The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 to Chapter 3
Chapter 1
Nick Carraway is a young man who has moved to the West Egg area of Long Island from Minnesota. He is the narrator of The Great Gatsby, and portrays himself as being the author of the book. He starts out by talking about himself and the things he learned from his father. One of those things was not to judge others by his own standards of morality, because doing that will cause a misunderstanding of who they really are and how they live their lives. He claims to be very tolerant of people in their own right, but also a very moral individual when it comes to the way his own life is lived. He also mentions Gatsby, the protagonist of the story, very briefly. As he talks about the man, he portrays Gatsby as a representation of everything that is scorned by Nick, himself. Because of his tolerant nature, though, he also says that Gatsby had a "gorgeous" personality, and exempts him from judgment. This withholding of judgment is common for Nick, no matter the person he is discussing.
As Nick continues discussing his life, he talks about the summer of 1922, which was spent in West Egg. He was new to New York, having just arrived and rented a house there. The West Egg area is home to people who have newly-acquired wealth. East Egg, across from West Egg, is for those who have established wealth and social connections. While both areas are equally rich, the character of the people who live in them is different because of the length of time they have had their money and status. Because the people in West Egg have not had money long and often want to flaunt that they have it at all, there are lavish displays and garish homes that are in poor taste. Nick has rented a house that is relatively modest, but it sits next to the Gothic, over-the-top mansion that belongs to Gatsby.
Nick is also different from the others in West Egg in that he is a Yale graduate and has connections in East Egg, where the elite live. He drives to East Egg to have a dinner with his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom. Tom Buchanan was a member of...
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