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The Great The Great GatsbyGatsby
ByF. Scott
Fitzgerald
Chapter One
Nick Carraway– Graduated from
Yale in 1915– Served in WWI– Went into bond
business when he returned from the War
– Moved from the Midwest to West Egg
Chapter one Tom and Daisy
Buchanan– Nick met Tom
at Yale– Daisy is Nick’s
second cousin– Moved from
Chicago to East Egg
Chapter OneNick meets Jordan Baker
when he goes to the Buchanan's house for dinner.
Nick learns that Tom has a mistress.– He also learns that Daisy is very
unhappily married: “Well I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything” (Fitzgerald 21).
Chapter One Nick sees his
neighbor, Gatsby, staring across the water at a green light at the end of the dock.
The dock is a part of the Buchanan property.
Chapter two
The valley of ashes – halfway between West Egg and New York
– “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27).
Chapter two The valley of
ashes– Location of the
eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
– Location of George Wilson’s garage
• George is the husband of Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson
Tom brings Nick here to pick up his mistress
Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to the apartment he keeps on the Upper West side of New York– Tom buys Myrtle
an airedale puppy on the way to the apartment.
Chapter two Myrtle calls her
sister Catherine, and the neighbors, the McKees, and they have a small party
Nick starts to see Tom’s true colors when he is told that Tom will not divorce Daisy because she is supposedly Catholic
Tom and Myrtle get in a fight and Tom breaks her nose
This is only the second time in Nick’s life that he has been drunk
Chapter three Gatsby has large,
elaborate parties at his house every weekend
The narrator describes the transformation of the house in great detail
Gatsby sends over a chauffeur to invite Nick to a party
Chapter three Nick
encounters and socializes with Jordan Baker the entire party
Nick finally meets Gatsby– He hears
rumors about Gatsby having been educated at Oxford
Chapter three Nick hears
other rumors about Gatsby’s background
Nick sees the aftermath of a car accident upon leaving Gatsby’s party
Chapter three “after exiting the car the
driver says, Wha’s matter…Did we run outa gas” (Fitzgerald 59)?– Fitzgerald uses events like this
to emphasize the “devil may care” attitude that was prevalent at the time.
Chapter three Nick develops feelings for Jordan and
describes her in the following way:– She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t
able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had been dealing with subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body. (Fitzgerald 63)
Morals and values were questionable at the time --- could always find a way to justify behavior.
Chapter four The narrator
lists the names of people who frequented Gatsby’s parties– A wide variety
of backgrounds and professions are represented
Gatsby takes Nick to lunch in New York– He is curious
about Nick’s opinion of him
– He is aware of the rumors about him and he wants to “set the record straight”
Chapter four Gatsby shows Nick two
souvenirs– A medal for valor– A picture from Oxford
•Evidence to validate his identity
Chapter four They eat lunch with Meyer
Wolfsheim– A well known gambler who fixed
the 1919 World Series– This is Gatsby’s connection and
Nick’s introduction to the underworld
– Nick is beginning to see how everything in society can be tainted by corruption
Chapter four Jordan reveals to
Nick that Daisy and Gatsby knew each other before she married Tom– She tells Nick to
invite Daisy to tea so that Gatsby can see her again, but Daisy is not to know the reason for the invitation
Chapter five Gatsby offers Nick
work, but Nick refuses
Nick invites Daisy over for tea and Gatsby becomes very anxious, particularly about outward appearances
He has someone cut Nick’s lawn and sends over flowers
Chapter five Gatsby almost
has a breakdown / panic attack when Daisy arrives
Nick calms Gatsby down and sends him into the living room to talk to Daisy while he takes a walk outside
Chapter five Gatsby brings
Nick and Daisy to his house and gives them a tour– He wakes up
Klipspringer, “the boarder” and has him play the piano
Nick finally says goodbye and leaves Daisy with Gatsby
Chapter six A reporter comes
to Gatsby’s house to ask him questions based on rumors he has heard about Gatsby’s past– Most of these
rumors have been spread by visitors to his house who know nothing about him
Chapter six The narrator gives a description of
Gatsby’s real past– James Gatz is his legal name– He is from North Dakota– He befriended and obtained a job
working for a wealthy yachtsman, Dan Cody
Chapter six Cody made his
money from Nevada silver fields and Montana copper
Cody was in love with a woman named Ella Kaye, who inherited his millions after his sudden death
Gatsby only inherited $25,000
Chapter six One Sunday
afternoon Tom and two friends stop by Gatsby’s house while horseback riding
Gatsby is invited to a party and then is rudely left behind
Chapter six Tom and Daisy
attend a party at Gatsby’s house
Tom insults Gatsby and Daisy defends him
Gatsby tells Nick about his hopes of repeating the past
Chapter six Gatsby wants
Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him and then marry Gatsby in Louisville
Nick tries to discourage Gatsby’s delusions, but Gatsby insists he can win back her heart
Chapter Seven When the lights in Gatsby’s
house fail to go on “one Saturday,” Nick journeys over to discover the house has been taken over by unfamiliar help.
The next day Gatsby calls Nick on the phone and tells him he wanted servants “who wouldn’t gossip. Daisy comes over quite often – in the afternoon” (114).
Chapter Seven Gatsby and later Daisy herself
invite Nick over for lunch at the Buchanan house.– “The next day was broiling, almost the
last, certainly the warmest, of the summer” (114).
Thus on Monday, a little more than three months after Nick first visits the Buchanan’s, he returns again, supposedly to witness Daisy making a public break with Tom and professing her love openly for Gatsby.
Chapter Seven Despite the fact that it is a
workday, the group is looking for something to do.
They travel into New York for bootlegged drinks at a suite in the Plaza Hotel, where Daisy’s intended break with Tom fails once she learns the source of Gatsby’s money.
Chapter Seven It is 7:00 pm when Daisy and
Gatsby in one car and Nick, Jordan, and Tom in another start back to Long Island.
This is the hour of dusk, when the sun is going down in the valley of ashes as Daisy runs over Myrtle Wilson.
Gatsby drives his car to his garage in West Egg and then takes Daisy home in a taxi (181).
Chapter Seven Tom, who has stopped at the
accident, arrives shortly thereafter. Now at dark, Nick sees Gatsby
emerge from the bushes and later witnesses the Buchanan’s “conspiring together” at the kitchen table, before he taxis to West Egg, leaving Gatsby standing “vigil” in the moonlight(146).
Chapter Eight About 4:00 am – Gatsby takes a
taxi back to West Egg; Gatsby and Nick then talk until dawn– Retrospective narration – Gatsby tells
Nick the story of how he fell in love with Daisy.
12:00 pm – Nick speaks with Jordan by phone; he tries to speak with Gatsby by phone, but he is unable to get through to him.
3:50 pm Nick takes the train back to West Egg.
Chapter Eight
After Myrtle’s death, George is consoled by Michaelis until he leaves around 6:00 am.
10:00 am George has left the garage. 12:00 pm – George has reached Gad’s
Hill. George then stops at the Buchanan’s
and Tom tells him that Gatsby ran over his wife without stopping.
Chapter Eight 2:00 pm – Gatsby heads for his
pool. 2:30 pm – Wilson is in West
Egg asking for directions to Gatsby’s house.
3:00 pm – Wilson finds Gatsby floating in his pool and he kills him with a revolver before shooting himself.
Chapter Nine The day after Gatsby is killed,
Nick takes on the responsibility of arranging for Gatsby’s funeral.
A telegram arrives from Gatsby’s father, Henry Gatz, who is on the way to New York and requests that the funeral be postponed until he arrives.
Gatsby is thus buried on Monday, September 25, 1922.
Chapter Nine The morning of the funeral Nick
calls on Wolfsheim, who tells him that he shows “friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead” (173).
5:00 pm the procession of three cars reached the cemetery where, shortly after, Gatsby is buried in the rain.– The rain that fell on the reunion of
Gatsby and Daisy foreshadows the rain that falls on Gatsby’s burial.
Chapter Nine Some time in the early autumn Nick
decides to head back West.– Before he leaves he breaks up with
Jordan Baker and has his final confrontation with Tom Buchanan.
Nick’s last night in the East is spent in the moonlight at Gatsby’s mansion, thinking of the first sailor to see the shores of America, who, like Gatsby, was “…face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder” (182).