Novel Summary

The novel starts off with Nick Carraway introducing himself to us about his life. It is spring of 1922 and he just moved out East to West Egg in New York. There were two “Eggs” West Egg and East Egg. West Egg was less fashionable of the two. Across the bay, in East Egg, he goes to visit Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Daisy was his second cousin once removed. When Daisy heard that Nick lived in West Egg she asked him if he knew Gatsby. Gatsby is Nick’s neighbor who we later meet. When he went to visit them he met Jordan Baker who turned out to be an amateur golf player. The next day Tom brought Nick with him to see his mistress Myrtle Wilson who lived in the Valley of Ashes. Once they got her they went to New York where Tom owned an apartment that he would bring Myrtle to.

Chapter 3 is when we first hear about Gatsby’s elaborate house and cars. It is also the first party of his Nick is invited to. Once there he finds out he was the only one invited to the party by Gatsby himself. He sits down at a table and starts talking to a man who remembers him from the war and it turned out the man was Gatsby. Jordan was one of the few people Nick knew at the party. She took him into the library where they found a man called Owl Eyes who had been drunk for a week straight. The party goes on and when they leave they see a car crashed in the ditch and a man gets out thinking he ran out of gas but it turns out one of his wheels came off. Nick spends the rest of the summer with Jordan and talks about honesty being his cardinal virtue.

Nick and Gatsby have become closer and Gatsby asks him out to lunch a few days later. There he tells Nick about his life which turned out to be a complete lie. He said he went to Oxford but Nick knew he was lying. They went to lunch the next day and they met up with an acquaintance of Gatsby’s named Wolfshiem. He asked Nick to join a business connection, but he declined and noticed his cuff links made of human teeth.

Next Jordan flashes back to 1917 when Daisy and Gatsby meet in Louisville. Every man Daisy met was always attracted to her but Gatsby was different to her. After Jordan told Nick this story he slowly began to fall in love with her.

When Nick came home he walked over to Gatsby’s house and Gatsby asked Nick to invite Daisy to lunch at Nick’s house. When she came over it was pouring rain and Gatsby was dressed in a gold and silver suit. A little while into the lunch Gatsby got embarrassed and thought it was a mistake meeting up with her but it ended up turning out good. He took her to his house to show her all his elaborate belongings.

A few chapters later, Nick tells the real story of Gatsby. We find out he was really from a poor farm family in North Dakota and his real name was James Gatz. Gatsby traveled around the world on the sea with a man named Dan Cody. He also learned that Gatsby didn’t drink because of Dan Cody’s death being linked to drinking.

Tom and Daisy next go to a party of Gatsby’s. Tom is not having a good time but Daisy is because she goes off with Gatsby. The following day it was the hottest day of summer and they all were having lunch at the Buchanans house including Gatsby. Things were getting tense so Daisy asked if they could go into town. Tom now sees Gatsby and Daisy that they love each other and demands they go into town. Once they get there they go to the Plaza Hotel and they reminisce on Tom and Daisy’s wedding. Then all of a sudden Tom just demands to know what is going on between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby say to Tom that Daisy never loved him and they get into a big argument and Tom reveals that Gatsby is a bootlegger and knew Daisy wouldn’t leave him because of this. After this they decide to go home. On the way home Daisy was driving with Gatsby, when Myrtle rushed into the road because she didn’t want to be locked up by her husband, who just found out she was cheating on him. Daisy tried to swerve the car but it hit Myrtle and she died instantly. Tom, Nick, and Jordan saw the scene on their way home and stopped but Gatsby and Daisy had driven away. The police came and questioned all of them and George Wilson was really shaken up and going crazy. When Nick went home he saw Gatsby hiding in the bushes at the Buchanan’s house waiting to see if Daisy needed help, but Nick knew Daisy wouldn’t leave Tom.

The next day Nick goes to see Gatsby and finds that he is really upset. Nick tells Gatsby to get away or take a trip to get away from all this. Gatsby is still in denial of Daisy ever loving Tom. Nick reassures Gatsby and tells him he is better then all of them put together. Next Nick calls Jordan and brakes up with her because he was going to go back west. Then they go to George Wilson and he thinks Gatsby killed Myrtle so he decides to go search for evidence. While Gatsby was swimming, Wilson shot him and then shot himself.

The next day Nick finds out Daisy left with Tom and they don’t know where they went. Nick writes a letter to Meyer Wolfshiem telling him of Gatsby’s death and then Henry Gatz, Gatsby’s father, arrives. He shows Nick a schedule Gatsby made on the back of a book and it shows how determined he was as a child to live the American Dream. Two days later the funeral takes place and the only guest besides Nick and his father was Owl Eyes, which was very ironic because he had parties with hundreds and hundreds of friends.

Nick felt the East was haunted by Gatsby’s death so he moved back home to the Midwest. Later he met up with Tom and talked about Gatsby. Then he flashes back to his last night in New York and remembers that Gatsby believed in the green light and no matter what he would have kept trying to achieve the American Dream.