the great gatsby turning point essay

A Summary and Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The Great Gatsby is the quintessential Jazz Age novel, capturing a mood and a moment in American history in the 1920s, after the end of the First World War. Rather surprisingly, The Great Gatsby sold no more than 25,000 copies in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lifetime. It has now sold over 25 million copies.

If Fitzgerald had stuck with one of the numerous working titles he considered for the novel, it might have been published as Trimalchio in West Egg (a nod to a comic novel from ancient Rome about a wealthy man who throws lavish parties), Under the Red, White and Blue , or even The High-Bouncing Lover (yes, really).

How did this novel come to be so widely acclaimed and studied, and what does it all mean? Before we proceed to an analysis of Fitzgerald’s novel, here’s a quick summary of the plot.

The Great Gatsby : plot summary

Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, is a young man who has come to New York to work on the stock exchange. He lives on the island of West Egg, where his neighbour is the wealthy Jay Gatsby, who owns a mansion.

One evening, Nick is dining with his neighbours from East Egg, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Tom is having an affair, and goes to answer the phone at one point; Daisy follows him out of the room, and their fellow guest, a woman named Jordan Baker, explains to Nick about Tom’s mistress.

A short while after this, Nick is with Tom when Tom sets up a meeting with his mistress, Myrtle, the wife of a garage mechanic named Wilson. Nick attends a party with Tom and Myrtle; Tom hits his mistress when she mentions Daisy’s name.

In the summer, Gatsby throws a number of lavish parties at his mansion. He meets Jordan Baker again and the two are drawn to each other. Nobody seems to know the real Gatsby, or to be able to offer much reliable information about his identity. Who is he?

Gatsby befriends Nick and drives him to New York. Gatsby explains that he wants Nick to do him a favour: Jordan Baker tells him that Daisy was Gatsby’s first love and he is still in love with her: it’s the whole reason Gatsby moved to West Egg, so he could be near Daisy, even though she’s married to Tom. Gatsby wants Nick to invite both him and Daisy round for tea.

When they have tea together, Gatsby feels hopeful that he can recover his past life with Daisy before she was married. However, he knows that Daisy is unlikely to leave Tom for him. When she expresses a dislike for his noisy parties, he scales down his serving staff at his house and tones down the partying.

When they are all at lunch together, Tom realises that Daisy still loves Gatsby. Tom goads Gatsby as he realises he’s losing his mistress and, now, his wife. While staying together in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, Daisy tells Tom that she loves both men.

On their way back home, Gatsby’s car accidentally hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, who has rushed out into the road after her husband found out about her affair. Tom finds her body and is distraught. Nick learns that Daisy, not Gatsby, was driving the car when Myrtle was killed.

Gatsby also tells Nick that he had built himself up from nothing: he was a poor man named James Gatz who made himself rich through the help of a corrupt millionaire named Dan Cody.

The next day, Nick finds Gatsby dead in his own swimming pool: Wilson, after his wife was killed by Gatsby’s car, turned up at Gatsby’s mansion to exact his revenge. Wilson’s body is nearby in the grass. The novel ends with Nick winding up Gatsby’s affairs and estate, before learning that Tom told Wilson where he could find Gatsby so he could take revenge.

The Great Gatsby : analysis

The Great Gatsby is the best-known novel of the Jazz Age, that period in American history that had its heyday in the 1920s. Parties, bootleg cocktails (it’s worth remembering that alcohol was illegal in the US at this time, under Prohibition between 1920 and 1933), and jazz music (of course) all characterised a time when Americans were gradually recovering from the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic (1918-20).

One reason The Great Gatsby continues to invite close analysis is the clever way Fitzgerald casts his novel as neither out-and-out criticism of Jazz Age ‘values’ nor as an unequivocal endorsement of them. Gatsby’s parties may be a mere front, a way of coping with Daisy’s previous rejection of him and of trying to win her back, but Fitzgerald – and his sympathetic narrator, Nick Carraway – do not ridicule Gatsby’s behaviour as wholly shallow or vacuous.

Fitzgerald’s choice to have a first-person narrator, rather than a more detached and impersonal ‘omniscient’ third-person narrator, is also significant. Nick Carraway is closer to Gatsby than an impersonal narrator would be, yet the fact that Nick narrates Gatsby’s story, rather than Gatsby telling his own story, nevertheless provides Nick with some detachment, as well as a degree of innocence and ignorance over Gatsby’s identity and past.

Nick Carraway is both part of Gatsby’s world and yet also, at the same time, an observer from the side-lines, someone who is not rich and extravagant as many in Gatsby’s circle are, yet someone who is ushered into that world by an enthusiastic Jay Gatsby, who sees in Carraway a man in whom he can confide.

Nevertheless, Fitzgerald deftly sets the world of West Egg, with Gatsby’s mock-chateau and swimming pool, against the rather grittier and grimier reality for most Americans at the time. If Gatsby himself symbolises the American dream – he has made himself a success, absurdly wealthy with a huge house and a whole retinue of servants, having started out in poverty – then there are plenty of reminders in The Great Gatsby that ‘the American dream’ remains just that, a dream, for the majority of Americans:

About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.

This is the grey, bleak, industrial reality for millions of Americans: not for them is the world of parties, quasi-enchanted gardens full of cocktails and exotic foods, hydroplanes, and expensive motorcars.

Yet the two worlds are destined to meet on a personal level: the Valley of Ashes (believed to be modelled on Corona dump in Queens, New York, and inspired by T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land ) is where Wilson’s garage is located. The dual tragedy of Gatsby’s and Wilson’s deaths at the end of the novel symbolises the meeting of these two worlds.

The fact that Gatsby is innocent of the two crimes or sins which motivate Wilson – his wife’s adultery with Tom and Daisy’s killing of Myrtle with Gatsby’s car – hardly matters: it shows the subtle interconnectedness of these people’s lives, despite their socioeconomic differences.

What’s more, as Ian Ousby notes in his Introduction to Fifty American Novels (Reader’s Guides) , there is more than a touch of vulgarity about Gatsby’s lifestyle: his house is a poor imitation of a genuine French chateau, but he is no aristocrat; his car is ‘ridiculous’; and his very nickname, ‘the Great Gatsby’, makes him sound like a circus entertainer (perhaps a magician above all else, which is apt given the magical and enchanted way Carraway describes the atmosphere and detail at Gatsby’s parties).

And ultimately, Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle fails to deliver happiness to him, too: he doesn’t manage to win Daisy back to him, so at the same time Fitzgerald is not holding up Gatsby’s ‘success’ uncritically to us.

Is Gatsby black? Although he is known for having been played in film adaptations by Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio, and the novel does not state that Gatsby is an African American, the scholar Carlyle V. Thompson has suggested that certain clues or codes in the novel strongly hint at Gatsby being a black American who has had to make his own way in the world, rising from a poor socio-economic background, and not fully accepted by other people in his social circle because of racial discrimination.

Whether we accept or reject this theory, it is an intriguing idea that, although Fitzgerald does not support this theory in the novel, that may have been deliberate: to conceal Gatsby’s blackness but, as it were, hide it in plain sight.

In the last analysis, The Great Gatsby sums up the Jazz Age, but through offering a tragedy, Fitzgerald shows that the American dream is founded on ashes – both the industrial dirt and toil of millions of Americans for whom the dream will never materialise, and the ashes of dead love affairs which Gatsby, for all of his quasi-magical properties, will never bring fully back to life.

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10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby”

I regret the several hours wasted in slogging through this low-prole distraction.

You might want to start with something like Dick and Jane.

One of my favorite novels. I have always loved this book. No matter how may times I read it, more is revealed.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels. Thank you for the detailed analysis! I can also add that Fitzgerald includes lots of symbols in the novel. To my mind, one of the most vivid symbols is a giant billboard with the face of Doctor TJ Eckleburg which is towering over the Valley of Ashes. These eyes are watching the dismal grey scene of poverty and decay. I guess the billboard symbolizes the eyes of God staring at the Americans and judging them. In case seomeone is interested in symbols in The Great Gatsby, there is a nice article about it. Here: https://custom-writing.org/blog/symbols-in-the-great-gatsby

While I could imagine and accept a modern film version of Gatsby as black, I really can’t espouse the notion that Fitzgerald had that in mind. If you know anything about American society in the 1920s, you’d know that you didn’t have to be black or of some other minority to be outside the winner’s circle. US society may still have tons of problems accepting that all people are created equal, but back then, they weren’t even thinking about blacks et al very much. They were quite happy to ostracize Italians, Irish, Catholics, etc, without batting an eye.

This is such a widely misunderstood book, by scholars as well as regulars.

Daisy was the victim of love. She would’ve married Jay while he was in the army. Also, Jay’s so-called symbolic “reaching” is nothing more than him trying to understand self love, to attain it, to unravel the “mystery! ” of it. But he never realizes he’s totally in love with himself, which is his biggest issue other than preying on Daisy’s real love.

And Nick ” Carraway” …. Care-a-way, care-a-way… What self-appointed moral man witnesses nakedly two married plotters sceam against a neighbor they like, or any person in serious need of legal, emotion aid, AND DOES NOTHING. Yeah, care a way, Nick, just not your way! And Come On!! who the hell doesn’t judge others….that’s the ENTIRE POINT OF EVERY BOOK AND LIFE.

WHAT preyed on Gatsby preys upon every person everywhere. Influences of life and choices we make because if them. Gatsby’s such an interesting, centralized , beloved character because he represents everyone’s apparent embracement of the childhood notion, ” we can have it all and make our own consequences, and if not, let’s see if I can manipulate time successfully. Gatsby’s us the full human demonstration of self love at all costs and quite deliberately finding a way disguise and masquerade and mutate and thus deny this very fact while simultaneously trying to make it MAGICAL AND MYSTICAL.

ARTISTS, from geniuses to so-called laypeople, are all simple people with very basic emotions. That’s where ALL starts. They are not Gods, nor do they desire misunderstanding. Frankly, they just wanna see if you have any common sense. Once you get passed that, all literature resembles EVERY aspect of life.

A terrific novel and not bad adaptation as a movie by DiCaprio, I thought! While some of the comments on here are a little excessive, there is much to be said for the symbolism in the book. I rather like the fact that ‘West Egg’ and ‘East Egg’ surely hints at questioning who is the ‘good egg’ and who is ‘the bad egg’. The place names are so unusual that this must be deliberate (‘bad egg’ has been around since at least 1855) and we’re left to wonder just what is good and bad here. No character comes out smelling of roses in this story, which – for me – makes the novel utterly compelling.

Well said, Ken. It’s the subtlety of the characterisation which makes it for me – I know a lot of critics and readers praise the prose style, but I think it’s the way Fitzgerald uses Carraway’s narration to reveal the multifaceted (and complex) nature of Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and even himself that is so masterly. I’ve just finished analysing the opening paragraphs of the novel and will post that up soon!

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Essays on The Great Gatsby

The great gatsby essay topic examples.

Whether you want to analyze the American Dream, compare and contrast characters, vividly describe settings and characters, persuade readers with your viewpoints, or share personal experiences related to the story, these essay ideas provide a diverse perspective on the themes and complexities within the book.

Argumentative Essays

Argumentative essays require you to analyze and present arguments related to the novel. Here are some topic examples:

• 1. Argue whether the American Dream is achievable or illusory, as depicted in The Great Gatsby .
• 2. Analyze the moral ambiguity of Jay Gatsby and the consequences of his relentless pursuit of the American Dream.

Example Introduction Paragraph for an Argumentative Essay: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a tale of ambition, decadence, and the elusive American Dream. This essay delves into the complex theme of the American Dream, exploring whether it remains attainable or has transformed into a tantalizing illusion, luring individuals like Jay Gatsby into its enigmatic embrace.

Example Conclusion Paragraph for an Argumentative Essay: In conclusion, the analysis of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby invites us to reevaluate our perceptions of success and fulfillment. As we contemplate the fate of Jay Gatsby and the characters entangled in his world, we are challenged to define our own version of the American Dream and the sacrifices it may entail.

Compare and Contrast Essays

Compare and contrast essays enable you to examine similarities and differences within the novel or between it and other literary works. Consider these topics:

• 1. Compare and contrast the characters of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, exploring their contrasting worldviews and motivations.
• 2. Analyze the similarities and differences between the portrayal of the Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises .

Example Introduction Paragraph for a Compare and Contrast Essay: The characters and settings in The Great Gatsby and other literary works offer a rich tapestry for comparison and contrast. This essay embarks on a journey to compare and contrast the enigmatic Jay Gatsby and the brash Tom Buchanan, delving into their contrasting values, aspirations, and roles within the novel.

Example Conclusion Paragraph for a Compare and Contrast Essay: In conclusion, the comparison and contrast of Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan illuminate the divergent paths individuals can take in pursuit of their desires. As we consider the consequences of their choices, we are prompted to reflect on the complexities of ambition and morality.

Descriptive Essays

Descriptive essays allow you to vividly depict settings, characters, or events within the novel. Here are some topic ideas:

• 1. Describe the opulent parties at Gatsby's mansion, emphasizing the decadence and extravagance of the Jazz Age.
• 2. Paint a detailed portrait of Daisy Buchanan, focusing on her beauty, charm, and the allure she holds for Gatsby.

Example Introduction Paragraph for a Descriptive Essay: The Great Gatsby immerses readers in the lavish world of the Roaring Twenties. This essay embarks on a descriptive exploration of the extravagant parties at Gatsby's mansion, capturing the opulence and hedonism of the era, as well as the illusions they create.

Example Conclusion Paragraph for a Descriptive Essay: In conclusion, the descriptive portrayal of Gatsby's parties serves as a vivid snapshot of the Jazz Age's excesses and the fleeting nature of indulgence. Through this exploration, we are reminded of the allure and transience of the materialistic pursuits that captivated the characters of the novel.

Persuasive Essays

Persuasive essays involve arguing a point of view related to the novel. Consider these persuasive topics:

• 1. Persuade your readers that Nick Carraway is the moral compass of the story, serving as the voice of reason and morality.
• 2. Argue for or against the idea that Gatsby's love for Daisy is genuine and selfless, despite his questionable methods.

Example Introduction Paragraph for a Persuasive Essay: The Great Gatsby presents a tapestry of characters with complex moral dilemmas. This persuasive essay asserts that Nick Carraway emerges as the moral compass of the story, guiding readers through the labyrinth of decadence and disillusionment in the Jazz Age.

Example Conclusion Paragraph for a Persuasive Essay: In conclusion, the persuasive argument regarding Nick Carraway's role as the moral compass underscores the importance of ethical navigation in a world characterized by excess and moral ambiguity. As we reflect on his influence, we are compelled to consider the enduring value of integrity and virtue.

Narrative Essays

Narrative essays offer you the opportunity to tell a story or share personal experiences related to the themes of the novel. Explore these narrative essay topics:

• 1. Narrate a personal experience where you encountered the allure of materialism and extravagance, similar to the characters in The Great Gatsby .
• 2. Imagine yourself as a character in the Jazz Age and recount your interactions with Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.

Example Introduction Paragraph for a Narrative Essay: The themes of The Great Gatsby resonate with the allure of a bygone era. This narrative essay delves into a personal encounter with the seductive pull of materialism and extravagance, drawing parallels to the characters' experiences in the novel.

Example Conclusion Paragraph for a Narrative Essay: In conclusion, the narrative of my personal encounter with the allure of materialism reminds us of the timeless nature of the themes in The Great Gatsby . As we navigate our own desires and ambitions, we are encouraged to contemplate the balance between aspiration and morality.

Differences and Similarities Between Tom and Gatsby

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The Portrayal of Female Characters in F.s. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

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April 10, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Novel; Fiction, Tragedy

Jay Gatsby , Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, Jordan Baker, Meyer Wolfsheim, George B. Wilson, Trimalchio, Mr. Gatz

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote "The Great Gatsby" with multiple motivations in mind. Firstly, he sought to critique the materialistic excesses and moral decay of the Roaring Twenties, a period of post-World War I prosperity. Fitzgerald aimed to expose the disillusionment and hollowness behind the glittering facade of the American Dream. Additionally, he drew inspiration from his own experiences and observations of the wealthy elite and their decadent lifestyles. Through the character of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald explored themes of unrequited love, longing, and the pursuit of an unattainable ideal. Ultimately, Fitzgerald's intent was to capture the essence of an era and offer a profound commentary on the human condition.

The story revolves around Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a married woman with whom he had a romantic past. Narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man from the Midwest, the novel delves into the opulent and extravagant lives of the wealthy elite in Long Island. As Gatsby throws lavish parties in the hope of rekindling his relationship with Daisy, the narrative explores themes of love, wealth, illusion, and the disillusionment that comes with the pursuit of the American Dream.

The American Dream , decadence, idealism, resistance to changes, social excess, caution.

The influence of "The Great Gatsby" extends far beyond its initial publication in 1925. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel has become a literary classic, revered for its exploration of themes such as wealth, love, and the elusive American Dream. It remains relevant due to its timeless portrayal of human desires, societal decadence, and the consequences of relentless pursuit. The book's vivid characters and atmospheric prose have inspired countless writers and artists, shaping the landscape of American literature. With its commentary on the dark underbelly of the Jazz Age, "The Great Gatsby" continues to captivate readers, serving as a cautionary tale and a poignant reflection of the human condition.

1. During F. Scott Fitzgerald's lifetime, approximately 25,000 copies of the book were sold. However, since then, it has gained immense popularity, selling over 25 million copies and establishing itself as one of the most renowned American novels. 2. The Great Gatsby did not have its original title as the author considered various options, ranging from "Under the Red, White and Blue" to "The High-Bouncing Lover." These alternative titles were potentially revealing too much about the content prematurely. 3. In 1926, just a year after its publication, the book was adapted into a film, demonstrating its quick transition from page to screen. 4. Fitzgerald's cause of death is believed to have been tuberculosis rather than a heart attack. Sadly, he passed away at the age of 44. 5. The price of this famous novel at the time of its publication in 1925 was $2, representing its value in that era. 6. The Great Gatsby did not immediately receive critical acclaim upon release. However, it has since garnered recognition and praise, becoming a significant literary work.

"The Great Gatsby" has made a significant impact on various forms of media, captivating audiences across generations. The novel has been adapted into several films, with notable versions including the 1974 adaptation starring Robert Redford and the 2013 adaptation featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. These cinematic interpretations have brought the story to life visually, further immersing audiences in the opulent world of Jay Gatsby. Additionally, the novel has been referenced and alluded to in countless songs, television shows, and even video games, solidifying its cultural significance. Its themes of love, wealth, and the pursuit of the American Dream continue to resonate and inspire creative works in popular culture.

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.’” “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.” “So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.” “I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

Studying "The Great Gatsby" holds great importance due to its enduring relevance and literary significance. The novel offers profound insights into themes such as wealth, love, social class, and the corruption of the American Dream. Its exploration of the Jazz Age exposes the allure and emptiness of a materialistic society, making it a compelling study of human desires and societal decay. F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterful prose and symbolic imagery provide rich material for analyzing character development, narrative techniques, and social commentary. Moreover, delving into the novel's historical context allows for a deeper understanding of the cultural and societal shifts of the 1920s.

The inclusion of "The Great Gatsby" as an essay topic for college students stems from its exploration of themes like the American Dream, the juxtaposition of poverty and wealth, and the destructive allure of corruption. The character of Gatsby embodies the American spirit and can be paralleled to contemporary individuals fixated on materialism and fame as measures of romantic success. Furthermore, this literary masterpiece holds a significant place in American literature, as F. Scott Fitzgerald skillfully weaves socio-cultural elements into each sentence, providing a timeless portrayal of American life that resonates across generations. The choice to analyze and write about "The Great Gatsby" allows students to delve into these thought-provoking themes and examine their relevance to society.

1. Stallman, R. W. (1955). Conrad and The Great Gatsby. Twentieth Century Literature, 1(1), 5–12. (https://doi.org/10.2307/441023) 2. John Jerrim, Lindsey Macmillan, (2015). Income Inequality, Intergenerational Mobility, and the Great Gatsby Curve: Is Education the Key?, Social Forces, Volume 94, Issue 2. (https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/94/2/505/2583794) 3. Robert C. Hauhart (2013) Religious Language and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby’s Valley of Ashes, ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 26:3 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0895769X.2013.798233) 4. Burnam, T. (1952). The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg: A Re-Examination of “The Great Gatsby.” College English, 14(1), 7–12. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/371821) 5. Tom Phillips (2018) Passing for White in THE GREAT GATSBY: A Spectroscopic Analysis of Jordan Baker, The Explicator, 76:3. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00144940.2018.1489769?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab) 6. Matterson, S. (1990). The Great Gatsby and Social Class. In: The Great Gatsby. The Critics Debate. Palgrave, London. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-20768-8_9) 7. Licence, A. (2008). Jay Gatsby: martyr of a materialistic society: Amy Licence considers religious elements in The Great Gatsby. The English Review, 18(3), 24+. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA173676222&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=09558950&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E5a84816e) 8. Khodamoradpour, Marjan and Anushiravani, Alireza, (2017) Playing the Old Tunes: A Fiskean Analysis of Baz Luhrmann's 2013 Cinematic Adaptation of the Great Gatsby. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Volume 71. (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3020752) 9. Anderson, H. (1968). THE RICH BUNCH IN" THE GREAT GATSBY". Southern Quarterly, 6(2), 163. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/6a9e704a476d873aada2d2529821b95a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2029886)

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The Great Gatsby

F. scott fitzgerald, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The American Dream—that hard work can lead one from rags to riches—has been a core facet of American identity since its inception. Settlers came west to America from Europe seeking wealth and freedom. The pioneers headed west for the same reason. The Great Gatsby shows the tide turning east, as hordes flock to New York City seeking stock market fortunes. The Great Gatsby portrays this shift as a symbol of the American Dream's corruption. It's no longer a vision of building a life; it's just about getting rich.

Gatsby symbolizes both the corrupted Dream and the original uncorrupted Dream. He sees wealth as the solution to his problems, pursues money via shady schemes, and reinvents himself so much that he becomes hollow, disconnected from his past. Yet Gatsby's corrupt dream of wealth is motivated by an incorruptible love for Daisy . Gatsby's failure does not prove the folly of the American Dream—rather it proves the folly of short-cutting that dream by allowing corruption and materialism to prevail over hard work, integrity, and real love. And the dream of love that remains at Gatsby's core condemns nearly every other character in the novel, all of whom are empty beyond just their lust for money.

The American Dream ThemeTracker

The American Dream Quotes in The Great Gatsby

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, best summary and analysis: the great gatsby, chapter 7.

Book Guides

Chapter 7 marks the climax of The Great Gatsby . Twice as long as every other chapter, it first ratchets up the tension of the Gatsby-Daisy-Tom triangle to a breaking point in a claustrophobic scene at the Plaza Hotel, and then ends with the grizzly gut punch of Myrtle’s death.

Read our full summary of The Great Gatsby Chapter 7 to see how all dreams die, only to be replaced with a grim and cynical reality.

Image: Helmut Ellgaard /Wikipedia

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book.

To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

The Great Gatsby : Chapter 7 Summary

Suddenly one Saturday, Gatsby doesn't throw a party. When Nick comes over to see why, Gatsby has a new butler who rudely sends Nick away.

It turns out that Gatsby has replaced all of his servants with ones sent over by Wolfshiem. Gatsby explains that this is because Daisy comes over every afternoon to continue their affair—he needs them to be discreet.

Gatsby invites Nick to Daisy's house for lunch. The plan is for Daisy and Gatsby to tell Tom about their relationship, and for Daisy to leave Tom.

The next day it is extremely hot. Nick and Gatsby show up to have lunch with Daisy, Jordan, and Tom. Tom is on the phone, seemingly arguing with someone about the car. Daisy assumes that he is only pretending, and that he is actually talking to Myrtle.

While Tom is out of the room, Daisy kisses Gatsby on the mouth.

The nanny brings Tom and Daisy's daughter into the room and Gatsby is shocked to realize that the child actually exists and is real.

Tom and Gatsby go outside, and Gatsby points out that it's his house is directly across the bay from theirs. Everyone is restless and nervous.

From the way Daisy looks at and talks to Gatsby, Tom suddenly figures out that she and Gatsby are having an affair.

Daisy asks to go into Manhattan and Tom agrees, insisting that they go immediately. He gets a bottle of whiskey to bring with them. There is a short, but crucial, argument about who will take which car. In the end, Tom takes Nick and Jordan in Gatsby's car while Gatsby takes Daisy in Tom's car.

On the drive, Tom explains to Nick and Jordan that he's been investigating Gatsby, which Jordan laughs off. They stop for gas at Wilson's gas station. Tom shows off Gatsby's car, pretending it's his own. Wilson complains about being sick and again asks for Tom’s car because he needs money fast (the assumption is that he will resell it at a profit).

Wilson explains the he's figured out that Myrtle is cheating on him, so he's taking her the way from New York to a different state. Glad that Wilson hasn't figured out who Myrtle is having the affair with, Tom says that he will sell Wilson his car as he promised. As they drive off, Nick sees Myrtle in an upstairs window staring at Tom and Jordan, whom she assumes to be his wife. (It’s critical to realize that Myrtle now also associates Tom with this yellow car.)

It's still crazy hot when they get to Manhattan. Jordan suggests going to the movies, but they end up getting a suite at the Plaza Hotel. The hotel room is stifling, and they can hear the sounds of a wedding going on downstairs.

The conversation is tense. Tom starts picking at Gatsby, but Daisy defends him. Tom accuses Gatsby of not actually being an Oxford man. Gatsby explains that he only went to Oxford for a short time because of a special program for officers after the war. This plausible-sounding explanation fills Nick with confidence about Gatsby.

Suddenly Gatsby decides to tell Tom his version of the truth—that Daisy never loved Tom but has always only loved Gatsby. Tom calls Gatsby crazy and says that of course Daisy loves him—and that he loves her too even if he does cheat on her all the time.

Gatsby demands that Daisy tell Tom that she has never loved him. Daisy can’t bring herself to do this, and instead said that she has loved them both. This crushes Gatsby.

Tom starts revealing what he knows about Gatsby from his investigation. It turns out that Gatsby's money comes from illegal sales of alcohol in drugstores, just as Tom had predicted when he first met him. Tom has a friend who tried to go into business with Gatsby and Wolfshiem. Through him, Tom knows that bootlegging is only part of the criminal activity that Gatsby is involved in.

These revelations cause Daisy to shut down, and no matter how much Gatsby tries to defend himself, she is disillusioned. She asks Tom to take her home. Tom's last power play is to tell Gatsby to take Daisy home instead, knowing that leaving them alone together now does not pose any threat to him or his marriage.

Gatsby and Daisy drive home in Gatsby’s car. Tom, Nick, and Jordan drive home together in Tom's car.

The narration now switches to Nick repeating evidence given at an inquest (a legal proceeding to gather facts surrounding a death) by Michaelis, who runs a coffee shop next to Wilson's garage.

That evening Wilson had explained to Michaelis that he had locked up Myrtle in order to keep an eye on her until they moved away in a couple of days. Michaelis was shocked to hear this, because usually Wilson was a meek man. When Michaelis left, he heard Myrtle and Wilson fighting. Then Myrtle ran out into the street toward a car coming from New York. The car hit her and drove off, and by the time Michaelis reached her on the ground, she was dead.

The narration switches back to Nick's point of view, as Tom, Nick, and Jordan are driving back from Manhattan. They pull up to the accident site. At first, Tom jokes about Wilson getting some business at last, but when he sees the situation is serious, he stops the car and runs over to Myrtle's body.

Tom asks a policeman for details of the accident. When he realizes that witnesses can identify the yellow car that hit Myrtle, he worries that Wilson, who saw him in that car earlier that afternoon, will finger him to the police. Tom grabs Wilson and tells him that the yellow car that hit Myrtle is not Tom's, and that he was only driving it before giving it back to its owner.

As they drive away from the scene, Tom sobs in the car.

Back at his house, Tom invites Nick and Jordan inside. Nick is sickened by the whole thing and turns to go. Jordan also asks Nick to come inside. When he refuses again, she goes in.

As Nick is walking away, he sees Gatsby lurking in the bushes. Nick suddenly sees him as a criminal. As they discuss what happened, Nick realizes that it was actually Daisy who was driving the car, meaning that it was Daisy who killed Myrtle. Gatsby makes it sound like she had to choose between getting into a head-on collision with another car coming the other way on the road or hitting Myrtle, and at the last second chose to hit Myrtle.

Gatsby seems to have no feelings at all about the dead woman, and instead only worries about what Daisy and how she will react. Gatsby says that he will take the blame for driving the car. Gatsby says that he is lurking in the dark to make sure that Daisy is safe from Tom, who he worries might treat her badly when he finds out what happened.

Nick goes back to the house to investigate, and sees Tom and Daisy having an intimate conspiratorial moment together in the kitchen. It's clear that once again Gatsby has fundamentally misunderstood Tom and Daisy's relationship. Nick leaves Gatsby alone.

Key Chapter 7 Quotes

Then she remembered the heat and sat down guiltily on the couch just as a freshly laundered nurse leading a little girl came into the room.

"Bles-sed pre-cious," she crooned, holding out her arms. "Come to your own mother that loves you."

The child, relinquished by the nurse, rushed across the room and rooted shyly into her mother's dress.

"The Bles-sed pre-cious! Did mother get powder on your old yellowy hair? Stand up now, and say How-de-do."

Gatsby and I in turn leaned down and took the small reluctant hand. Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before. (7.48-52)

This is our first and only chance to see Daisy performing motherhood . And "performing" is the right word, since everything about Daisy's actions here rings a little false and her cutesy sing song a little bit like an act. The presence of the nurse makes it clear that, like many upper-class women of the time, Daisy does not actually do any child rearing .

At the same time, this is the exact moment when Gatsby is delusional dreams start breaking down . The shock and surprise that he experiences when he realizes that Daisy really does have a daughter with Tom show how little he has thought about the fact the Daisy has had a life of her own outside of him for the last five years. The existence of the child is proof of Daisy's separate life, and Gatsby simply cannot handle then she is not exactly as he has pictured her to be.

Finally, here we can see how Pammy is being bred for her life as a future "beautiful little fool", as Daisy put it . As Daisy’s makeup rubs onto Pammy's hair, Daisy prompts her reluctant daughter to be friendly to two strange men.

"What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon," cried Daisy, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?"

"Don't be morbid," Jordan said. "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."(7.74-75)

Comparing and contrasting Daisy and Jordan ) is one of the most common assignments that you will get when studying this novel. This very famous quotation is a great place to start.

Daisy's attempt at a joke reveals her fundamental boredom and restlessness. Despite the fact that she has social standing, wealth, and whatever material possessions she could want, she is not happy in her endlessly monotonous and repetitive life. This existential ennui goes a long way to helping explain why she seizes on Gatsby as an escape from routine.

On the other hand, Jordan is a pragmatic and realistic person, who grabs opportunities and who sees possibilities and even repetitive cyclical moments of change. For example here, although fall and winter are most often linked to sleep and death, whereas it is spring that is usually seen as the season of rebirth, for Jordan any change brings with it the chance for reinvention and new beginnings.

"She's got an indiscreet voice," I remarked. "It's full of——"

I hesitated.

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.

That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . . (7.103-106)

Here we are getting to the root of what it is really that attracts Gatsby so much to Daisy.

Nick notes that the way Daisy speaks to Gatsby is enough to reveal their relationship to Tom. Once again we see the powerful attraction of Daisy's voice. For Nick, this voice is full of "indiscretion," an interesting word that at the same time brings to mind the revelation of secrets and the disclosure of illicit sexual activity. Nick has used this word in this connotation before—when describing Myrtle in Chapter 2 he uses the word "discreet" several times to explain the precautions she takes to hide her affair with Tom.

But for Gatsby, Daisy's voice does not hold this sexy allure, as much as it does the promise of wealth , which has been his overriding ambition and goal for most of his life. To him, her voice marks her as a prize to be collected. This impression is further underscored by the fairy tale imagery that follows the connection of Daisy's voice to money. Much like princesses who is the end of fairy tales are given as a reward to plucky heroes, so too Daisy is Gatsby's winnings, an indication that he has succeeded.

"You think I'm pretty dumb, don't you?" he suggested. "Perhaps I am, but I have a—almost a second sight, sometimes, that tells me what to do. Maybe you don't believe that, but science——" (7.123)

Nick never sees Tom as anything other than a villain ; however, it is interesting that only Tom immediately sees Gatsby for the fraud that he turns out to be . Almost from the get-go, Tom calls it that Gatsby's money comes from bootlegging or some other criminal activity. It is almost as though Tom's life of lies gives him special insight into detecting the lies of others.

The relentless beating heat was beginning to confuse me and I had a bad moment there before I realized that so far his suspicions hadn't alighted on Tom. He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world and the shock had made him physically sick. I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before—and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guilty—as if he had just got some poor girl with child. (7.160)

You will also often be asked to compare Tom and Wilson , two characters who share some plot details in common.This passage, which explicitly contrasts these two men's reactions to finding out their wives are having affairs , is a great place to start.

• Tom’s response to Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is to immediately do everything to display his power. He forces a trip to Manhattan, demands that Gatsby explain himself, systematically dismantles the careful image and mythology that Gatsby has created, and finally makes Gatsby drive Daisy home to demonstrate how little he has to fear from them being alone together.
• Wilson also tries to display power. But he is so unused to wielding it that his best effort is to lock Myrtle up and then to listen to her emasculating insults and provocations. Moreover, rather than relaxing under this power trip, Wilson becomes physically ill, feeling guilty both about his part in driving his wife away and about manhandling her into submission.
• Finally, it is interesting that Nick renders these reactions as health-related. Whose response does Nick view as "sick" and whose as "well"? It is tempting to connect Wilson’s bodily response to the word "sick," but the ambiguity is purposeful. Is it sicker in this situation to take a power-hungry delight in eviscerating a rival, Tom-style, or to be overcome on a psychosomatic level, like Wilson?

"Self control!" repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out. . . . Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white."

Flushed with his impassioned gibberish he saw himself standing alone on the last barrier of civilization.

"We're all white here," murmured Jordan.

"I know I'm not very popular. I don't give big parties. I suppose you've got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends—in the modern world."

Angry as I was, as we all were, I was tempted to laugh whenever he opened his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete. (7.229-233)

Nick is happy whenever he gets to demonstrate how undereducated and dumb Tom actually is . Here, Tom’s anger at Daisy and Gatsby is somehow transformed into a self-pitying and faux righteous rant about miscegenation, loose morals, and the decay of stalwart institutions. We see the connection between Jordan and Nick when both of them puncture Tom’s pompous balloon : Jordan points out that race isn’t really at issue at the moment, and Nick laughs at the hypocrisy of a womanizer like Tom suddenly lamenting his wife’s lack of prim propriety.

"She never loved you, do you hear?" he cried. "She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!" (7.241)

Gatsby throws caution to the wind and reveals the story that he has been telling himself about Daisy all this time. In his mind, Daisy has been pining for him as much as he has been longing for her, and he has been able to explain her marriage to himself simply by eliding any notion that she might have her own hopes, dreams, ambitions, and motivations. Gatsby has been propelled for the last five years by the idea that he has access to what is in Daisy's heart. However, we can see that a dream built on this kind of shifting sand is at best wishful thinking and at worst willful self-delusion.

"Daisy, that's all over now," he said earnestly. "It doesn't matter any more. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it's all wiped out forever." ...

She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing—and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late….

"Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now—isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once—but I loved you too."

Gatsby's eyes opened and closed.

"You loved me too?" he repeated. (7.254-266)

Gatsby wants nothing less than that Daisy erase the last five years of her life. He is unwilling to accept the idea that Daisy has had feelings for someone other than him, that she has had a history that does not involve him, and that she has not spent every single second of every day wondering when he would come back into her life. His absolutism is a form of emotional blackmail.

For all Daisy's evident weaknesses, it is a testament to her psychological strength that she is simply unwilling to recreate herself, her memories, and her emotions in Gatsby's image. She could easily at this point say that she has never loved Tom, but this would not be true, and she does not want to give up her independence of mind. Unlike Gatsby, who against all evidence to the contrary believes that you can repeat the past, Daisy wants to know that there is a future. She wants Gatsby to be the solution to her worries about each successive future day, rather than an imprecation about the choices she has made to get to this point.

At the same time, it's key to note Nick’s realization that Daisy "had never intended on doing anything at all." Daisy has never planned to leave Tom. We've known this ever since the first time we saw them at the end of Chapter 1 , when he realized that they were cemented together in their dysfunction.

It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room. (7.292)

The appearance of Daisy's daughter and Daisy’s declaration that at some point in her life she loved Tom have both helped to crush Gatsby's obsession with his dream. In just the same way, Tom's explanations about who Gatsby really is and what is behind his facade have broken Daisy's infatuation. Take note of the language here— as Daisy is withdrawing from Gatsby, we come back to the image of Gatsby with his arms outstretched, trying to grab something that is just out of reach . In this case it's not just Daisy herself, but also his dream of being with her inside his perfect memory.

"Beat me!" he heard her cry. "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!" (7.314)

Myrtle fights by provoking and taunting . Here, she is pointing out Wilson’s weak and timid nature by egging him on to treat her the way that Tom did when he punched her earlier in the novel.

However, before we draw whatever conclusions we can about Myrtle from this exclamation, it’s worthwhile to think about the context of this remark.

• First, we are getting this speech third-hand. This is Nick telling us what Michaelis described overhearing, so Myrtle’s words have gone through a double male filter.
• Second, Myrtle’s words stand in isolation. We have no idea what Wilson has been saying to her to provoke this attack. What we do know is that however "powerless" Wilson might be, he still has power enough to imprison his wife in their house and to unilaterally uproot and move her several states away against her will. Neither Nick nor Michaelis remarks on whether either of these exercises of unilateral power over Myrtle is appropriate or fair—it is simply expected that this is what a husband can do to a wife.

So what do we make of the fact that Myrtle was trying to verbally emasculate her husband? Maybe yelling at him is her only recourse in a life where she has no actual ability to control her life or bodily integrity.

The "death car" as the newspapers called it, didn't stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend. Michaelis wasn't even sure of its color—he told the first policeman that it was light green. The other car, the one going toward New York, came to rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick, dark blood with the dust.

Michaelis and this man reached her first but when they had torn open her shirtwaist still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long. (7.316-317)

The stark contrast here between the oddly ghostly nature of the car that hits Myrtle and the visceral, gruesome, explicit imagery of what happens to her body after it is hit is very striking. The car almost doesn’t seem real—it comes out of the darkness like an avenging spirit and disappears, Michaelis cannot tell what color it is. Meanwhile, Myrtle’s corpse is described in detail and is palpably physical and present.

This treatment of Myrtle’s body might be one place to go when you are asked to compare Daisy and Myrtle in class . Daisy’s body is never even described, beyond a gentle indication that she prefers white dresses that are flouncy and loose. On the other hand, every time that we see Myrtle in the novel, her body is physically assaulted or appropriated. Tom initially picks her up by pressing his body inappropriately into hers on the train station platform. Before her party, Tom has sex with her while Nick (a man who is a stranger to Myrtle) waits in the next room, and then Tom ends the night by punching her in the face. Finally, she is restrained by her husband inside her house and then run over.

Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement.

They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together. (7.409-410)

And so, the promise that Daisy and Tom are a dysfunctional couple that somehow makes it work (Nick saw this at the end of Chapter 1 ) is fulfilled. For careful readers of the novel, this conclusion should have been clear from the get-go. Daisy complains about Tom, and Tom serially cheats on Daisy, but at the end of the day, they are unwilling to forgo the privileges their life entitles them to.

This moment of truth has stripped Daisy and Tom down to the basics. They are in the least showy room of their mansion, sitting with simple and unpretentious food, and they have been stripped of their veneer. Their honesty makes what they are doing—conspiring to get away with murder, basically—completely transparent. And it is the fact that they can tolerate this level of honesty in each other besides each being kind of a terrible person that keeps them together.

Compare their readiness to forgive each other anything—even murder!—with Gatsby’s insistence that it’s his way or no way.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 7 Analysis

It's no surprise that this very long, emotional, and shocking chapter is laced through with the themes of The Great Gatsby . Let's take a look.

Overarching Themes

Morality and Ethics. In this chapter, suspicion of crime is everywhere:

• Gatsby’s new butler has a "villainous" (7.2) face
• a woman worries that Nick is out to steal her purse on the train
• Gatsby lurks around outside the Buchanans’ mansion like "he was going to rob the house in a moment" (7.384)
• Daisy and Tom sit and conspire together at the kitchen table

This air of the illegal heightens the actual crimes that take place or are revealed in the chapter:

• Gatsby is a bootlegger (or worse)
• Daisy kills Myrtle
• Gatsby hides the car with its evidence of the accident
• Daisy and Tom decide to get away with murder

This descent into the dark side of the Wild East (contrasted with Nick's version of the calm and strictly above-board Middle West) reveals the novel’s perspective on the excesses of the time period. It is interesting that the vast majority of the crime or near crime that is described is theft—the taking of someone else’s property. The same desires that spur the ambitious to come to Manhattan to try to make something of themselves also incite those who are willing to do the kind of corner-cutting that results in criminality. Only Daisy, who is already so established that theft is unnecessary to her, takes crime to the next level.

Love, Desire, Relationships . Just as crime is everywhere, so too is illicit sexuality. However, the heat and tension seem to reverse the behavioral tendencies of the characters we have come to know over the course of six chapters.

• The usually reserved Nick wonders about his train conductor and "whose flushed lips he kissed, whose head made damp the pajama pocket over his heart" (7.23). He also makes a dirty joke about the Buchanans’ butler having to yell over the phone that he simply cannot send Tom’s body to Myrtle in this heat.
• The usually passive Daisy kisses Gatsby on the mouth in front of Nick and Jordan in a display of rebellion. Later she calls Tom out on his euphemistic description of the times he cheated on her right after their honeymoon as a "spree" (7.252), a word that just means "fun good time."
• On the other hand, the womanizing Tom primly and hypocritically rants about the downfall of morality and the possibility that people of different races will be allowed to intermarry.
• Similarly, the normally weak and ineffectual Wilson overpowers his wife enough to lock her up when he finds out about the affair she’s been having. He also feels as bad about the situation as if he had gotten a woman pregnant by accident.
• Everyone’s desire for someone who is not their spouse is underscored by the way that an ongoing wedding is continuously described as deeply unappealing throughout the chapter. Eventually, the wedding music pops up in the middle of the climactic argument like this: "From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air" (7.261). Married life is suffocating, and these characters spend significant energies trying to break free.

Motifs: Weather. The overwhelming heat of the day plays a vital role in creating an atmosphere of stifled, sweaty, uncomfortable breathlessness . Each scene’s overwhelming tension and awkwardness are further heightened by the physical discomfort that everyone is experiencing (it’s also key to remember that being hot and slightly dehydrated elevates the level of intoxication that a person feels, these characters pour back whiskey after whiskey). The hot mugginess ratchets up anger and resentment, and also seems to elevate the recklessness with which people are willing to expose and pursue their sexual desires. So crucial is this atmospheric element, that every movie adaptation of this novel makes sure that the actors are covered in sweat during these scenes, making it almost as uncomfortable to watch them as it is to imagine making it through that day. Here’s a quick clip that shows you what I mean.

Mutability of Identity. It is fitting that just as lots of wool is removed from lots of eyes, as Gatsby is source of wealth is revealed, and as Daisy is shown not to be the fairytale figment of Gatsby’s imagination, the idea of façades, false impressions, and mistaken identity is front and center .

• First, on this blisteringly hot day, Daisy is entranced by Gatsby’s projecting an image of looking "so cool" and resembling "the advertisement of the man" (7.81-83). Gatsby’s glossy appearance is perfect but also clearly shallow and fake, like an ad.
• Later, Myrtle seethes with jealousy when she sees Tom driving next to Jordan, and assumes that Jordan is Daisy. This case of mistaken identity contributes to her death, as she assumes that Tom would be driving the same car back from the city that he took there.
• Third, Daisy and Jordan remember a man named Biloxi who talked his way into Daisy and Tom’s wedding, and then talked his way into staying at Jordan’s house for three weeks as he recuperated from a fainting spell. Their memories make clear that his entire story about himself was a sham—a sham that worked, until it didn’t, like the façades of the main characters in the story.
• Fourth, Wilson briefly assumes that Michaelis is Myrtle’s lover. His failure to understand who it is that is a really having an affair with his wife leads to the novel’s second murder.

The Treatment of Women . Also key this chapter are women characters.

First, there is the pairing of Daisy and Jordan , whose outlooks on life are confirmed to be diametrically opposed.

• Daisy is rich, overindulged, and endlessly bored with her monotonously luxurious life . She grabs on to the romance with Gatsby is a possible escape, but is soon confronted with the reality of the perfect, idealized being that he would like her to be. Daisy realizes that she prefers the safe boredom and casual betrayal of Tom to the unrealistic expectations—and thus inevitable disappointment—of being with Gatsby. Her fundamental cowardice is a better fit for Tom, as we find out after the car accident when she kills Myrtle. It’s Tom who offers her complicity, understanding, and a return to stability.
• On the other hand, Jordan is a pragmatist who sees opportunity and possibility everywhere . This makes her attractive to Nick, who likes that she is self-contained, calm, cynical, and unlikely to be overly emotional. However, this approach to life means that Jordan is basically amoral, as revealed in this chapter by her almost complete lack of reaction to Myrtle’s death, and her assumption that life at the Buchanan house will go on as normal. For Nick, who clings to his sense of himself as a deeply decent human being, this is a dealbreaker.

Next, we have the comparison between Daisy and Myrtle , two women whose marriages dissatisfy them enough that they seek out other lovers. There are many ways to compare them, but in this chapter in particular what seems important is whether each woman is able to maintain coherence and integrity.

• What Gatsby wants from Daisy is a complete erasure of her mind, history, and emotions , so that she will match his weirdly flat and idealized notion of her. By demanding that she renounce ever having had feelings for Tom, Gatsby wants to deny her fundamental sense of self-knowledge. Daisy refuses to compromise herself in this way and so is able to maintain psychological integrity.
• On the other hand, Myrtle, whose physicality has always been her most defining feature, ends up losing even the most basic integrity—bodily integrity —as her body is not only ripped open when she is hit by a car, but this mutilation is witnessed by many people and then also graphically described.
• Jordan’s cool aloofness prevents her from being trapped in the same way that Myrtle and Daisy are. Despite even her admission later that breaking up with Nick hurt her feelings, we certainly get the sense that Jordan could take him or leave him. She retains a lot of power in their relationship. For example, when Nick suddenly freaks out about turning 30, she shows him how to be "too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age" (7.308) and by putting her hand over his with "reassuring pressure" (7.308).
• Neither of the other two women is ever on top even in this very mild way. For example, Tom, who is used to putting his hands on people as a way of showing his power over them (in this chapter he does it to the policeman, and then to Wilson), puts his hand over Daisy’s at the end of the chapter to indicate that she is back within his circle of control. But at least Daisy’s escape attempt led her to Gatsby’s presumably gentlemanly treatment.
• The same can’t be said for Myrtle, who goes from bad to worse, as she escapes her marriage to have an affair with Tom , who feels free to beat her, and then is forced to return to her husband, who feels free to imprison and forcibly remove her from her home.

Death and Failure. Death comes in many forms, both metaphorical and horribly real. Of course, the primary death in this chapter is that of Myrtle, gruesomely killed by Daisy. But this is also the chapter where dreams come to die. Gatsby’s fantasy of Daisy undergoes a slow demise when he meets her daughter, and when he learns that she is simply unwilling to renounce her entire history with Tom for Gatsby’s sake. Similarly, any romantic ideas Daisy may have had about Gatsby vanish when she learns that he is a criminal.

Crucial Character Beats

• Gatsby stops throwing parties at his house and instead carries on an affair with Daisy. Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom have lunch together and decide to go to Manhattan for the day to escape the heat.
• Both Tom and Wilson realize that their wives are having affairs; however, only Tom knows who Daisy's affair is with. Wilson decides to take Myrtle to live somewhere else.
• Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom end up in a suite at the Plaza Hotel where everything comes tumbling into the open. Gatsby and Daisy admit that they've been having an affair, Gatsby demands that Daisy tell Tom that she has never loved him. Daisy cannot do this, and Gatsby's dreams are dashed.
• Gatsby and Daisy drive home together. On the way, with Daisy driving the car, they hit and kill Myrtle, who is trying to escape being imprisoned in her house by Wilson.
• Gatsby decides to take the blame for the accident, but doesn’t quite realize that it is all over between him and Daisy.
• Daisy and Tom have an intimate moment together as they figure out what they are going to do next.

What’s Next?

Compare the novel’s four trips into Manhattan : Nick at Myrtle’s party in Chapter 2 , Nick’s description of what it’s like to be a single guy around town at the end of Chapter 3 , Nick at lunch with Gatsby in Chapter 4 , and insanity at the Plaza in this chapter. Does Manhattan affect the way the characters behave? Does it make them more or less likely to act out to be there? Do they feel comfortable there?

Move on to the summary of Chapter 8 , or revisit the summary of Chapter 6 .

What are some of the overall themes in Gatsby? We dig into money and materialism , the American Dream , and more in our article on the most important Great Gatsby themes .

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The Great Gatsby

By f. scott fitzgerald.

'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an unforgettable novel of wealth and love. It chronicles the "Jazz Age," post World War I in the United States.

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925 in New York City. It is considered to be Fitzgerald’s best and most famous novel . It depicts the lives of characters entangled in the New York City social scene , in dangerous love affairs, and endless wealth. Narrated by Nick Carraway, a man whose life mirrored Fitzgerald’s own, he takes the reader into the mysterious world of Jay Gatsby . Gatsby, a new multi-millionaire who seemingly lives the American dream, is consumed with the desire to reclaim a lost relationship.

Key Facts about  The Great Gatsby

• Title:   The Great Gatsby
• When/where written: Paris and the US in 1924
• Published: 1925
• Literary Period: Modernism
• Genre:  Novel
• Point-of-View:  First-person
• Setting: New York City in 1922
• Climax:  Gatsby and Tom fight over Daisy
• Antagonist:  Tom Buchanan, Greed

F. Scott Fitzgerald and  The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald’s  The Great Gatsby  is a modernist masterpiece . But, when it was published the author had no idea of its importance or how tied it would become to his own literary legacy. Fitzgerald, like the novel’s narrator, Nick, was born in Minnesota. He moved to New York to pursue fame and fortune, like Jay Gatsby. Perhaps also seeking inspiration in his personal experiences, Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, refused to marry him unless he could support her. This mirrors Gatsby’s experience with Daisy in the novel, ending in her marrying Tom Buchanan, a cruel man but one with more than enough money for her to live the kind of life she wanted. The Fitzgeralds were wealthy, but as debt crept upon them, Fitzgerald’s health worsened, and he suffered from mental illness. He died from a heart attack in 1940, with his wife passing away a few years later. Today, scholars consider  The Great Gatsby,  as well as Fitzgerald’s other novels, as a means for the writer to confront his feelings about (what he coined as) “The Jazz Age.” The period after World War I is well documented in  The Great Gatsby .  Fitzgerald was initially interested in the outrageous lifestyles of the wealthy in New York City, engaging in such a lifestyle himself. But, just as Nick Carraway discovered, things weren’t quite as bright and shining as they seemed.

Books Related to  The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby  is one of the best representatives of modernist fiction after the First World War. It was a period of emptiness and disillusionment that was for many such as the characters in this novel , filled with irrelevancies. He depicted lost people, depression, reality, and various types of corruption. As did other writers like James Joyce with his masterpiece Ulysses.  Hemingway’s works are also often compared to Fitzgerald’s. These include books like The Sun Also Rises.  Other books readers might find comparable to  The Great Gatsby  include  The Age of Innocence  by Edith Wharton,  To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee, and Fitzgerlad’s 1922 novel,  The Beautiful and the Damned.  The latter was published right before  The Great Gatsby  and tells the story of a socialite and heir to a massive fortune. Fitzgerald explores his marriage, military service, and the couple’s troubles.  This Side of Paradise  by F. Scott Fitzgerald is another novel in which readers can find themes comparable to those in  The Great Gatsby.  It was Fitzgerald’s first novel and follows several American youths after World War I.

The Lasting Impact of The Great Gatsby

When The Great Gatsby  was published in 1925, it sold around 21,000 copies, a number far lower than Fitzgerald’s previous novels. Today, the novel has sold over 25 million copies and has been translated into numerous languages. It’s a staple of classrooms all over the world. Today, the novel is said to embody the American spirit and convey the atmosphere of an incredibly important time in the history of the country . For some, this novel is the best representative of the American spirit and Fitzgerald’s “Jazz Age .” Despite the decades that have passed, the novel is still relevant today. It features complex characters with problems school-age readers and those simply reading for pleasure can relate to.

The Great Gatsby Review ⭐

‘The Great Gatsby’ tells a very human story of wealth, dreams, and failure. F. Scott Fitzgerald takes the reader into the heart of the Jazz Age, in New York City, and into the world of Jay Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby Historical Context 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best-known novel. It encapsulates the Jazz Age of the United States in the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby Themes and Analysis 🍾

Within ‘The Great Gatsby,’ F. Scott Fitzgerald taps into several important themes. These include the American dream, and its decline, as well as wealth, class, and love.

The Great Gatsby Quotes 💬

Throughout ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader can find a wide variety of beautiful and thoughtful quotes.

The Great Gatsby Summary 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ is generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. It represents a cultural period in the United States that’s now referred to as the Jazz Age.

The Great Gatsby Characters 🍾

‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald is filled with interesting and morally bankrupt characters, such as Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Ewing Klipspringer.

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