The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) Essays

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) Type of Work: Human drama Setting New York City and Long Island; 1922 Principal Characters Nick Carraway, a young bond salesman from the Midwest, and the story's narrator Jay Gatsby, a rich, young racketeer Tom Buchanan, a wealthy playboy Daisy Buchanan, his beautiful wife, and Nick's cousin Jordan Baker, an attractive pro golfer, and the Buchanan's friend George Wilson, a gas station owner Myrtle Wilson, his wife and Tom Buchanan's mistress Story Overveiw After his return from the "Teutonic migration known as the Great War," Nick Carraway felt too restless to work selling hardware in his Midwestern home town. He moved east to New York and entered the "bond business." Settling on the lowbudget side of Long Island in West Egg, Nick rented a bungalow next door to a mysterious, wealthy man-about-town known as Gatsby. Shortly after arriving in New York, Nick was invited to dinner at the house of Tom and Daisy Buchanan on the more-fashionable side of Lon 9 Island. Nick did not know either Tom or Daisy very well, but he was Daisy's second cousin and had attended Yale with Tom. Tom led Nick into a back room of the Buchanan house, where they found Daisy talking with her friend Jordan Baker, a haughty yet beautiful young woman who appeared to be "balancing something on her chin." By the time dinner was served on the porch, some untold tension was obviously building between Tom and Daisy, which climaxed after Tom left to answer a phone call. When he did not return, Daisy stomped inside to see what was keeping her husband. Jordan hushed Nick before he could speak - she wanted to eavesdrop on the Buchanans' muffled argument. Apparently Tom had met "some woman in New York..." When Nick arrived at his apartment that evening, lie saw the figure of the reclusive Mr. Gatsby himself, who had 1. come out to determine what share was his of [the] local heavens." Nick almost called out to introduce himself to his neighbor, but something in Gatsby's manner told Nick that he was content just then to be alone. From what Nick could see, Gatsby was staring towards the city at a "single green light, minute and far away." A couple of days later, Tom invited Nick to meet his mistress. He led Nick off the commuter train into a sleazy, unkempt area filled with garbage heaps. From there, they made their way to a second- rate gas station owned by a "spiritless man" named Wilson. Under the pretext that he had a car he wanted to sell Wilson, Tom covertly arranged to meet Wilson's dowdy, plump wife, Myrtle, in New York. On the ride into the City, Myrtle, along with her sister and a few friends, sat judiciously in a train car separate from Tom's; then everyone took a taxi over to an apartment that Tom kept for his trysts with Myrtle. All that afternoon and evening the group drank whiskey and talked, while Nick tried unsuccessfully to find an excuse to leave. The party finally ended in a violent argument in which Tom broke Myrtle's nose. One of the few things Nick knew about Gatsby was that he threw lavish parties, where hundreds of people "came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars." Finally, Nick was invited to one of the affairs, where he again ran into Jordan, and they mingled with others in conversations about who exactly the curious Gatsby was; it seemed none of the guests had even had a close view of their elusive host. Rumors placed him as the Kaiser's son, or as a German spy During the War, or maybe a fugitive killer. As the party wore on, Nick and Jordan found themselves sitting at a table with a rowdy, drunken girl and a man about Nick's age. The two men began discussing their respective military service. Then Nick's new acquaintance introduced himself: he was Jay Gatsby. Much further into the evening, Jordan and Gatsbv met in private to discuss something that Jordan said she was pledged not to reveal to anyone, not even Nick, until the right time. Weeks - and several parties - later, Gatsby arranged for Nick to have tea with Jordan, where she divulged the details of her conversation with Gatsby on the night of the party: It seemed that Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had been well acquainted before the War. Gatsby at that time was a young lieutenant waiting to go to the front, and Daisy was "just eighteen ... by