Gatsby

Who is he?

  • Wealthy, glamorous & mysterious figure
    • Throws lavish parties
  • A midwestern youth → Jay Gatz, who reinvented himself
  • A man who seems to embody idealistic love, but in fact has close connections with criminal world

Nick Carraway's neighbour

  • Neighbour in West Egg village, Long Island
  • Nick → small house, Gatsby → big house
    • Gatsby has servants, owns expensive cars
  • Nick imagines Gatsby to be 'a florid & corpulent person in his middle years' before he meets him

Mr Nobody from Nowhere

  • Gatsby's background is a mystery
    • Tom calls him, 'Mr nobody from nowhere'
      • There is a lot of gossip about Gatsby, but no one really knows much about him
    • 'he killed a man once', 'I heard it was more that he is a german spy'. Gatsby's mysterious figure is gossiped about
  • As Nick narrates The Great Gatsby he gradually discloses more & more facts that lie behind Gatsby's image as a man of mystery

Gatsby's greatness

  • Title prepares us for a story of an exceptional man
  • Nick produces elements in the story that portray Gatsby as a 'great' man
    • With characters flaw that show him as less 'great'

Gatz to Gatsby

  • James Gatz grew up in North Dakota, in America's Midwest, son of unsuccessful farm people
  • 17 changed his name to Jay Gatsby
  • As a boy, he explored the shores of Lake Superior → met Dan Cody & warned him his yacht was moored in dangerous place
  • Cody → grew rich prospecting for precious metals, became like a surrogate Father to Gatsby
  • Following Cody's death, Gatsby became involved with the gambler Wolfshiem, a shady & sinister figure from the underworld of organised crime
    • Wolfshiem describes Gatsby as a 'perfect gentleman' & 'a man of fine breeding' & that he is 'the kind of man you'd like to take home & introduce to your mother & sister'
  • Nick notices that he has 'one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it'

Making Gatsby great

  • Gatsby takes great pains to present himself as a gentleman
    • he owns a Rolls-Royce car & clothes bought in expensive shops in London
    • he uses phrase 'old sport' a term intended to make him seem upper class
  • Nick indicates that Gatsby is trying a little too hard to act out a role, that his 'elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd'
  • Gatsby has a library with English oak panelling, designed to resemble Oxford college
    • The character Owl Eyes → doesn't really know Gatsby. Is impressed by the realistic appearance of the library → none of the pages of the books remain uncut & haven't been read
  • Gatsby aims to project the image of an Old World aristocrat.
    • Really, he comes across as an extravagant, very thorough, New World showman

The war

  • Readers told 'Gatsby did extraordinarily well in the war'
  • Brave conduct resulted in promotion to the rank of major