his home with Daisy is replaced with smaller talk and smaller ideals- sort of a more middle class chatter interspersed with some small connection to his other life. To his disappointment, Nick is pulled into this world, steeped in dishonesty and half-hearted, bourgeois mediocrity.

This sad episode is shaded in gray by Nick's poignant description, moving from a landscape of ashes to the drabness of an apartment filled with pretentious, but only semi-cultured companions. Despite his postured objectivity, Nick's narration portrays Tom's steady descent to a different level of class and morality, peppered with a dedicated lack of truthfulness and fidelity. His finally orgy of violence is a slight crescendo to the degradation of his life. For Tom has broken a perfect flower and traded her for a drabby, second-rate replacement that he holds together with his habitual tyranny over his companions and the women he allegedly loves.

Chapter 3 Summary

Having perhaps slummed a bit in the secret world of Tom Buchanan's New York hideaway, Nick comes back to his little cottage only to a spectator to the spectacular lifestyle of his wealthy neighbor. Now, he is the witness to ocean fun and splendor in the near private sanctuary of Gatsby's beach. Motorboats pull aquaplanes over watery, foamy ridges as guests ceremoniously dive off his raft's towers. Crates of oranges and lemons arrive daily to fortify his playful visitors with slice and dice juice extractors controlled by able butlers, who sole purpose is to bring dietary civility to a continual diet of rash, sun-ridden ocean adventure. This is the world that Nick sees daily, but this is only background to even more lavish excitement.

Every fortnight, immense banquets arrive from catering trucks, filled with baked hams and splendid hors d'oerves, gold-laced turkeys and pastry pigs as Gatsby dazzles his guests with colored lights that dance in the background. And as his guests, filled with sounds and smells of the ocean proceed to their rooms to dress, a massive orchestra arrives to provide the proper musical ambiance for cocktails and light conversation. This is broken when an understudy from the "Follies" begins a fervent, gypsy dance, accompanied by the orchestra's swift, accommodating change of mood.

Then, one day, Gatsby's chauffeur walked up to Nick's front door. He had been formally invited to a party by a man who permitted all manner of guests to crash his nighttime galas. Gatsby ran an open party and Nick was flattered by the personal, signed invitation.

In this chaos, Nick searches vainly for Gatsby but is rebuffed by guests who treat his request for knowledge of Gatsby as invasive and disreputable. Instead, Nick runs into Ms. Jordan Baker, who has sustained a recent loss in a golf tournament. Nonetheless, they go arm in arm to a table where they are recounted by the tale of Lucille, a young lady who gown got tore at Gatsby's party and was magically replaced with a gas blue evening dress with lavender beads- a two hundred and sixty-five dollar dress, an astronomical amount for the 1920's. Instead of stimulating conversation about Gatsby's generosity, Lucille and her companions ramble on about Gatsby's stake in commanding happiness and quiet from his acquaintances. Was he a murderer? Was he a German spy? Or was he in the American army during the war?

After this speculative and mysterious conversation, Jordan takes Nick over to her own party, where her escort waits for her with several other couples. After a half hour of this, Jordan asks Nick to meet Gatsby. They search for Gatsby in the library where an older, drunken, owl-eyed gentleman lets them in on a secret- Gatsby has real books. It is an actual, real library, although, perhaps, not all the tomes have cut pages. This is not just an idle display. Perhaps there is something to the man.

Seated at a table with a boisterous young girl and a man about his age, the two men exchange a little background information about themselves. Nick was in the Third Division, the Ninth Machine-Gun Battalion. The stranger served in the Seventh Infantry and he said that Nick looked familiar. Before long, he found out that the cordial stranger was Gatsby himself. He noticed, as he spoke to Gatsby, his unusual concentration when he spoke, as though the rest of the world, apart from his guest, had disappeared for a moment. The conversation, though, is short-lived and Gatsby is summoned by a butler to deal with a phone call from Chicago.

His conversation with Jordan turns to his host. She tells Nick that Gatsby said he was an Oxford man, but she doesn't believe it. Later, Gatsby reappears as his orchestra plays Vladimir Tostoff's Jazz History of the World, a contemporary composition that was recently astounding its audience at Carnegie Hall. Gatsby is gregarious, but does not drink. Later, Jordan is called to a private audience with the host.

As the guests jockey to leave, there is mild dissension in the air as husbands and boyfriends collide with friends and lovers. Finally, Jordan comes out from her meeting with Gatsby. She cannot tell what has happened, but appears to have been moved upon hearing some great secret. Nick is embarrassed at having stayed so late at his first visit. However, Gatsby tells him not to mind, but to remember their hydroplane appointment in the morning.

As Nick leaves, he notices that a car has fallen into a ditch. One man gets out, the older man that Nick and Jordan had discovered in Gatsby's library. But he protests, he was not the driver. Then, another man gets out, disoriented, confused but still arrogantly insisting that they move the car themselves even though the wheel is off. Gatsby stares at the proceedings from his mansion, waving good-bye to his guests.

Nick works at his job at the Probity Trust in New York. His loneliness is interrupted by an occasional visit with Jordan Baker. Jordan turns out to be incurably dishonest and a really bad driver. Yet, when he feels the pull of the relationship, he cuts it off. He confesses to the readers that he is, indeed, one of the few honest people he knows.

Chapter 3 Analysis

In this chapter, Nick is invited to a party at Gatsby's. This turns out to be a strange, complex event, highlighting the mysterious reputation that Gatsby has acquired. To his guests, all his actions, even the generous replacement of a dinner gown to Lucille, has the aura of disreputable intent. This is, at once, sad and intriguing for Gatsby's intentions seem somewhat honorable, at least about the dress..

During the evening, Nick is adopted by Daisy's friend, Jordan Baker, who abandons her undergraduate escort. She, too, has questions about Gatsby. The intrigue is multiplied when Nick meets Jay Gatsby himself, a man who seems absurdly straightforward and endows his encounters with a significant concentration. Although he is a gracious host, he disappears on phone calls to Chicago and Philadelphia during an evening highlighted with a mysterious meeting with Jordan Baker and Gatsby.

Jordan tells Nick about her meeting with Gatsby, but refuses to divulge the secret. As the summer progresses, Nick hangs out more with her. He finds that she is an inveterate liar with a scandal behind her alleging that she cheated at a golf tournament. He begins to feel uncomfortable in her company. As with Tom Buchanan and Gatsby, people have a surface and an interior, which is difficult to penetrate and sometimes sad when one finally does.

Chapter 4 Summary

It is the summer of 1922 and Nick keeps a record of some of Gatsby's summer guests on a railroad schedule. Rumors proliferate about Gatsby's strange life. Now he is a bootlegger. Now he is a nephew of Von Hindenburg. He is still a murderer, but now for different reasons.

There are endless guests. Some guests are from the East Egg side, like the Chester Beckers and the Leeches from East Egg, the snobbish Blackbucks, the Ismays and the Chrysties (whose wife attended with Hubert Auerback. Clarence Endive has a fight in the garden. Edgar Beaver's hair turns completely white during the summer. Ripley Snell gets his hand run over by Mrs. Ulysses Swett before returning to the penitentiary.

Others are from the West Egg � the Poles and the Catlips, the Bernbergs and Mulreadys. Klipspringer is there so often he is called "the boarder." Henry L. Palmetto visits in the days before he commits suicide by jumping in front of a subway train. Benny McClenahan brings his ever-changing retinue of four women.

One day, Gatsby himself appears at his door, perched on the dashboard of his incredible car. His car was very long, sleek with a cream-colored exterior. Inside were myriad storage boxes for hats and tools and other items enveloped by a multitude of interior windshields resting in green leather and seasoned everywhere with gleaming nickel. Gatsby is ever restless, tapping his feet, opening or closing his hand. He has decided to take Nick to lunch.

The ride in is very revealing. Gatsby has decided to divulge to Nick some of his secrets. This, as we said in the beginning, is a feature of Nick's character. He is a receptacle, particularly for young men's secrets.

Gatsby claimed to hail from a wealthy family in San Francisco. He claimed to have attended Oxford as part of a family tradition, but there was something in his voice that made Nick, like Jordan before, somewhat doubt his veracity. After school, he lived a somewhat decadent life in Europe- collecting rubies, hunting big game, dabbling at painting and trying to forget something deep in his past. The war rescued him from his unfulfilling life and he hoped to die in it, but did not.

An adventurous push in the Argonne Forest yielded so many dead (with insignia from three German divisions) that Gatsby was promoted Major and decorated by various allied governments. Nick's skepticism is slightly chastened by the appearance of a medal, the Orderi di Danilo from Montenegro, inscribed to Major Jay Gatsby. He then produces a photograph of Oxford, with Gatsby a young man with a cricket bat. Nick marvels that it all might be true after all. Now, for the final revelation, they are about to rendezvous with Jordan Baker, to whom Gatsby had revealed some magical something early that summer. But Nick had planned to be with Jordan alone and did not like Gatsby crashing his party.

Gatsby takes Nick to lunch with Meyer Wolfsheim, an older man with a colorful history. In fact, Wolfsheim nostalgically recalls an interesting experience across the street, at a restaurant called the Metropole where his friend, Rosy Rosenthal, was shot three times in the stomach in a well-publicized killing. Five electrocutions came out of the incident. After Wolfsheim leaves, Gatsby relates that it was Wolfsheim who fixed the 1919 World Series. He got away with it, too- because he was smart. Still at the restaurant, the two run into Tom Buchanan. Gatsby seems affected by the encounter, but he shakes Buchanan's hand and abruptly disappears.

When Nick meets later with Jordan, he discovers something about Gatsby's great secret. Jordan saw Gatsby with Daisy long before she met Tom, when he was stationed at Fort Taylor. Then, much later, Daisy marries Tom in an enormously lavish wedding in Louisville. The day before the wedding, he gives her a pearl necklace worth over three hundred thousand dollars. Jordan found her the next day in her bedroom, drunk out of her mind, clutching a bottle in one hand and a letter in another. The next day it was over with and she got married. After the wedding, she seemed totally enamored of Tom and perfectly happy with the marriage. Then, six weeks before, she heard the name, Gatsby, when Nick had visited her for the first time at her house with Tom. Daisy then asked Jordan for a description. She was profoundly upset.

Now Jordan reveals Gatsby's request. He wants Nick to have Daisy over for tea in his little home. Then he wants to drop by, all of a sudden. It turns out that all the flamboyant wealth and power, the continual parties and lavish beach life were all to position himself near Daisy. All the connections, all the fun, all the notoriety were nothing� except Daisy.

Chapter 4 Analysis

If it weren't clear before, it is now clear that The Great Gatsby is a great love story about Jay Gatsby, a man haunted by the love of a beautiful, married woman named Daisy. In this chapter, Gatsby begins to reveal his real self to Nick- or what appears to be real. Gatsby was in the war and, in fact, wound up a Major because of a combination of an apparent death wish and heroism. He is a man of many connections, including, apparently, with his relationship with Meyer Wolfsheim, somewhat shady, perhaps mob-oriented connection. He seems to have been widely traveled and had many opportunities to play both with wealth and power, but yet is driven by something else- perhaps, in fact, his intense interest in Daisy.

Gatsby is like a bashful troubadour who, instead of singing to his true love, he buys her a castle and invites a lot of guests so she might drop by on occasion and find him there. Secretly he is pining for her- and disdaining his numerous guests and their preoccupation with the toys he has provided for them- not for their amusement, but so he can make this profound connection with his long lost love.

In addition, this is how it appears and this novel is all about appearances, appearances that can nurture and deceive, appearances that can drain life completely, appearances that can kill. There is nothing in this novel that, in the end, does not surrender itself to the harsh light of reality. Very little of appearance will ultimately survive. Reality will ultimately shape and test everything.

Chapter 5 Summary

Nick comes home very late only to find that Gatsby's house is all lit up as though he were hosting a massive party. He then saw Gatsby coming over to his house. The house was basically empty. Gatsby said he had just been looking in some of the rooms, a strange excuse for lighting up his house like the "World's Fair." He invites Nick to Coney Island and, when he refuses, to take a dip in his pool. However, Nick is too tired. He does arrange the tea with Daisy that Gatsby has requested. Gatsby then, somewhat shamelessly, offers Nick a job. However, Nick, sensing the connection between the tea and the job offer, declines on principle.

The next day it rains. Gatsby makes sure that a man cuts Nick's grass in front. Although Nick has bought flowers and some tea delicacies, Gatsby sends a plethora of flowers. Nick has made sure his Finnish housekeeper will be there to serve. Gatsby is restless and nervous and actually wants to go home a few minutes before the meeting, thinking she is late. Nevertheless, she isn't.

Nick tells Daisy to send her chauffeur away, which she does. By the time she comes into the house, in the dripping rain, Gatsby is gone. Then, with a knock on the door, the very wet Jay Gatsby comes in. Her nervously meets Daisy and they talk amidst the clatter of tea. Finally, Nick decides to go. Gatsby follows Nick to the kitchen. He is desperately nervous. He thinks that Daisy is embarrassed, that he has done something wrong. Nick tells him to go in the room and take care of her. Nick goes outside and stares at Gatsby's house, watching the deliveries and the servants through the windows. He then returns to the house, making as much noise as he can.

He finds Gatsby and Daisy looking at each other from other sides of the couch. Gatsby is glowing; Daisy is somewhat glowing, too, but with tears running down her face. Gatsby invites Nick and Daisy to his house. Daisy asks him how he can live alone in a house that huge. He replies that he always fills it with interesting and celebrated people.

As they wander through the music rooms and salons, the library and the poolrooms, Nick feels the ghostly presence of Gatsby's endless flood of guests. But the only person there is Klipsringer, "the Boarder, and "doing his" liver exercises." As they toured, Nick could see his host re-evaluating his house by virtue of every nuance of Daisy's response.

They go into Gatsby's bedroom. There he shows them his imported European shirts, piling blue and green, striped and plain, cotton and satin- shirt after shirt on his bed. Daisy's reaction, fed by the sensations of an utterly abnormal afternoon, breaks into obsessive tears. She has never seen such beautiful shirts, she says.

Nick notices a photograph over his desk. It is Dan Cody, an older man in yachting uniform, who Gatsby says was once his best friend. He notices a younger picture of Gatsby on a yacht. He asks Klipsringer to play the piano. As he does, the wind howls outside, while low, rolling thunder provides additional background music to their farewell. In the last moments of farewell, Gatsby forgets everything, except Daisy.

Chapter 5 Analysis

In this chapter, Jay Gatsby's motivations and purposes have become like colored glass- utterly translucent and colored a bright, sunshiny yellow. Gatsby, upon seeing Daisy, after a few dizzying moments of borderline insanity, has become insanely happy. He is, upon visiting Nick's impossibly little cottage, seeing through a glass brightly. And that lens excludes all colors and sounds except for that of Daisy. This is the very essence of Gatsby's character- a fraud perpetuated for the love of a woman, a fraud whose consequences will escape him until the final end.

There is that moment in Gatsby's bedroom, where he shows her his shirts and she begins to cry. Are those tears over shirts or the effect of a tornado of repression cast upon Gatsby and Daisy by the events of their lives? Did Daisy make the right choice in marrying Tom? Was there Gatsby always there haunting her dreams?

It is now coming clear that Gatsby is not obsessed by wealth or celebrity. Everything he has, everything he does- is for Daisy. This meeting is the culmination of a five-year dream.

Chapter 6 Summary

One day a young New York reporter showed up at Gatsby's door and asked for a statement. There wasn't much reason for it, except that Gatsby was rapidly accumulating a great notoriety for a multitude of untruths- including that he didn't live at his house at all but in a houseboat that roamed secretly up and down the shores of the Long Island sounds; that he was connected to some strange "underground pipe-line" to Canada and other such stories circulated by his guests.

In fact, Nick discloses in this chapter, Jay Gatsby is, indeed, James Gatz from North Dakota, the scion of unsuccessful farmers. At seventeen, he was digging clams and catching fish on the shores of Lake superior. After a brief job as a janitor in small Lutheran college in southern Minnesota, he went back to Lake Superior, where he met the fifty-year old Yachtsman, Dan Cody. Cody had dropped anchor and Gatz rowed out to him to warn him of an impending gale.

Gatz had stumbled onto his future with this encounter. Cody, a successful prospector for silver, gold and other metals, was a multi-millionaire, besieged by hungry women and, in particular, by the newspaper woman, Ella Kaye, who forced him to escape to the sea. Cody hired Gatz immediately, attired him properly in yachting gear and turned him into a skipper, a mate, a steward and sometimes custodian of his inebriated, unkempt self in moments of weakness. This lasted for five years until Ella Kaye managed to board the yacht in Boston, whereupon Cody died a week later. Gatz inherited money, but never got it. It all went to Ella Kaye.

After the tea, Gatsby had disappeared from Nick's life for a few weeks. But, then, one Sunday, he went over only to find that Gatsby suddenly had three visitors on horseback, one of them Tom Buchanan. A man named Mr. Sloan and a lady have accompanied Tom. The lady invites Gatsby to a party, but then leaves early. Meanwhile, Gatsby has told Tom that he knows his wife. Tom is disturbed by this.

The next time Tom goes over to Gatsby's, he bring Daisy with them. Gatsby introduces Tom around as "the polo player," despite Tom's protests. Gatsby and Daisy do a fox trot. Tom asks if Gatsby is a bootlegger. Nick denies it. Tom threatens to find out who he really is. Daisy tells Tom that Gatsby built an empire of drugstores himself and that's all there is to it.

Gatsby is upset that Daisy didn't have a good time. He vows to fix everything, to bring everything back to where it once was. He recalls when he had kissed Daisy somewhere in autumn, how his kiss had made her blossom like a flower.

Chapter 6 Analysis

This chapter marks the beginning of the subtle intervention of Tom Buchanan into the relationship between Gatsby and his wife. In his first visit to Gatsby's, it is an almost casual remark, that Gatsby knows his wife- that sets him off. Now, he must bring her to Gatsby's party. Now, Tom is no longer passive. He must probe into her life.

Nick has revealed that Gatsby has spun a tale about his life. Part of it may be true, but his roots are hardly inherited wealth. Although, when he claims to have inherited something, he could be referring to the $25,000 Cody left him, but that he never actually received. Gatsby's roots are humble and his life is a fiction that he has addressed with newfound wealth and power, making the legend real.

What is real about Gatsby is his generosity, his passionate love for Daisy and his friendship for Nick. He is a man who attempts to transcend his past, partially by real deeds. But, then, what are these deeds that have brought him so much wealth and power. Are they connected to Meyer Wolfsheim? Has he catapulted himself to wealth in some kind of illicit way? Buchanan is curious.

Gatsby has not created an ironclad fiction. In fact, he has created about himself a storm of controversy. Reality will soon collide with fiction and this upper class world will become rife with chaos.

Chapter 7 Summary

There are now dramatic changes in Gatsby's life. He has dismissed most of his servants and has hired some friends of Wolfsheim to look over his house. Gatsby now calls Nick and tells him that he has been invited to Daisy's house. Jordan Baker would be there as well.

The event at Daisy's takes place on a very hot day. En route to Daisy's, people on his train, are radically affected by the heat. Even Nick's ticket is stained by the perspiration of the conductor's hand.

Nick meets Daisy and Jordan, who are sitting on a huge couch in the salon. Gatsby is standing on the carpet. They joke that Tom is talking to his girl. Actually, he is talking to the girl's husband to whom he has promised to sell a car. Nick defends the deal, knowing it is somewhat tainted. Tom comes in the room briefly and leaves to make a cold drink. When he leaves, Daisy kisses Gatsby, telling him she loves him in front of Nick and Jordan. Just then, her daughter comes in, but leaves after a quick and affectionate moment with her mother.

Tom brings in the drinks. They move out to the veranda and a Gatsby point out his house is right across the bay. They retire to the dining room for lunch. At lunch, Tom realizes that Gatsby and his wife are in love. He insists they go to town. Tom takes Nick and Jordan in Gatsby's car. Gatsby and Daisy follow.

In the car, Tom says he has begun to investigate Gatsby. He claims to have a second sight. He knows what's going on between Gatsby and his wife. They now pass under Dr. T. J. Eckleberg's yellow spectacles and they stop at Wilson's for gas in Gatsby's big yellow car. Wilson stops for gas. Tom pretends the car is his.

Nick believes that Wilson, who seems sick, has discovered the truth about Myrtle. He just doesn't realize that the culprit is Tom. From an upper window, Myrtle stares down at the visitors. She is possessed by jealousy, thinking that Jordan Baker is Tom's wife.

Tom, still driving the car, now feels the tenuousness of his position. His wife and mistress were slipping away. He decides to take them to the Plaza, where they rent a room. Again, the heat is overwhelming, although it is later in the afternoon. Tom brings out a bottle of whisky and proceeds to question Gatsby's about his recurring, "old sport," phrase. Where did he pick that up from? A Mendelssohn Wedding March signals a wedding is taking place below and reminding Daisy of her wedding in Louisville in the crushing heat. Tom grills Gatsby about Oxford. And he explains he was there during the Armistice, an opportunity given to officers after the war.

Then he addresses Gatsby directly. Why is Gatsby intruding in his life? Gatsby eventually tells him directly. Daisy is in love with him. Even though they hadn't seen each other in five years, the secret love within each of them went on. Tom admits his infidelities, but says he always comes back. Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him, but finally cannot. She did love Tom for a time. Daisy's truth telling shocks Gatsby. Daisy tells Tom she is leaving him, but insists they go. Tom tells them to go alone in Gatsby's car. He is not afraid, he says. Gatsby knows it is over. Nick remembers it is his birthday. He has turned thirty.

Michaelis, who runs a coffee shop near Wilson's garage, finds him sick in his office. Wilson has locked his wife away and is going to move away. He presses Wilson to explain, but Wilson starts to probe him. Michaelis becomes uncomfortable and leaves. Later, he leaves his restaurant and hears Myrtle screaming at her husband and then running outside. A "death car" struck Myrtle fatally and then moved into the darkness.

Buchanan and his company stopped soon afterward, seeing some automobiles near Wilson's. Moments later, Tom was bending over her body, which was now wrapped in a blanket. Wilson was crying out, "O my Ga-od!" in a repetitious litany of pain. A man steps out and tells the police that the car was big- and yellow. But this was the car Tom was driving before- and he had told Wilson that it was his. He now tells Wilson the truth. He believes that Gatsby has killed Myrtle.

Tom takes Nick and Jordan to his house. Nick stays outside. He hears the butler calling for a taxi. Then Gatsby steps out from some shrubbery. Gatsby tries to lie, but Nick guesses at the truth. Daisy had killed Myrtle. She is now locked in her room. She has promised to switch the light on and off if Tom attempts to hurt her.

As Gatsby watches for the light, Tom and Daisy are talking over fried chicken and ale. Nick sees them from a window and notices their demeanor. They are engaged in intimate conversation and not totally unhappy. The taxi comes. Gatsby waits in the moonlight until Daisy goes to bed.

Chapter 7 Analysis

This is a wrenching chapter. It turns Gatsby from a period romance into a Greek tragedy; the culmination of this is the ironic death of Myrtle, at Daisy's hand. Until this chapter, Gatsby has been a polite, upper class tale of infidelity and love. Nick has been the dispassionate observer. After seeing the extent of Buchanan's betrayal first hand, he sides with Gatsby.

By bringing Nick into his little scene, Tom has probably offended him. Because he has tried to make him a partner in his deception of his cousin as well as offending his sense of honor. He has converted him into Gatsby's ally.

But in this chapter, not only does Myrtle die, but Daisy's love for Gatsby- the perfect and unfulfilled love that he thinks she has for her- has been rent slightly. In a bitter conversation in the Plaza, Daisy admits that, once upon a time, she used to love Tom. This fills Gatsby with concern and he tries not to believe it.

But as Gatsby's life has been filled with pretense, he has also been pretending somewhat in his focused love for Daisy. Perhaps he has not seen her. Perhaps his own love- and wishes- have clouded his vision. As mentioned before, The Great Gatsby is a story of appearances. Yet, until now, it did not seem that these appearances would be unraveled by death.

Chapter 8 Summary

Nick hears Gatsby's taxi and he goes over to warn him. Gatsby should leave. But Gatsby refuses. He will not leave Daisy. He tells Nick the story of Dan Cody, the story Nick related in a previous chapter. Gatsby does not care about his lies anymore. He just wants to speak to Daisy. He remembers how they met.

Gatsby had never been with a woman like Daisy. He did not lie directly to her, but lulled her into a false financial security. He had no key to maintaining her lifestyle, but he pretended. He kissed her mysterious mouth and attempted to forget that he was just one of the struggling poor. She returned his love. In that, when he left for the war, he could carry with him the promise of tomorrow.

Gatsby was a great success after the war, but he was forced to go to Oxford, as an officer. There he stayed, while Daisy wrote him desperate letters. Why wouldn't he come back to her? But he couldn't. He could only write as she began to slowly wander away, winding up in the arms of Tom Buchanan, whom he read about in Oxford. Daisy was no longer his.

Still, in his mansion, Gatsby pondered with Nick and tried to explain that, no, it was not possible- Daisy always loved him. Perhaps, for a moment, she loved Tom, but only in the shadow of her greater love. After the war, he came back to Louisville, walking around their old haunts, around familiar streets.

After breakfast, the gardener asked Gatsby if he could drain the pool. But Gatsby told him to hold off. Nick, having to go the work, is reluctant to leave Gatsby. He is afraid for him. He shouts after him. "They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." These are Nick's last significant words to Gatsby, before they part. They are a testimony to his love for the man and words with finality, for soon Gatsby will be dead.

At work, Nick talks to Jordan. She wants to see him. But he is worried about Gatsby, but cannot get through on the telephone.

He tells of his going back to West Egg and then of the events that took place in Wilson's garage. Wilson is now somewhat out of shock and is rambling on, somewhat coherently, of trying to find the yellow car. His friend, Michaelis, tries to get him to go to church. He has Michaelis look in a drawer, where he finds an expensive dog leash. This was the clue that set Wilson off. He has decided that the man who killed his wife had also given her the dog leash. He was the man who owned the yellow car. Michaelis is finally finished with time with Wilson and goes home. When he comes back, Wilson is gone.

Wilson had gone out on foot to find the car. He went from Port Roosevelt to Gad's Hill, where he tried to eat lunch, but only drank coffee. Some boys saw a "crazy man" walking on the side of the road. He found West Egg and searched for Gatsby. Somehow, perhaps by going from garage to garage, he had found the name of the owner of the yellow car.

Gatsby had decided to swim that day and he brought a pneumatic mattress with him. The car was locked up in the garage and he was waiting, at the pool, for a telephone call. Gatsby was a prisoner of his dreams, now held in isolation by Daisy's absence and her unknown intentions.

There had been shots, but the chauffeur hadn't thought about them. Maybe he didn't recognize the sounds for what they were. But, when Nick arrives at the house, running up the front steps, there is a note of alarm as the chauffeur, Nick, the gardener and the butler run to the pool, where they find Gatsby's body. Wilson's body is lying on the grass. They are both dead.

Chapter 8 Analysis

If the last chapter depicts Gatsby's world unraveling through death, it is only an ironic, accidental death. Still, the victim of death, Myrtle, is killed by the victim of Myrtle's adultery, Daisy. Daisy has killed by accident, but her victim was guilty of great hurt towards her.

In this chapter, Gatsby's world is consummately destroyed, but this time through murder. It is accident that drives Myrtle's husband, Wilson, to kill the wrong person, Gatsby. It is an intentional murder by the accident of ignorance. But before his murder, Gatsby is wrapped in the dull half-fires of purgatory. He is unsure of Daisy's disposition towards him. But we know from the last chapter that there is something brewing with Tom. Perhaps she will not leave him after all.

Wilson, a tragic figure from the beginning, winds up committing suicide- or so it seems. Gatsby dies in his pool, a victim of Wilson's error. He has been shot to death by a man he never knew nor ever harmed.

At the last moments, I think it is clear that even though Nick has seen Gatsby's faults, through and through, he has grown to love and even respect the man, who has made his lies into dreams and his dreams into realities- all for the sake of another, for the love of Daisy.

Chapter 9 Summary

Following the murder, Nick's next days were filled with police and photographers and journalists searching for answers. Although Michaelis spoke of Wilson's suspicions at the inquest, Catherine, Myrtle's sister, who knew full well the details of the affair, said nothing that would substantiate those suspicions. Her sister didn't even know Gatsby, which was true. Her sister was happy with Wilson. This was not true.

Meanwhile, Nick is in a quandary. There seems to be no one to assist in managing poor Gatsby's affairs. Daisy and Tom have left, without any forwarding address. Meyer Wolfsheim writes a note, saying he is distressed, but cannot do much, owing to pressing business. He also knows knew family. A phone call gives Nick an indication that Gatsby may have been involved in some kind of unsanitary business. A man named Slagle calls and says Young Parke has been picked up. He tells "Slagle" that Gatsby is dead.

Henry C. Gatz, Gatsby's real father, arrives. He saw the notice in a Chicago newspaper and left immediately, not knowing whom to call. Nick takes care of him. A glass of milk spills when he tries to drink. He is very fatigued and upset. He wanted his son to be buried on the East Coast. He believed in his son. He believed, had he lived, he might have become a great man. Nick concurs.

The eternal boarder, Klipspringer calls. He doesn't have time for the funeral, probably, but he wants Nick to send him his shoes. Nick hangs up on him. He tries to get people to go to Gatsby's funeral, but people are vanishing. Finally, he goes to see Meyer Wolfsheim because he can't get him on the phone. At first, his secretary tries to say he's not there, but Nick knows he is. He comes out and talks to Nick about the young Major he once knew.

When Gatsby had gotten out of the Service, he was totally broke. Wolfsheim had met him in a pool hall, where he had wanted a job. Wolfsheim fed him. He hadn't eaten in a few days.

Realizing his value, Wolfsheim decided to help him. He got him some work with a client in Albany. He got him to join the American Legion. He went into partnership with him. He said that he had "made him." But, despite their closeness, Wolfsheim refused to go to the funeral. He wouldn't be involved in something like that when a man had been murdered.

He goes back to Gatsby's. Gatsby's father is clutching an old photograph of Gatsby's house. Recently, Gatsby had gone home and had bought him a house for himself. He showed Nick an old book of Gatsby's, "Hopalong Cassidy." In the book is a schedule. Although young, Nick was determined to live his dreams. The schedule included practicing elocution and poise, studying needed inventions with resolutions not to smoke and not to waste time. He wants to read one "improving" book or magazine per week. He wanted to save money. It was a blue print for success. And his father read it aloud to Nick.

Before the funeral, the minister waited futilely for more guests. Nobody came at first. But, then, the man who Nick had first met in Gatsby's library showed up. He remarked how people used to come to Gatsby's parties by the hundreds, but nobody came to his funeral. "The poor son-of-a-bitch-," he said.

Nick recalled his Christmas in the Midwest. And he realizes that, although his idea of the Midwest was not prairies and wheat fields, but rather trains and old houses, with sleighs in winter and Christmas wreathe, there was something about it that made sense as home. The Eastern seaboard increasingly made no sense. Perhaps that was true for his friends, too- Daisy, Tom, Jordan and Gatsby, also from the Midwest. And so, before leaving, Nick says goodbye to Jordan, who says he is engaged, anyway. And so, still half in love, he breaks up with her.

Later, in October, Nick sees Tom Buchanan on Fifth Avenue. He refuses to take his hand. Tom tells him what he told Wilson when Wilson came into his house, his hand on the revolver of his gun. Tom had told Wilson it was Gatsby's car and that Gatsby had done it. He tells him it wasn't true. Tom then tells him of his remorse for Myrtle, brought on by a glimpse of the dog biscuits in the apartment. Nick remarks, in this chapter, how careless Tom and Daisy were with people. How they could destroy things so precious and then return to their life of wealth and comfort?

Nick goes to New York on Saturdays because he cannot bear the remembrance of

the gaiety and music of Gatsby's parties. It is close to the time that he will leave for the Midwest. He looks out on the Sound and watches the moon rise. He thinks of Gatsby looking longingly across the sound to the green light on Daisy's dock. And so, though we reach out to the future, we shall always be like boats rushing against the overpowering current of the past.

Chapter 9 Analysis

The last chapter is bittersweet. It is the aftermath of the collapse of the world of Gatsby, a man who built his life in pretense and who died in the shadow o

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