The Great Gatsby Analysis
The Great Gatsby: Plot Analysis Our narrator Nick Carraway is back from World War I and is renting a house in West Egg, a small but fancy town on Long Island. His cousin Daisy and her ex-football player husband Tom live across the bay in fancier East Egg. Jay Gatsby, Nick's next door neighbor, is a wealthy newcomer who throws large parties weekly, during which his guests are happy to drink his (illegal) booze while snubbing him for being “nouveau riche” and possibly involved in some shady activities. Gatsby wants something he can't have: Daisy, and a shot at being in the American upper class. Tom wants something he can't have: a mistress and a wife who know nothing about each other. Nick wants something he can’t have: all these crazy people to stop acting crazy.
…show more content…
Tom Buchanan takes an instant disliking to Gatsby, even before he knows that Daisy is weeping over Gatsby's beautiful shirts.
His investigation complicates matters considerably. It turns out, Jay Gatsby is really James Gatz, a poor kid who earned all his wealth from organized crime (gambling, bootlegging liquor). Tom and Gatsby have a tense but understated showdown about who gets to control Daisy, and Tom wins. He seals his victory by letting them drive home together, just to rub it in Gatsby's face. But when the others follow behind, they discover that Myrtle was killed by a speeding yellow car that failed to
stop. Gatsby watches Daisy’s house all night worried that Tom might hurt her now that her true feelings were revealed. Nick starts digesting that night's events and comes to the understandable conclusion that "They're a rotten crowd"(Chapter 8). Sadly, Gatsby didn’t have the same thoughts as Nick, so George Wilson finds him in the pool and then kills both Gatsby and himself in retaliation for running down his wife. Daisy and Tom have fled, Nick and Jordan have broken up, and Gatsby is dead. We end with Gatsby's miserable funeral, of course, lightly attended by Nick, Gatsby's father, and the owl-eyed man who once marveled at all of Gatsby's books. In the end, Nick sends us off with this mysterious conclusion: the future is always out of reach, instead, "we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (Chapter 9)
Tom Buchanan takes an instant disliking to Gatsby, even before he knows that Daisy is weeping over Gatsby's beautiful shirts.
His investigation complicates matters considerably. It turns out, Jay Gatsby is really James Gatz, a poor kid who earned all his wealth from organized crime (gambling, bootlegging liquor). Tom and Gatsby have a tense but understated showdown about who gets to control Daisy, and Tom wins. He seals his victory by letting them drive home together, just to rub it in Gatsby's face. But when the others follow behind, they discover that Myrtle was killed by a speeding yellow car that failed to
stop. Gatsby watches Daisy’s house all night worried that Tom might hurt her now that her true feelings were revealed. Nick starts digesting that night's events and comes to the understandable conclusion that "They're a rotten crowd"(Chapter 8). Sadly, Gatsby didn’t have the same thoughts as Nick, so George Wilson finds him in the pool and then kills both Gatsby and himself in retaliation for running down his wife. Daisy and Tom have fled, Nick and Jordan have broken up, and Gatsby is dead. We end with Gatsby's miserable funeral, of course, lightly attended by Nick, Gatsby's father, and the owl-eyed man who once marveled at all of Gatsby's books. In the end, Nick sends us off with this mysterious conclusion: the future is always out of reach, instead, "we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (Chapter 9)