The Great Gatsby is about the efforts of this one man Jay Gatsby to reinvent himself, the narrator of the story is Nick Carraway who moves out to New York from the Midwest, and ends up living next door to Gatsby, we see the whole story from Nick’s point of view as he meets people in New York’s wealthy social scene and gradually gets to know Gatsby. Nick kind of falls in love with Gatsby in what he represents Gatsby is an irrepressible dreamer, he has a really extravagant lifestyle and throws incredible parties, but this persona is completely his own invention.
He
actually grew a poor and his real name isn’t even Gatsby, it’s James Gatz.
Years earlier he fell in love with a rich girl named Daisy and couldn’t marry
her because he didn’t have any money, the book is set in the summer of 1922, at
the beginning of
the
story Nick Carraway moves to New York from the Midwest to begin his career
selling bonds, he works in Manhattan but he rents a little house way out on
Long Island in the town of West Egg his house is next door to a giant mansion,
Nick goes to see Daisy and Tom some rich friends he knows from the Midwest who
now live in nearby East Egg Long Island, over dinner he picks up on the fact
that Daisy is unhappy in her marriage and that Tom has a girlfriend, he also
meets Jordan Baker a famous golfer whom he starts dating a little later in the
book, later that evening after he goes home he sees his next-door neighbor mr. Gatsby
looking out over the water in the direction of Tom and Daisy’s house, there’s a
green light on the dock by Daisy’s house that you can just see to get back and
forth between West Egg and Manhattan.
Nick has to pass
through an ugly and depressing area filled with ash heaps, there’s a gas
station in this area and a billboard with big eyes on it advertising an
optometrist. One Sunday when Nick is on the train in this area headed to
Manhattan, Tom makes him get off and meet his girlfriend Myrtle. Myrtle is
married to the man who owns the gas station and she lives above a garage. Tom
keeps an apartment in the city where he sees Myrtle, they all go there and have
a party, Nick winds up going home with another man, a photographer named mr. McKee,
at the mansion next-door Denix parties go on all night long every night, one
day Gatsby’s chauffeur delivers an invitation to Nick from Gatsby, so Nick goes
to one of the parties crowds of people come drink heavily and dance, he sees
Jordan Baker there and the two of them stick together, he meets Gatsby and they
talk about their shared experiences in Europe and World War one, Gatsby is nice
to Nick and they strike up a friendship.
One day inJuly Gatsby
drives Nick into the city, on the way he tells Nick about how he went to Oxford
because it’s a family tradition and how he inherited a lot of money, and spent
time hunting big game, and collecting rubies and trying to get over something
sad that happened to him it sounds bogus, and Nick doesn’t know whether to
believe him. Gatsby tells Nick he’s going to ask him for a favor that day but that
Jordan Baker is going to explain it they have lunch with a man named Meyer
Wolfsheim, a friend of Gatsby’s whom Gatsby has fixed the 1919 World Series,
later that day Jordan explains to Nick that Gatsby and Daisy fell in love years
before when Gatsby was stationed at Camp Taylor in Kentucky, and Gatsby was an
officer ,Daisy stayed in love with him it almost ran off to New York to see him
off after the war was over, she got engaged to Tom Buchanan but she almost
didn’t marry him because she got a letter from Gatsby.
Now
Gatsby wants to see Daisy and he wants Nick to invite her to tea because he
wants Daisy to see his big house, Nick does what Gatsby wants and invites Daisy
and Gatsby over to his house for tea, Gatsby and Daisy are awkward and
embarrassed at first, but Nick leaves them alone for a half hour and when he
comes back they’ve clearly decided they’re still in love all three of them go
to Gatsby’s mansion where Gatsby gives Daisy a tour of all of his rooms and
expensive possessions, Daisy begins to cry when Gatsby shows her, and Nick all
the very costly shirts he had sent over from England saying she said because
she’s never seen such beautiful shirts before from then on she starts coming to
see Gatsby and having an affair with him.
Daisy
and Tom go to one of Gatsby’s parties where they see the usual crowd, plus a
famous Hollywood actress and director, Daisy doesn’t like it so afterward
Gatsby fires all of his servants and stops having parties, Nik backtracks and
tells us some of Gatsby’s life story Gatsby was the son of poor farmers in
Minnesota, he wanted to become rich but he also wanted to seem like someone who
had always been rich, so he invented a new identity, a new name for himself he
made friends with a rich man named Dan Cody, and worked for him on his yacht.
After
Cody died, he became an officer and he fell in love with Daisy at Camp Taylor,
he was able to attract a rich girl because he had good manners, and the uniform
made it impossible to tell if he was rich, Daisy waited for him for several
years but after the war she married Tom Gatsby devoted the next few years to
becoming rich and getting her back on the hottest day of the summer. Gatsby and
Nick go to Tom and Daisy’s house Gatsby is hoping to publicly confront Tom and
have Daisy say she’s leaving him the whole party including Jordan Baker all
drive to Manhattan, and get a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Gatsby does confront
Tom and Daisy does reluctantly say that she never loved Tom and that she wants
to be with Gatsby Tom says it’s all nonsense that Daisy’s not leaving him and
that he knows Gatsby is a criminal because he’s had him investigated Gatsby
made his money and organized crime and selling illegal liquor, Daisy breaks
down and admits that it’s not really true that she never loved Tom.
Tom
sees that he’s won so he sends Daisy and Gatsby to drive home together in
Gatsby’s car on the way back in another car, Nick and Tom and Jordan discovered
that there’s been an accident and Myrtle has been hit and killed by Gatsby’s
car, Nick takes Tom home and outside Tom and Daisy’s house he sees Gatsby
lurking Gatsby explained that Daisy was driving a car, and he’s covering up for
her Nick goes up to the house and sees Tom and Daisy together in the kitchen
eating chicken, he can see that Daisy isn’t going to leave Tom Gatsby still
can’t believe he’s lost her though myrtles husband George Wilson who owns the
gas station tracks down the owner of the yellow car, ultimately Tom tells him
it belongs to Gatsby.
George
Wilson goes to Gatsby’s house and kills him while he’s floating in the pool,
Nick tries to get people to come to Gatsby’s funeral, but hardly anyone does
Meyer Wolfsheim won’tcome, but tells Nick how he started gatsby in business,
Tom and Daisy leave town before the funeral, one of the few people to show up
is Gatsby’s father Henry C GATS, he says he’s proud of what his son achieved
and he shows Nick a book with a written self-improvement schedule that Gatsby
kept when he was younger, back when he was still adjust James Gatz Nick breaks
up with Jordan over the phone and moves back to the Midwest.
Gatsby
dies in part because he’s obsessed with the past, he can’t let Daisy go not
because of their relationship now, but because of what they had back when
Gatsby was a poor kid in the Army who got this beautiful rich girl to fall for
him part of Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy stems from what she represents for him
money in the upper class, he seems to think by winning Daisy he can prove to
himself that he belongs to the upper class, he embodies this very American idea
that no matter where you come from even if you’re poor you can become anything
you want, but the book suggests this idea is somewhat of a lie because Gatsby
has to resort to crime to make his money, and he’s murdered pursuing his dream.