The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or theRoaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.[1][2]
Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore—began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned."[3] Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to theFrench Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was vague and persuaded the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was repeatedly ambivalent about the book's title and he considered a variety of alternatives, including titles that referenced the Roman character Trimalchio; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue."
First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel." In 1998, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century's best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.
Plot
The main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran from the Midwest—who serves as the novel's narrator—takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the (fictional) village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes", an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment they keep for their affair. At the apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party takes place. It ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she annoys him by saying Daisy's name several times.
The Plaza Hotel in the early-1920sAs the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in World War I. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy from a romantic encounter in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. Gatsby spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping one day to rekindle their lost romance. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are an attempt to impress Daisy in the hope that she will one day appear again at Gatsby's doorstep. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes she is in love with Gatsby. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously 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 on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway. Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to locate its owner. After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots both Gatsby and then himself. Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest, disillusioned with the Eastern lifestyle.
Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore—began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned."[3] Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to theFrench Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was vague and persuaded the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was repeatedly ambivalent about the book's title and he considered a variety of alternatives, including titles that referenced the Roman character Trimalchio; the title he was last documented to have desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue."
First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel." In 1998, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century's best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period.
Plot
The main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran from the Midwest—who serves as the novel's narrator—takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the (fictional) village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes", an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment they keep for their affair. At the apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party takes place. It ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she annoys him by saying Daisy's name several times.
The Plaza Hotel in the early-1920sAs the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in World War I. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy from a romantic encounter in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. Gatsby spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping one day to rekindle their lost romance. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are an attempt to impress Daisy in the hope that she will one day appear again at Gatsby's doorstep. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes she is in love with Gatsby. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously 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 on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway. Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to locate its owner. After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots both Gatsby and then himself. Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest, disillusioned with the Eastern lifestyle.
Literary and Rhetorical Devices
Simile Satire Anaphora Connotation Dynamic Character
Motif Personification Metonymy Alliteration Static Character
Hyperbole Irony Oxymoron Prologue Byronic Hero
Metaphor Asyndeton Zeitgeist Caricature Tragic Hero
Foil Polysyndeton Analogy Denotation Verisimilitude
Epistrophe Conduplicatio Zeugma
Motif Personification Metonymy Alliteration Static Character
Hyperbole Irony Oxymoron Prologue Byronic Hero
Metaphor Asyndeton Zeitgeist Caricature Tragic Hero
Foil Polysyndeton Analogy Denotation Verisimilitude
Epistrophe Conduplicatio Zeugma
Major Characters
Nick Carraway
a Yale graduate originating from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and, at the start of the plot, a newly arrived resident of West Egg, who is aged 29 (later 30). He also serves as the first-person narrator of the novel. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbor and a bond salesman. He is easy-going, occasionally sarcastic, and somewhat optimistic, although this latter quality fades as the novel progresses.
Jay Gatsby (originally James "Jimmy" Gatz)
a young, mysterious millionaire with shady business connections (later revealed to be a bootlegger), originally from North Dakota. He is obsessed with Daisy Buchanan, a beautiful debutante, from Louisville, Kentucky whom he had met when he was a young military officer stationed at the Army's Camp Taylor in Louisville during World War I. Fitzgerald himself was actually based at Camp Taylor in Louisville when he was in the Army and makes various references to Louisville in the novel, including the Seelbach Hotel where the Buchanan party stayed while in town for Tom and Daisy's wedding. The character is based on the bootlegger and former World War I officer, Max Gerlach, according to Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, Matthew J. Bruccoli's biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby is said to have briefly studied at Trinity College, Oxford in England after the end of World War I.
Daisy Fay Buchanan
an attractive and effervescent, if shallow and self-absorbed, young Louisville, Kentucky debutante and socialite, identified as aflapper. She is Nick's second cousin, once removed, and the wife of Tom Buchanan. Daisy is believed to have been inspired by Fitzgerald's own youthful romances with Ginevra King. Daisy once had a romantic relationship with Gatsby, before she married Tom. Her choice between Gatsby and Tom is one of the central conflicts in the novel.
Thomas Buchanan
a millionaire who lives on East Egg, and Daisy's husband. Tom is an imposing man of muscular build with a "husky tenor" voice and arrogant demeanor. He is a former football star at Yale. Buchanan has parallels with William Mitchell, the Chicagoan who married Ginevra King. Buchanan and Mitchell were both Chicagoans with an interest in polo. Like Ginevra's father, whom Fitzgerald resented, Buchanan attended Yale and is a white supremacist.
Jordan Baker
Daisy Buchanan's long-time friend with "autumn-leaf yellow" hair, a firm athletic body, and an aloof attitude. She is Nick Carraway's girlfriend for most of the novel and an amateur golfer with a slightly shady reputation and a penchant for untruthfulness. Fitzgerald told Maxwell Perkins that Jordan was based on the golfer Edith Cummings, a friend of Ginevra King. Her name is a play on the two popular automobile brands, the Jordan Motor Car Companyand the Baker Motor Vehicle, alluding to Jordan's "fast" reputation and the freedom now presented to Americans, especially women, in the 1920s.
George B. Wilson
a mechanic and owner of a garage. He is disliked by both his wife, Myrtle Wilson, and Tom Buchanan, who describes him as "so dumb he doesn't know he's alive". When he learns of the death of his wife, he shoots and kills Gatsby, wrongly believing he had been driving the car that killed Myrtle, and then kills himself.
Myrtle Wilson
George's wife, and Tom Buchanan's mistress. Myrtle, who possesses a fierce vitality, is desperate to find refuge from her complacent marriage, but unfortunately this leads to her tragic ending. She is accidentally killed by Gatsby's car (driven by Daisy, though Gatsby insists he would take the blame for the accident).
Meyer Wolfsheim
a Jewish friend and mentor of Gatsby's, described as a gambler who fixed the World Series. Wolfshiem appears only twice in the novel, the second time refusing to attend Gatsby's funeral. He is a clear allusion to Arnold Rothstein, a New York crime kingpin who was notoriously blamed for the Black Sox Scandal which tainted the 1919 World Series.
Study Guide
ap_q_a_the_great_gatsby.pdf | |
File Size: | 10218 kb |
File Type: |
Audiobook Version
Concept of Social Stratification
1920s in the United States
The Roaring 20s
The United States overall success in World War I, the survival of the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918, and an apparently strong economy led to a period of strong optimism and a new fun-seeking attitude
The Jazz Age
The popularity of the new Jazz music of New Orleans and Chicago, dances like the Charleston, combined with the relaxing moral code and general feeling of optimism created the feeling of a never-ending social party.
The Age of Intolerance
The losses--both financial and in human--associated with World War I left the United States unwilling to entangle itself again into the affairs of foreign nations. The U.S. refusal to join the League of Nations was evidence of this new isolationist policy. Immigration rules and quotas were tightened. There was also a concerted effort to pursue and unmask spies, usually Communists or "Reds". The "us and them" mentality resulted in the revitalizing of such supremacist organizations as the KKK.
The Age of Wonderful Nonsense
It was the age of flappers and bathtub gin, an age of prosperity, and a time of moral and sexual revolution.
Consumerism
~mass-production and chain stores drove down the prices and encouraged consumers to spend
~the concept of credit was being used to help more Americans buy durable goods such as cars and stoves. The lenders, of course, charged interest so that the total cost of the item was far more in the end than if it had been purchased for cash.
~runaway consumer credit was part of the overload that resulted in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
~Americans were also spending more money on entertainment, especially the movies. The technology that made the "talkies" possible (Phonofilm) became commercially available in 1922. President Calvin Coolidge and several famous vaudeville performers appeared in these early sound-films. In 1927, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer, the first commercially-released "talkie," changed the motion picture industry forever.
~the concept of credit was being used to help more Americans buy durable goods such as cars and stoves. The lenders, of course, charged interest so that the total cost of the item was far more in the end than if it had been purchased for cash.
~runaway consumer credit was part of the overload that resulted in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
~Americans were also spending more money on entertainment, especially the movies. The technology that made the "talkies" possible (Phonofilm) became commercially available in 1922. President Calvin Coolidge and several famous vaudeville performers appeared in these early sound-films. In 1927, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer, the first commercially-released "talkie," changed the motion picture industry forever.
Economic Policies
~In 1920, for the first time in United States history, more people were living in cities than on farms. Presidents Warren G. Harding (1921-23), Calvin Coolidge (1923-29), and Herbert Hoover (1929-33) supported big business and passed legislation that benefited large corporations, often at the expense of small businesses and farmers.
~Harding's "return to normalcy" after World War I did little to address social and economic problems facing thousands of Americans.
~The Harding Administration's Teapot Dome Scandal illustrated the extent to which greed and the desire to accumulate wealth quickly were the governing principles of post-World War I America.
~Calvin Coolidge especially favored a laissez faire attitude toward big business, thus allowing for credit and investment abuses that would lead to the crash of 1929.
~Harding's "return to normalcy" after World War I did little to address social and economic problems facing thousands of Americans.
~The Harding Administration's Teapot Dome Scandal illustrated the extent to which greed and the desire to accumulate wealth quickly were the governing principles of post-World War I America.
~Calvin Coolidge especially favored a laissez faire attitude toward big business, thus allowing for credit and investment abuses that would lead to the crash of 1929.
Prohibition, Organized Crime, and Gatsby's Fortune
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of "intoxicating liquors" in the United States was ratified on January 16, 1919, and the Volstead Act, which defined the phrase "intoxicating liquors," thus making the Amendment enforceable, was passed on October 28, 1919. Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect.
Never a popular law (even President Coolidge, who, as a senator, had vote for both the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, kept his White House stocked with illegal liquor), there were enough loopholes in the legislation to allow most people to acquire and consume at least as much alcohol as they had before:
~Prohibition banned only the manufacture, sale, and transport, not the possession or consumption of alcohol. This left many opportunities for abuse open.
~Alcoholic drinks were widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Speakeasies were named for the fact that a patron had to "speak easy" and convince the doorman to let him or her in.
~Federal Prohibition Agents had no forced-entry rights, and so could not break into a drinking establishment if the doorman refused them entry.
~Large amounts of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada.
~Home brewing of beer and wine was popular during Prohibition.
~Commercial wine was still produced in the U.S., but was only available through government warehouses, supposedly for use in religious ceremonies.
~Whiskey was available by prescription. Although the labels clearly warned that it was for "medicinal purposes" only and that other uses were illegal, doctors freely wrote prescriptions and druggists filled them without question.
~Over a million gallons of whiskey were prescribed and consumed per year.
~This discrepancy between law and actual practice contributed to the widespread disdain for authority that had accompanied the return of World War I servicemen.
~Because the Prohibition laws did little to change the behavior of the citizenry, but eliminated all government regulation of an entire industry, Prohibition presented an enormous opportunity for organized crime to take over the importation, manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages. The infamous gangster Al Capone built his criminal empire largely on profits from trafficking in illegal alcohol.
~Some Prohibition agents took bribes to overlook the illegal brewing activities of gangsters.
~It had originally been estimated that it would cost six million dollars to enforce prohibition laws. Over time, however, as more people drank illegally and the profits from the manufacture, transportation, and sale of liquor went to organized crime, gangsters would bribe officials to ignore their illegal activities, and the cost of enforcing prohibition laws increased.
~Fitzgerald never specifies how Gatsby manages to amass such an enormous fortune in the short span of five years. Certainly, the economy of the day would have allowed for overnight riches on the stock market, but there are also suggestions in the novel that Gatsby is and has been involved in illegal activities, quite possibly bootlegging--illegal trafficking in the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcohol.
Never a popular law (even President Coolidge, who, as a senator, had vote for both the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, kept his White House stocked with illegal liquor), there were enough loopholes in the legislation to allow most people to acquire and consume at least as much alcohol as they had before:
~Prohibition banned only the manufacture, sale, and transport, not the possession or consumption of alcohol. This left many opportunities for abuse open.
~Alcoholic drinks were widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Speakeasies were named for the fact that a patron had to "speak easy" and convince the doorman to let him or her in.
~Federal Prohibition Agents had no forced-entry rights, and so could not break into a drinking establishment if the doorman refused them entry.
~Large amounts of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada.
~Home brewing of beer and wine was popular during Prohibition.
~Commercial wine was still produced in the U.S., but was only available through government warehouses, supposedly for use in religious ceremonies.
~Whiskey was available by prescription. Although the labels clearly warned that it was for "medicinal purposes" only and that other uses were illegal, doctors freely wrote prescriptions and druggists filled them without question.
~Over a million gallons of whiskey were prescribed and consumed per year.
~This discrepancy between law and actual practice contributed to the widespread disdain for authority that had accompanied the return of World War I servicemen.
~Because the Prohibition laws did little to change the behavior of the citizenry, but eliminated all government regulation of an entire industry, Prohibition presented an enormous opportunity for organized crime to take over the importation, manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages. The infamous gangster Al Capone built his criminal empire largely on profits from trafficking in illegal alcohol.
~Some Prohibition agents took bribes to overlook the illegal brewing activities of gangsters.
~It had originally been estimated that it would cost six million dollars to enforce prohibition laws. Over time, however, as more people drank illegally and the profits from the manufacture, transportation, and sale of liquor went to organized crime, gangsters would bribe officials to ignore their illegal activities, and the cost of enforcing prohibition laws increased.
~Fitzgerald never specifies how Gatsby manages to amass such an enormous fortune in the short span of five years. Certainly, the economy of the day would have allowed for overnight riches on the stock market, but there are also suggestions in the novel that Gatsby is and has been involved in illegal activities, quite possibly bootlegging--illegal trafficking in the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcohol.
Politically
The 1920s were a time of growth (financial (through materialism) and population), prosperity and corruption. Manufacture flourished post-WW I, producing cars, radios and telephones. Consumer goods flooded the market. Professional sports grew as people spent heavily on entertainment. Immigration increased drastically after subsiding during the war. The threat of differing political ideas and the loss of American jobs to foreigners created an intense dislike of outsiders.