The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
“A devastating critique of the American Dream, written by a man who lived it and lost everything.”
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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) · 180pages · Modernist / Jazz Age · 12 AP appearances
Summary
Nick Carraway moves to Long Island in 1922 and becomes neighbors with the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire who throws lavish parties to win back Daisy Buchanan — Nick's cousin and wife of the brutish old-money Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy reunite, but the dream collapses when Tom exposes Gatsby's criminal past. Daisy kills Tom's mistress Myrtle in a hit-and-run with Gatsby's car; Gatsby takes the blame; Myrtle's husband shoots Gatsby dead in his pool. Almost nobody comes to his funeral. Nick returns to the Midwest, disillusioned.
Why It Matters
Initially a commercial failure — sold about 20,000 copies in Fitzgerald's lifetime. Revived during WWII when Armed Services Editions sent 150,000 free copies to American soldiers overseas. By the 1950s it was a classroom staple. Now sells 500,000+ copies annually and is considered THE American no...
Themes & Motifs
Diction & Style
Register: Formal with poetic flourishes — Latinate vocabulary mixed with Jazz Age slang in dialogue
Narrator: Nick Carraway: retrospective, literary, increasingly disillusioned. He tells us upfront he's 'inclined to reserve all...
Figurative Language: Very high
Historical Context
1920s America — Prohibition, Jazz Age, post-WWI boom: Prohibition created the exact conditions for Gatsby's rise — illegal alcohol as the engine of new wealth. The post-war disillusionment drives Nick's moral exhaustion. The racial anxieties (Tom's wh...
Key Characters
Talking Points
- Why does Fitzgerald make Nick Carraway the narrator instead of telling Gatsby's story directly? What do we lose — and gain — from seeing Gatsby only through Nick's eyes?
- Tom Buchanan casually references white supremacist literature ('The Rise of the Colored Empires'). Why does Fitzgerald include this, and why does no character challenge Tom on it?
- Gatsby says 'Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!' Is he wrong? Does the novel ultimately agree with him, mock him, or grieve for him?
- Nick tells us Gatsby 'turned out all right at the end.' Given that Gatsby dies alone in a pool, abandoned by everyone including Daisy — what does Nick mean? Is Nick reliable here?
- Why does Fitzgerald set the 'valley of ashes' between East/West Egg and New York? What is its literal and symbolic function?
Notable Quotes
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”
“I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
“He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way... I could have sworn he was trembling.”
Why Read This
Because the American Dream is still the story America tells itself — and Gatsby is the most elegant dissection of why that story is a beautiful lie. Every sentence is doing three things at once. You'll learn more about how language works from 180 ...