The Great Gatsby Review Guide
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
1920s New York: West
and East Egg
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Themes: The disintegration of
the American Dream.
Hollowness & corruption that
comes w/ wealth. Love is for
fools.
Irony: Nick narrates
about Gatsby; hates
Gatsby. Gatsby has
$$$ house and $$$
parties to get Daisy;
Daisy already has $$$.
Everyone @ Gatsyby’s
Plot :
parties; no one @ his
Nick à NY: West Egg = New Rich
funeral.
Daisy introduces Nick to Jordan; Tom hates cheaters;
start dating.
he is one. Daisy kills
Tom cheating on Daisy w/ Myrtle myrtle w/out knowing
its Tom’s lover.
Gatsby hosts luxury parties
Nick Carraway
Neighbor to Gatsby, Daisy’s cousin.
Introduces Gatsby to Daisy. Honest and
young.
Jordan Baker
Nick’s girlfriend. Daisy’s friend. Competitive
golfer = new women of the 20s. Boyish.
Self-centered. Dishonest.
Jay Gatsby
Mysterious neighbor, host of lavish parties,
in love w/ daisy. Protagonist. Wealthy.
Daisy Buchanan
Nick’s cousin. Promised to wait for Gatsby
(war), didn’t- married to Tom. Loves money
& attention. Cynical.
Tom Buchanan
Very wealthy husband of Daisy. Arrogant.
Bully. Hypocritical. Racist. Sexist. Immoral.
Cheats w/ Myrtle. Angry about Daisy
cheating.
Myrtle Wilson
Tom’s lover, George’s wife. Always wants to
improve.
George Wilson
Lifeless. Owns a trashed garage. Loves
Myrtle. Hurt by her affair.
Hopes Daisy will show up
Symbols:
Nick invited, meets Gatsby who
-Green light on
admits his love for Daisy- his ex.
dock= Gatsby’s
Ø Nick sets up Daisy and Gatsby à
hopes & dreams
affair
-Valley of Ashes=
Ø Tom finds out= confrontation w/
moral decay that
Gatsby
comes w/ perusing
wealth
Ø Daisy chooses Tom
-The
Eyes
of Dr.
Ø Nick, Jordan, Tom find Gatsby’s
T.J.
Eckleburg=
car crashed, killed Myrtle
fading eyes on
Ø Daisy was driving. Gatsby takes
billboard= God
blame.
watching / judging
Ø George kills Gatsby and himself
society
Ø Nick breaks up w/ Jordan. Moves
to Midwest.
“I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can
be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(20).
“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long
Story
Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of
told
himself”(10).
“That’s
my
Middle
West
. . . the street lamps and sleigh
from
bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been
Nick’s
a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy
Eyes and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we
possessed some deficiency in common which made us
1st
subtly unadaptable to Eastern life” (187).
person
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,
Olivia Norman. Sources: Shmoop, Sparknotes, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster,
and Cliffnotes.
stretch out our arms farther”(193).