Context
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and namedafter his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner.Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, hedid poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911.Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time atcollege, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, asWorld War I neared its end.
Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan,in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wildseventeen-year-old beauty named Zelda Sayre. Zelda finally agreed to marryhim, but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delaytheir wedding until he could prove a success. With the publication of ThisSide of Paradise in 1920, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation, earningenough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him.
Many of these events from Fitzgerald’s early life appear in his most famousnovel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald, Nick Carrawayis a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy League school(in Nick’s case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war. Also similar toFitzgerald is Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth andluxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed ata military camp in the South.
Having become a celebrity, Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless life-style ofparties and decadence, while desperately trying to please Zelda by writing toearn money. Similarly, Gatsby amasses a great deal of wealth at a relativelyyoung age, and devotes himself to acquiring possessions and throwing partiesthat he believes will enable him to win Daisy’s love. As the giddiness of theRoaring Twenties dissolved into the bleakness of the Great Depression,however, Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown and Fitzgerald battledalcoholism, which hampered his writing. He published Tender Is the Night in1934, and sold short stories to The Saturday Evening Post to support hislavish lifestyle. In 1937, he left for Hollywood to write screenplays, and in1940, while working on his novel The Love of the Last Tycoon, died of aheart attack at the age of forty-four.
Fitzgerald was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America, an era that hedubbed “the Jazz Age.” Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of thegreatest literary documents of this period, in which the American economysoared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation. Prohibition,the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol mandated by the EighteenthAmendment to the Constitution (1919), made millionaires out of bootleggers,and an underground culture of revelry sprang up. Sprawling private partiesmanaged to elude police notice, and “speakeasies”—secret clubs that soldliquor—thrived. The chaos and violence of World War I left America in astate of shock, and the generation that fought the war turned to wild andextravagant living to compensate. The staid conservatism and timewornvalues of the previous decade were turned on their ear, as money, opulence,and exuberance became the order of the day.
Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductiveand exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. Now hefound himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone ofsociety, particularly in the large cities of the East. Even so, like Nick,Fitzgerald saw through the glitter of the Jazz Age to the moral emptiness andhypocrisy beneath, and part of him longed for this absent moral center. Inmany ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgerald’s attempt to confront hisconflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was drivenby his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted, even as sheled him toward everything he despised.
Plot Overview
Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in thesummer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in theWest Egg district of Long Island, a wealthy but unfashionable area populatedby the new rich, a group who have made their fortunes too recently to haveestablished social connections and who are prone to garish displays ofwealth. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man namedJay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic Gothic mansion and throws extravagantparties every Saturday night.
Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yaleand has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island
home to the established upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one eveningfor dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, anerstwhile classmate of Nick’s at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick toJordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins aromantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage:Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valleyof ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New YorkCity. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tomand Myrtle. At a vulgar, gaudy party in the apartment that Tom keeps for theaffair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds bybreaking her nose.
As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one ofGatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and theymeet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an Englishaccent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone “old sport.” Gatsby asks tospeak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns more about hismysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at thegreen light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion. Gatsby’sextravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy.Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy, buthe is afraid that Daisy will refuse to see him if she knows that he still lovesher. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her thatGatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby andDaisy reestablish their connection. Their love rekindled, they begin an affair.After a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife’srelationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans’ house, Gatsbystares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is inlove with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he isdeeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. Heforces the group to drive into New York City, where he confronts Gatsby in asuite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom asserts that he and Daisy have a history thatGatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife that Gatsby is acriminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegalactivities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tomcontemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove
that Gatsby cannot hurt him.
When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, however,they discover that Gatsby’s car has struck and killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover.They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisywas driving the car when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby intends to take theblame. The next day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George, that Gatsby wasthe driver of the car. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driverof the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in thepool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots himself.
Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, andmoves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Gatsby’s
dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,” Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream—is over.
Character List
Nick Carraway - The novel’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to thenewly rich, Nick quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysteriousJay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of theromance between her and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely throughNick’s eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story.Nick Carraway (In-Depth Analysis)
Jay Gatsby - The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm
in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to theachievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer inLouisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that Gatsby made hisfortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain thesocial position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views Gatsby as adeeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism andpower to transform his dreams into reality make him “great” nonetheless.Jay Gatsby (In-Depth Analysis)
Daisy Buchanan - Nick’s cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, Daisy was courted by a number ofofficers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to waitfor him. However, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when awealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him,Daisy decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite,Daisy lives with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg districtof Long Island. She is sardonic and somewhat cynical, and behavessuperficially to mask her pain at her husband’s constant infidelity.Daisy Buchanan (In-Depth Analysis)
Tom Buchanan - Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.
Jordan Baker - Daisy’s friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes
romantically involved during the course of the novel. A competitive golfer, Jordan represents one of the “new women” of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. Jordan is beautiful, but also dishonest: she cheated in orderto win her first golf tournament and continually bends the truth.
Myrtle Wilson - Tom’s lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire.
George Wilson - Myrtle’s husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-
down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. George is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom.
Owl Eyes - The eccentric, bespectacled drunk whom Nick meets at the first party he attends at Gatsby’s mansion. Nick finds Owl Eyes looking through Gatsby’s library, astonished that the books are real.
Klipspringer - The shallow freeloader who seems almost to live at Gatsby’s mansion, taking advantage of his host’s money. As soon as Gatsby dies, Klipspringer disappears—he does not attend the funeral, but he does call Nick about a pair of tennis shoes that he left at Gatsby’s mansion.
Analysis of Major CharactersJay Gatsby
The title character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty yearsold, who rose from an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota tobecome fabulously wealthy. However, he achieved this lofty goal byparticipating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol andtrading in stolen securities. From his early youth, Gatsby despised povertyand longed for wealth and sophistication—he dropped out of St. Olaf’sCollege after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job withwhich he was paying his tuition. Though Gatsby has always wanted to berich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for DaisyBuchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville beforeleaving to fight in World War I in 1917. Gatsby immediately fell in love withDaisy’s aura of luxury, grace, and charm, and lied to her about his ownbackground in order to convince her that he was good enough for her. Daisypromised to wait for him when he left for the war, but married TomBuchanan in 1919, while Gatsby was studying at Oxford after the war in anattempt to gain an education. From that moment on, Gatsby dedicated himselfto winning Daisy back, and his acquisition of millions of dollars, his purchaseof a gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his lavish weekly parties are all merelymeans to that end.
Fitzgerald delays the introduction of most of this information until fairly late
in the novel. Gatsby’s reputation precedes him—Gatsby himself does notappear in a speaking role until Chapter III. Fitzgerald initially presentsGatsby as the aloof, enigmatic host of the unbelievably opulent partiesthrown every week at his mansion. He appears surrounded by spectacularluxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women. He is the subject of awhirlwind of gossip throughout New York and is already a kind of legendarycelebrity before he is ever introduced to the reader. Fitzgerald propels thenovel forward through the early chapters by shrouding Gatsby’s backgroundand the source of his wealth in mystery (the reader learns about Gatsby’schildhood in Chapter VI and receives definitive proof of his criminal dealingsin Chapter VII). As a result, the reader’s first, distant impressions of Gatsbystrike quite a different note from that of the lovesick, naive young man whoemerges during the later part of the novel.
Fitzgerald uses this technique of delayed character revelation to emphasizethe theatrical quality of Gatsby’s approach to life, which is an important partof his personality. Gatsby has literally created his own character, evenchanging his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to represent hisreinvention of himself. As his relentless quest for Daisy demonstrates, Gatsbyhas an extraordinary ability to transform his hopes and dreams into reality; atthe beginning of the novel, he appears to the reader just as he desires toappear to the world. This talent for self-invention is what gives Gatsby hisquality of “greatness”: indeed, the title “The Great Gatsby” is reminiscent ofbillings for such vaudeville magicians as “The Great Houdini” and “TheGreat Blackstone,” suggesting that the persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterfulillusion.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by yearrecedes before us.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
As the novel progresses and Fitzgerald deconstructs Gatsby’s self-presentation, Gatsby reveals himself to be an innocent, hopeful young manwho stakes everything on his dreams, not realizing that his dreams areunworthy of him. Gatsby invests Daisy with an idealistic perfection that shecannot possibly attain in reality and pursues her with a passionate zeal thatblinds him to her limitations. His dream of her disintegrates, revealing the
corruption that wealth causes and the unworthiness of the goal, much in theway Fitzgerald sees the American dream crumbling in the 1920s, asAmerica’s powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism becomesubordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth.
Gatsby is contrasted most consistently with Nick. Critics point out that theformer, passionate and active, and the latter, sober and reflective, seem torepresent two sides of Fitzgerald’s personality. Additionally, whereas Tom isa cold-hearted, aristocratic bully, Gatsby is a loyal and good-hearted man.Though his lifestyle and attitude differ greatly from those of George Wilson,Gatsby and Wilson share the fact that they both lose their love interest toTom.
Nick Carraway
If Gatsby represents one part of Fitzgerald’s personality, the flashy celebritywho pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman he loved,then Nick represents another part: the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift inthe lurid East. A young man (he turns thirty during the course of the novel)from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York in 1922 to learn the bondbusiness. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island, next door toGatsby. Nick is also Daisy’s cousin, which enables him to observe and assistthe resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a result of hisrelationship to these two characters, Nick is the perfect choice to narrate thenovel, which functions as a personal memoir of his experiences with Gatsbyin the summer of 1922.
Nick is also well suited to narrating The Great Gatsby because of histemperament. As he tells the reader in Chapter I, he is tolerant, open-minded,quiet, and a good listener, and, as a result, others tend to talk to him and tellhim their secrets. Gatsby, in particular, comes to trust him and treat him as aconfidant. Nick generally assumes a secondary role throughout the novel,preferring to describe and comment on events rather than dominate theaction. Often, however, he functions as Fitzgerald’s voice, as in his extendedmeditation on time and the American dream at the end of Chapter IX.
Insofar as Nick plays a role inside the narrative, he evidences a stronglymixed reaction to life on the East Coast, one that creates a powerful internalconflict that he does not resolve until the end of the book. On the one hand,Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York. On theother hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. This inner conflict
is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with JordanBaker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he isrepelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.Nick states that there is a “quality of distortion” to life in New York, and thislifestyle makes him lose his equilibrium, especially early in the novel, aswhen he gets drunk at Gatsby’s party in Chapter II. After witnessing theunraveling of Gatsby’s dream and presiding over the appalling spectacle ofGatsby’s funeral, Nick realizes that the fast life of revelry on the East Coast isa cover for the terrifying moral emptiness that the valley of ashes symbolizes.Having gained the maturity that this insight demonstrates, he returns toMinnesota in search of a quieter life structured by more traditional moralvalues.
Daisy Buchanan
Partially based on Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful young womanfrom Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick’s cousin and the object of Gatsby’slove. As a young debutante in Louisville, Daisy was extremely popularamong the military officers stationed near her home, including Jay Gatsby.Gatsby lied about his background to Daisy, claiming to be from a wealthyfamily in order to convince her that he was worthy of her. Eventually, Gatsbywon Daisy’s heart, and they made love before Gatsby left to fight in the war.Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in 1919 she chose instead to marryTom Buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic family who couldpromise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the support of her parents.
After 1919, Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy back, making her thesingle goal of all of his dreams and the main motivation behind hisacquisition of immense wealth through criminal activity. To Gatsby, Daisyrepresents the paragon of perfection—she has the aura of charm, wealth,sophistication, grace, and aristocracy that he longed for as a child in NorthDakota and that first attracted him to her. In reality, however, Daisy falls farshort of Gatsby’s ideals. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle,shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person whosmashes things up and then retreats behind her money. Daisy proves her realnature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby in Chapter VII, then allowsGatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herselfwas driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy andTom move away, leaving no forwarding address.
Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury.She is capable of affection (she seems genuinely fond of Nick andoccasionally seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not of sustained loyalty orcare. She is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing herand treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter VII. InFitzgerald’s conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoralvalues of the aristocratic East Egg set.
Themes, Motifs & SymbolsThemes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literarywork.
The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s
On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between aman and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses amuch larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over amere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribedgeographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The GreatGatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, inparticular the disintegration of the American dream in an era ofunprecedented prosperity and material excess.
Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values,evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure.The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throwsevery Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the Americandream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed morenoble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of youngAmericans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as thebrutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality ofearly-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. Thedizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden,sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, aspeople began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person fromany social background could, potentially, make a fortune, but the Americanaristocracy—families with old wealth—scorned the newly rich industrialists
and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworlddesigned to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich andpoor alike.
Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as emblems of thesesocial trends. Nick and Gatsby, both of whom fought in World War I, exhibitthe newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that resulted from the war. Thevarious social climbers and ambitious speculators who attend Gatsby’sparties evidence the greedy scramble for wealth. The clash between “oldmoney” and “new money” manifests itself in the novel’s symbolicgeography: East Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg theself-made rich. Meyer Wolfshiem and Gatsby’s fortune symbolize the rise oforganized crime and bootlegging.
As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick explains in Chapter IX), the Americandream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit ofhappiness. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money andrelaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast.The main plotline of the novel reflects this assessment, as Gatsby’s dream ofloving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social statuses, hisresorting to crime to make enough money to impress her, and the rampantmaterialism that characterizes her lifestyle. Additionally, places and objectsin The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters instill them withmeaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exemplify this idea. InNick’s mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a centralcomponent of the American dream, as early Americans invested their newnation with their own ideals and values.
Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the greenlight at the end of Daisy’s dock. Just as Americans have given Americameaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with akind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby’sdream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dreamin the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure.Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in whichtheir dreams had value, Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past—his time inLouisville with Daisy—but is incapable of doing so. When his dreamcrumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back
to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed.The Hollowness of the Upper Class
One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology ofwealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differfrom and relate to the old aristocracy of the country’s richest families. In thenovel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Eggand its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy.Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, andlacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrouslyornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick upon subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes’ invitation tolunch. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, andelegance, epitomized by the Buchanans’ tasteful home and the flowing whitedresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker.
What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart,as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who areso used to money’s ability to ease their minds that they never worry abouthurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype when, at the end ofthe novel, they simply move to a new house far away rather than condescendto attend Gatsby’s funeral. Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent wealthderives from criminal activity, has a sincere and loyal heart, remainingoutside Daisy’s window until four in the morning in Chapter VII simply tomake sure that Tom does not hurt her. Ironically, Gatsby’s good qualities(loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtlerather than letting Daisy be punished, and the Buchanans’ bad qualities(fickleness and selfishness) allow them to remove themselves from thetragedy not only physically but psychologically.Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help todevelop and inform the text’s major themes.Geography
Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomize the various aspects ofthe 1920s American society that Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents theold aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral andsocial decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral questfor money and pleasure. Additionally, the East is connected to the moral
decay and social cynicism of New York, while the West (includingMidwestern and northern areas such as Minnesota) is connected to moretraditional social values and ideals. Nick’s analysis in Chapter IX of the storyhe has related reveals his sensitivity to this dichotomy: though it is set in theEast, the story is really one of the West, as it tells how people originally fromwest of the Appalachians (as all of the main characters are) react to the paceand style of life on the East Coast.Weather
As in much of Shakespeare’s work, the weather in The Great Gatsbyunfailingly matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story. Gatsby andDaisy’s reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward andmelancholy; their love reawakens just as the sun begins to come out.Gatsby’s climactic confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of thesummer, under the scorching sun (like the fatal encounter between Mercutioand Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet). Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day ofautumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the air—asymbolic attempt to stop time and restore his relationship with Daisy to theway it was five years before, in 1917.Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstractideas or concepts.The Green Light
Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’sWest Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for thefuture. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward itin the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’squest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the greenlight also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter IX, Nickcompares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must havelooked to early settlers of the new nation.The Valley of Ashes
First introduced in Chapter II, the valley of ashes between West Egg andNew York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by thedumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay thatresults from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselveswith regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also
symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among thedirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyespainted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They mayrepresent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moralwasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead,throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaningbecause characters instill them with meaning. The connection between theeyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettlingnature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essentialmeaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process bywhich people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas inChapter VIII, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts as a depressedconsideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
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