The Great Gatsby

Plot Outline

Themes

Characters

Context

Quotes and Methods

Interpretations

Most important key points/symbols

Chapters 1 and 2

  • Nick claims that he's tolerant and non-judgemental
  • Nick's from an established Midwest family and has just moved to West Egg on Long Island to start a career in bonds. He rents a bungalow next door to a mansion owned by a man called Gatsby

Significance of Place

  • Soon after his arrival he goes to dinner in East Egg at Tom and Daisy Buchanan's mansion. Daisy is Nick's cousin and he knows Tom from Yale
  • At their house, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a professional golfer. Tom reveals that he has strong racial prejudices
  • During dinner, the phone rings. Tom goes to answer it and Daisy follows. Jordan tells Nick that it's Tom's mistress
  • Daisy tells Nick that she plans to set him up with Jordan
  • When Nick goes home, he sees Gatsby reaching out to a distant green light across the Sound - first introduction of Gatsby's dream
  • One afternoon, Tom and Nick take the train to New York. Tom introduces Nick to his mistress, Myrtle, and her husband, George. George runs an unsuccessful garage in the wasteland between New York and the Eggs (Valley of Ashes)
  • Nick, Tom and Myrtle go to Tom's New York apartment and Myrtle throws an impromptu party. Nick meets the McKees and Catherine, Myrtle's sister. They all get drunk.

Green light

  • Myrtle starts talking about Daisy - Tom gets upset and breaks her nose. Nick can only remember fragments for the rest of the evening

breaking Myrtle's nose

Chapters 3 and 4 - Gatsby is Desperate to See Daisy

  • Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's famous parties
  • At the party, he bumps into Jordan and hears lots of wild rumours about Gatsby's past
  • Nick and Jordan look for Gatsby and Nick eventually meets him
  • Gatsby talks privately with Jordan
  • After the party, Nick and Jordan start spending time together
  • Gatsby invites Nick to lunch in New York. On the way, Gatsby tells Nick unbelievable stories about his past, then says that he needs a favour and that Jordan will explain more
  • At lunch Gatsby introduces Nick to Meyer Wolfshiem. Nick introduces Gatsby to Tom, but then Gatsby dissapears
  • Nick meets Jordan for tea. She explains that Gatsby and Daisy used to be in love, but that Daisy married Tom whilst Gatsby was away with the war. Gatsby wants Nick to arrange a meeting between him and Daisy
  • Nick and Jordan start having a relationship

Chapters 5 and 6 - Gatsby and Daisy are reunited

  • Nick invites Gatsby and Daisy to tea. Gatsby seems nervous, and the meeting between him and Daisy is awkward
  • Nick leaves Gatsby and Daisy alone together. When he returns, they've restarted their relationship
  • Gatsby gives Nick and Daisy a tour of his mansion, and shows them his expensive possessions. Nick leaves them alone again
  • Nick reveals Gatsby's past to the reader - he used to be James Gatz, a farm boy from North Dakota, but he reinvented himself as Jay Gatsby
  • He travelled with Dan Cody, a self-made millionaire, who showed him how to live the high life
  • Tom visits Gatsby with friends, and is annoyed to find out that Gatsby knows Daisy. Tom reveals his sexist views
  • Tom and Daisy go to one of Gatsby's parties, but Daisy is disgusted by it. Gatsby tells Nick that he wants to re-create that past and make things with Daisy just the same as they were before she married Tom

gatbsy's parties

gatsby and daisy meet and start affair

re creating the past

Chapter 7 to 9 - Everything Goes Wrong

  • Gatsby decides to stop having parties because of Daisy's reaction to them. Their affair continues, and Gatsby fires all his servants to prevent any gossip
  • The Buchanans invite Jordan, Nick and Gatsby to lunch. Tom realises that Daisy's having an affair with Gatsby

tom finds out about the affair

  • They all go to New York, and Tom stops for gas at Wilson's garage. George tells Tom that he and Myrtle are moving away
  • In New York, Tom aggressively questions Gatsby about his past and his relationship with Daisy. He accuses Gatsby of being a criminal. Gatsby claims that Daisy never loved Tom

myrtle's death

Essay Plans

  • Daisy decides that she'd rather stay with Tom than be with Gatsby. Knowing that he's won, Tom tells Gatsby and Daisy to drive home together
  • On his way home, Gatsby's car accidentally hits and kills Myrtle. Tom blames Gatsby for Myrtle's death.

gatsby's past

  • Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was driving the car that killed Myrtle, but that he plans to take the blame
  • Nick goes to see Gatsby the following and Gatsby tells Nick the truth about his past. Nick reluctantly goes to work. He receives a call from Jordan but makes excuses to avoid seeing her
  • When Nick returns home, he discovers that George has shot Gatsby and then killed himself. Nick tries to organise a big funeral for Gatsby, but hardly anyone comes
  • Nick decides to move back to the Midwest. He ends his relationship with Jordan, and she accuses him of being careless and dishonest. Nick bumps into Tom who admits that he told George that Gatsby had killed Myrtle
  • Nick thinks about the green light Gatsby was reaching towards when he first saw him. He reflects that dreams of a better future can never be fulfilled because people can never escape their past

gatsby's death and funeral

tom and daisy at the end

  • At the end of Chapter 1, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time. He sees a lonely figure, reaching out towards a "single green light" - Nick doesn't know what the light represents to Gatsby, which creates mystery
  • Fitzgerald uses light to symbolise dreams and desires - the green light represents Gatsby's dream of being with Daisy, and his "stretched out" arms show that he's still striving to achieve it
  • This is contrasted with Daisy's attitudes towards the candles as she "snapped them out" - could symbolise that she's given up on her dreams

"He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away…"

  • 'Minute and far away' - impossible to reach. This will prove to be true for Gatsby.
  • also represents society’s desire and the seeming impossibility of achieving the materialistic American Dream.
  • Represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal.

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... and one fine morning - so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"

  • Nick sees the green light as the 'unattainable dream'. He thinks Gatsby would never have achieved his dream of the future because it was rooted in the past

clock/time

  • ellipses and long dashes - knows the green light can never be reached, so his message never reaches conclusion, interrupted