The Great Gatsby Summary
While the good Gatsby may be a highly specific portrait of
yank society during the Roaring Twenties, its story is additionally one that
has been told many times, and is probably as old as America itself: a person
claws his way from rags to riches, only to seek out that his wealth cannot
afford him the privileges enjoyed by those born into the upper crust . The
central character is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy New Yorker of indeterminate
occupation. Gatsby is primarily known for the lavish parties he throws each weekend
at his ostentatious Gothic mansion in West Egg. he's suspected of being
involved in illegal bootlegging and other underworld activities.
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby's neighbor in West
Egg. Nick may be a young man from a prominent Midwestern family. Educated at
Yale, he has come to ny to enter the bond business. In some sense, the novel is
Nick's memoir, his unique view of the events of the summer of 1922;
intrinsically , his impressions and observations necessarily color the
narrative as an entire . For the foremost part, he plays only a peripheral role
within the events of the novel; he prefers to stay a passive observer.
Upon arriving in ny , Nick visits his cousin, Daisy Buchanan,
and her husband, Tom. The Buchanans sleep in the luxury Long Island district of
East Egg; Nick, like Gatsby, resides in nearby West Egg, a less fashionable
area looked down upon by those that sleep in East Egg. West Egg is home to the
nouveau riche, people that lack established social connections, and who tend to
vulgarly flaunt their wealth. Like Nick, Tom Buchanan graduated from Yale, and
comes from a privileged Midwestern family. Tom may be a former footballer , a
brutal bully hooked in to the preservation of sophistication boundaries. Daisy,
against this , is an almost ghostlike girl who affects an air of sophisticated
boredom. At the Buchanans's, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a gorgeous girl with a
chilly , cynical manner. the 2 later become romantically involved.
Jordan tells Nick that Tom has been having an affair with
Myrtle Wilson, a lady who lives within the valley of ashes, an industrial
wasteland outside of latest York City. After visiting Tom and Daisy, Nick goes
home to West Egg; there, he sees Gatsby gazing at a mysterious green light
across the bay. Gatsby stretches his arms out toward the sunshine , as if to
catch and hold it.
Tom Buchanan takes Nick into ny , and on the way they stop at
the garage owned by George Wilson. Wilson is that the husband of Myrtle, with
whom Tom has been having an affair. Tom tells Myrtle to hitch them later within
the city. Nearby, on a huge billboard, a pair of bespectacled blue eyes stares
down at the barren landscape. These eyes once served as an advertisement; now,
they brood over all that happens within the valley of ashes.
In the city, Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to the apartment in
Morningside Heights at which he maintains his affair. There, they need a lurid
party with Myrtle's sister, Catherine, and an abrasive couple named McKee. They
gossip about Gatsby; Catherine says that he's somehow associated with Wilhelm
II , the much-despised ruler of Germany during war I. The more she drinks, the
more aggressive Myrtle becomes; she begins taunting Tom about Daisy, and he
reacts by breaking her nose. The party, unsurprisingly, involves an abrupt end.
Nick Carraway attends a celebration at Gatsby's mansion,
where he runs into Jordan Baker. At the party, few of the attendees know
Gatsby; even fewer were formally invited. Before the party, Nick himself had
never met Gatsby: he's a strikingly handsome, slightly dandified young man who
affects an English accent. Gatsby asks to talk to Jordan Baker alone; after
talking with Gatsby for quite while , she tells Nick that she has learned some
remarkable news. She cannot yet share it with him, however.
Some time later, Gatsby visits Nick's home and invites him to
lunch. At now within the novel, Gatsby's origins are unclear. He claims to
return from a wealthy San Francisco family, and says that he was educated at
Oxford after serving within the World War I (during which he received variety
of decorations). At lunch, Gatsby introduces Nick to his business associate,
Meyer Wolfsheim. Wolfhsheim may be a notorious criminal; many believe that he's
liable for fixing the 1919 World Series .
Gatsby mysteriously avoids the Buchanans. Later, Jordan Baker
explains the rationale for Gatsby's anxiety: he had been crazy with Daisy
Buchanan once they met in Louisville before the war. Jordan subtly intimates
that he's still crazy together with her , and she or he with him.
Gatsby asks Nick to rearrange a gathering between himself and
Daisy. Gatsby has meticulously planned their meeting: he gives Daisy a
carefully rehearsed tour of his mansion, and is wanting to exhibit his wealth
and possessions. Gatsby is wooden and mannered during this first meeting; his
dearest dreams are of this moment, then the particular reunion is sure to
disappoint. Despite this, the love between Gatsby and Daisy is revived, and
therefore the two begin an affair.
Eventually, Nick learns truth story of Gatsby's past. He was
born James Gatz in North Dakota , but had his name legally changed at the age
of seventeen. The gold baron Dan Cody served as Gatsby's mentor until his
death. Though Gatsby inherited nothing of Cody's fortune, it had been from him
that Gatsby was first introduced to world of wealth, power, and privilege.
While out horseback riding, Tom Buchanan happens upon
Gatsby's mansion. There he meets both Nick and Gatsby, to whom he takes an
instantaneous dislike. To Tom, Gatsby is a component of the "new
rich," and thus poses a danger to the old order that Tom holds dear.
Despite this, he accompanies Daisy to Gatsby's next party; there, he's
exceedingly rude and condescending toward Gatsby. Nick realizes that Gatsby wants
Daisy to renounce her husband and her marriage; during this way, they will
recover the years they need lost since they first parted. Gatsby's great flaw
is that his great love of Daisy may be a quite worship, which he fails to
ascertain her flaws. He believes that he can undo the past, and forgets that
Daisy's essentially small-minded and cowardly nature was what initially caused
their separation.
After his reunion with Daisy, Gatsby ceases to throw his
elaborate parties. the sole reason he threw such parties was the prospect that
Daisy (or someone who knew her) might attend. Daisy invites Gatsby, Nick and
Jordan to lunch at her house. In an effort to form Tom jealous, and to exact
revenge for his affair, Daisy is very indiscreet about her relationship with
Gatsby. She even tells Gatsby that she loves him while Tom is in earshot.
Although Tom is himself having an affair, he's furious at the
thought that his wife might be unfaithful to him. He forces the group to drive
into the city: there, during a suite at the Plaza Hotel, Tom and Gatsby have a
bitter confrontation. Tom denounces Gatsby for his low birth, and divulges to
Daisy that Gatsby's fortune has been made through illegal activities. Daisy's
real allegiance is to Tom: when Gatsby begs her to mention that she doesn't
love her husband, she refuses him. Tom permits Gatsby to drive Daisy back to
East Egg; during this way, he displays his contempt for Gatsby, also as his
faith in his wife's complete subjection.
On the trip back to East Egg, Gatsby allows Daisy to drive so
as to calm her ragged nerves. Passing Wilson's garage, Daisy swerves to avoid
another car and finishes up hitting Myrtle; she is killed instantly. Nick
advises Gatsby to go away town until things calms. Gatsby, however, refuses to leave:
he remains so as to make sure that Daisy is safe. George Wilson, driven nearly
mad by the death of his wife, is wanting to find her killer. Tom Buchanan tells
him that Gatsby was the driving force of the fatal car. Wilson, who has decided
that the driving force of the car must even have been Myrtle's lover, shoots
Gatsby before committing suicide himself.
After the murder, the Buchanans leave town to distance
themselves from the violence that they're responsible. Nick is left to arrange
Gatsby's funeral, but finds that few people cared for Gatsby. Only Meyer
Wolfsheim shows a modicum of grief, and few people attend the funeral. Nick
seeks out Gatsby's father, Henry Gatz, and brings him to ny for the funeral.
From Henry, Nick learns the complete scope of Gatsby's visions of greatness and
his dreams of self-improvement.
Thoroughly disgusted with life in ny , Nick decides to return
to the Midwest. Before his departure, Nick sees Tom Buchanan another time . Tom
tries to elicit Nick's sympathy; he believes that each one of his actions were
thoroughly justified, and he wants Nick to agree.
Nick muses that Gatsby, alone among the people of his
acquaintance, strove to rework his dreams into reality; it's this that creates
him "great." Nick also believes, however, that the time for such
grand aspirations is over: greed and dishonesty have irrevocably corrupted both
the American Dream and therefore the dreams of individual Americans.
Sister Carrie
Oliver Twist
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