The+Great+Gatsby

Summary: **Well done overall...26** The Great Gatsby is told from the eyes of Nick Carraway, a man who has moved east to Long Island, New York in the summer of 1922 from Minnesota in hopes to learn more about the bond business. Nick rents a small house in West Egg, Long Island (Long Island is divided into an East Egg and a West Egg). West Egg consists of many “newly rich” citizens. Nick’s home sits juxtaposed to Jay Gatsby’s mansion, a man of mystery who throws large parties on Saturday nights. One evening Nick travels out to East egg for dinner with his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom. Tom and Nick were classmates together at Yale, but this is about the only thing the two have in common. For Tom is a large man, playing the role of the rich “jock” of this book as he is a polo player, and polo is a sport that was common among wealthy people. At dinner, Nick is introduced to Jordan Baker, an attractive woman with whom Nick begins to fall in love with. Furthermore, Nick also learns more about Daisy and Tom’s marriage and their life of lies, and he discovers Tom’s clandestine mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Tom has an apartment in New York City where he goes with Myrtle to engage in his affair. Tom takes Nick with him one day to this apartment, where he holds a party that gets out of hand. During the party, Myrtle mentions Daisy’s name, and Tom wishes to hear nothing of it—for when Tom is out with Myrtle it is like his own escape from the real world, and when Myrtle makes mention of Daisy’s name, Tom’s wife, reality kicks in and he snaps. Tom sporadically hits Myrtle in the nose, breaking it. After this incident, on a Saturday morning Nick received a formal invitation from one of Gatsby’s chauffeur’s to attend one of his “little parties” (pg. 45). At the party, he runs into Jordan Baker, and they meet Gatsby himself after much searching. Gatsby requests to speak to Jordan alone, and Nick discovers why he was really invited to his party. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 (five years before) and fell in love with her then, and still remains deeply in love with her now. Gatsby essentially moved to West Egg in hopes to lure the love of his life back to him via his newly rich lifestyle and neighborly connections—Nick. Gatsby’s ploy of getting to Daisy is by requesting Nick to arrange a tea social between Daisy and Nick at Nick’s house, neglecting to tell her about Gatsby’s appearance. When Daisy arrives at Nick’s house for tea and sees Gatsby, it is an awkward scenario for everyone. However, when Nick leaves to go outside, and then returns, Daisy and Gatsby’s butterflies disperse and their loving connection is again present. After Daisy and Tom attended one of Gatsby’s parties, Gatsby was invited over to their house for lunch. As Tom is an educated man from Yale, he is not oblivious to what is going on between his wife and Gatsby and becomes more suspicious between the relationship among the two. During lunch, Tom realizes that his wife and Gatsby are in love after they exchange deep compassionate eye contact. Though it can be said that it is hypocritical for Tom to be jealous or angry with his wife’s actions since he himself is engaged in an affair, but he is nevertheless. Tom thus decides for the group to go into New York City, where he confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom declares to Daisy that Gatsby is a bootlegger, that he receives all of his money from selling alcohol illegally behind the counter at the drugstores which he owns. As a result to hearing this, Daisy realizes that Tom is the man right for her. Tom sends Daisy back to East Egg with Gatsby, however Daisy is driving Gatsby’s car. On their way back, they are passing Wilson’s (Myrtle’s husband) garage and they see Myrtle run into the road. Daisy swerves and hits Myrtle, killing her instantly. Upon Tom’s discovery of this incident on his way home from the Plaza Hotel, he attempts to calm down Wilson for he was a complete wreck. Furthermore, Tom rushes home to East Egg, where Nick discovers about Daisy driving the car, and how Gatsby intended to take the blame for it. Tom goes back to Wilson’s garage the following day, and explains to him that it was Gatsby who ran over his wife. Wilson, also aware of an affair between his wife, suspected that whoever ran over his wife was her lover. Thereafter, Wilson took off on foot to Gatsby’s house, where he lay lounging in the pool for the first time that summer, and shoots him dead, and thereafter shoots himself. Many things changed after Gatsby’s death. To begin with, Tom and Daisy went away for a while, leaving no message of their whereabouts. Also, Nick met Gatsby’s father, Mr. Gatz, who was a solemn old man, who was very proud of his son in what he had become. Nick arranged a funeral for Gatsby, however only one person came—that person being the owl-eyed man that Nick met in the library at his first appearance to one of Gatsby’s parties. Not even Meyer Wolfshiem attended his funeral, the man that started Gatsby in his bootlegging business. Nicks relationship with Jordan Baker was also ended after Gatsby died. Nothing was left for Nick in New York, so he decided to move back to his hometown in the Midwest to escape from the glamorous drama of city life.

Visions of the American Dream as perceived by the following characters: a. Nick—Nick vision of the American dream was to move to the east coast to learn about the bond business. However, at the end of the book once Nick realizes that both Gatsby’s dream along with his American dream is over, he realizes that it is time for him to leave and go home to Minnesota in search of a more calming lifestyle. **THIS IS PLOT!** b. Tom—Tom is a self-centered hypocrite throughout the story. Tom is essentially a player, and has an affair with Myrtle while he is married to Daisy. He is a rich man, which is mainly the reason why Daisy stays with him. Tom is a hypocrite due to the fact that even though he was having an affair, he became angry when he discovered his wife, Daisy, was in love with Gatsby. To me, T__om’s dream was to have the whole world revolve around him.__ c. Daisy—Daisy dreamed of wealth. For she was a flirtatious woman who was in love with money and material luxuries, which is why she was attracted to both Gatsby and Tom. However she knew her faith was to Tom due to the fact of Gatsby’s criminal background. d. Gatsby—Gatsby had one ultimate dream throughout the entire book—that of winning the love of Daisy back. He attempted to do this by showing off his wealth and disguising his true identity of a criminal. However, his dishonesty failed him and his dream was a reality for only a short period of time. e. Wilson—Wilson was the only character who was content with who he was, and didn’t //think// that he needed money to make his wife love him. However this was not the case, due to the fact that his wife, Myrtle, regretted marrying Wilson because she found out he was poor, and she had an affair with Tom thereafter.

Why is **The Great Gatsby** a great American classic?
 * The Great Gatsby** in my mind is considered a great American classic because it captur__**es the drama of the rich city life - I like this phrase.**__ To me, The Great Gatsby is a bit of a love story, one that doesn’t have a happy ending however. Gatsby falls short of his dream; however he made solid attempts to make it into a reality for a short period of time, which may have been all that mattered before he died. The Great Gatsby also captures the American Dream from many different **prospective,- wrong word** and portrays that t__he glamorous life isn’t always so glamorous, and that there simply is “no place like home”.__

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