The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby By: Marie, Dion

2. The Life of Fitzgerald • Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. • Fitzgerald was bright and ambitious. • He attended St. Paul academy and when he was 13 his first piece of writing was published in the school newspaper. • When he was 15 his parents sent him to a Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. • At his new school he was encouraged to pursue his literary ambitions. • He continued his artistic development at Princeton University. • Fitzgerald dropped out of college and joined the army. • After he was discharged he moved to France with his wife where he wrote The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. • The Great Gatsby was his finest work but wasn’t given the credit it deserved until the 1950s. • His wife suffered from mental health issues which drove him into depression and alcoholism. • While working on his fifth novel he died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940 at the age of 44.

3. Summary of The Great Gatsby • Nick Carraway is a young man who moves to West Egg in the summer of 1922. He is educated and attended Yale. • Nick’s next door neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who lives in a giant mansion throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. • Nick drives out to East Egg with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom where they introduce him to Jordan Baker. Nick begins a romantic relationship with her. • Jordan informs Nick that Tom is having an affair with a women by the name of Myrtle Wilson. • Nick is eventually invited to one of his neighbor’s, Gatsby, house parties. Nick encounters Jordan at the party where Gatsby informs Jordan that he knew Daisy and is deeply in love with her. Gatsby has Nick arrange a meeting between them without Daisy knowing that he will be there. • Gatsby and Daisy establish a connection and begin an affair of their own. • Tom becomes suspicious of Gatsby and Daisy's relationship and comes to the conclusion that Gatsby is in love with her. Finding this out he has everyone drive up to New York city where he confronts Gatsby about his love for Daisy. There Tom announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal and Daisy decides her loyalty is with Tom. • Tom has Daisy drive back to East Egg with Gatsby. Nick, Jordan, and Tom discover Gatsby’s car stuck Myrtle, the women Tom was having an affair with, on the way back to East Egg. Gatsby took the blame for her death when it was Daisy who was driving. Tom tells Myrtle’s husband Gatsby was driving when she was struck by the car. Myrtle’s husband shows up to Gatsby’s house one day with a gun where he shoots and kills Gatsby and his self. • After his death Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby and ends his relationship with Jordan. Nick moves back to the Midwest disgusted with the people surrounding Gatsby’s life.

4. Themes • Decline of the American Dream: Gatsby works his way up from nothing, and despite that, still does not achieve his dream. In real life, it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve that American dream. In the end, Gatsby loses it all by being shot by George (Myrtles husband) for killing his wife (even though he didn’t technically do it). • The empty upper-class: Daisy Buchanan is a good example of this. She is fabulously wealthy and yet is not happy at all. Both her and Tom are always bored and cannot seem to find anything to do. Daisy and Tom are also very shallow, and do not find worth in anything that does not have to do with old money. (They tolerate Nick because he is nice and Daisy’s cousin) • Unrequited Love: While Gatsby’s love is not entirely unrequited, it is unacknowledged. He spends most of the novel pining after Daisy, only to end up with her taking Tom’s side and him dead in his pool by the husband of the woman that Tom had an affair with.

5. The Main Characters • Jay Gatsby: A wealthy guy who is considered ‘new money,’ and is the protagonist of the novel. He’s in love with Daisy Buchanan, but she is married to Tom Buchanan. He throws wild parties constantly in order to get her attention or to get her to come to the parties. Later it is learned that Gatsby earned his wealth through criminal means, which degrades him in the eyes of Nick, his best friend. He spends most of the novel trying to get Daisy to leave Tom and come to him. • Nick Carraway: Yale graduate who trades bonds, and moved to West Egg (a fictional part of Long Island and also the part where the ‘new money’ lives). He lives next to Jay Gatsby, and helps him further his relationship with Daisy Buchanan. Nick is also Daisy’s cousin.

6. Main Characters cont. • Daisy Buchanan: The wife of Tom Buchanan, and lives in East Egg, where the ‘old money’ lives. She was once involved with Gatsby when they were younger, and while she had moved on, he didn’t. While through Gatsby’s eyes the reader sees Daisy as perfect and kind, Nicks eyes reveal her a cynical, sad, and even superficial at times. • Tom Buchanan: Daisy’s husband throughout the novel. He has an affair with a mechanic’s wife (Myrtle), but eventually works things out between him and Daisy. He is not fond of Gatsby at all, and discovers that he is after Daisy at some point in the story. He holds disdain for anyone who comes from ‘new money.’

7. Major Conflicts • The main conflict is between Gatsby and Tom. Gatsby is trying to ‘steal’ Daisy away from Tom, but is unable to once Tom realizes what he’s up to. Gatsby spends much of the time talking to Nick about the virtues of Daisy and the flaws of Tom. • Gatsby also conflicts with himself a lot, whether or not he should let Daisy be with Tom because she would be the happiest there, or if she should be with him (Gatsby) because that’s what he has been working towards for many many years.

8. Impact of Time Period • The Great Gatsby was written during the Roaring Twenties, and those times lent much of themselves to the novel. Gatsby had made his fortune off of bootlegging during the prohibition (which was during the 20’s). Gatsby’s parties were also indicative of the New Yorker way of life, which was carefree and party until you’re in a coma. Fitzgerald made it plain that the party-goers actions and attitudes were disgusting and much out of place in such a high class society. It just goes to show that even the fabulously wealthy had little inhibitions those day’s and were very capable of acting like the rabble that bar crawled in the dredges of New York.

9. Other Works • “This Side of Paradise,” (I hated this book) • “The Beautiful and the Damned” • “Tender is the Night” • “The Last Tycoon” • Many many short stories