STUDY GUIDE · F. SCOTT FITZGERALD · 1925
The Great Gatsby,
as Nick tells it.
Everything you learn about Gatsby comes through Nick Carraway, who promises to reserve judgment and then judges nearly everyone. These questions ask what Nick sees, what he leaves out, and what you can conclude for yourself.
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- AUTHOR
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- FIRST PUBLISHED
- 1925
- TEXT USED HERE
- Project Gutenberg eBook #64317
How to use this guide
Spoilers ahead: the overview, character notes, and themes discuss the ending. If you are still reading, go straight to the chapter questions and stop at the chapters you have finished.
Choose one question, answer in your own words, and find a short passage that supports your claim. Explain how the wording supports it, then look for a detail that complicates your answer. Use the essay exercise after finishing the novel.
A note on the text.
The Great Gatsby entered the public domain in the United States in 2021. The Project Gutenberg text quoted here, and the one Parlor opens, keeps some British spellings such as “judgements” and “colour,” so a quotation may look slightly different in your classroom edition. The nine chapters are the same.
Where things happen.
Use this to find your place, not as a substitute for reading.
- Chapters I–III
- Nick settles in West Egg, has dinner with Tom and Daisy Buchanan, visits Tom’s apartment in New York with Myrtle Wilson, and meets Gatsby at one of his parties.
- Chapters IV–VI
- Gatsby tells Nick his version of his past, Jordan Baker explains what happened in 1917, Gatsby and Daisy meet again, and Nick gives the history of James Gatz.
- Chapters VII–IX
- A hot afternoon at the Plaza Hotel, the drive home, and what follows.
The story in brief
Nick Carraway moves to West Egg and becomes fascinated by his neighbor Jay Gatsby. Across the bay live Nick’s cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, who is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Gatsby’s parties and fortune serve a private ambition: to recover his earlier romance with Daisy. Nick helps arrange their reunion.
At the Plaza Hotel, Gatsby demands that Daisy say she never loved Tom, but she cannot sustain that version of her past. Driving Gatsby’s car home, Daisy strikes and kills Myrtle. Gatsby tells Nick he intends to take responsibility. Tom later tells Nick that he identified Gatsby as the car’s owner to George Wilson. George kills Gatsby and then himself. Nick struggles to gather mourners for the funeral and returns west, turning Gatsby’s longing into a meditation on desire and the past.
Characters and relationships
- Nick Carraway
- Narrator, neighbor, cousin, and intermediary. He participates in the events he later judges; distinguish his observations from stories others tell him and scenes he reconstructs.
- Jay Gatsby
- Born James Gatz, he invents a new identity and builds his life around Daisy. His capacity for hope coexists with deception and a demand that the past be rewritten.
- Daisy and Tom Buchanan
- A wealthy married couple whose security survives damage suffered by others. Daisy is more conflicted than Gatsby’s ideal of her allows; Tom uses status, intimidation, and information to defend his position.
- Myrtle and George Wilson
- A couple living above George’s garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle seeks escape through Tom; George’s grief and mistaken understanding of the car’s driver lead to violence.
- Jordan Baker
- A golfer who dates Nick and tells him about Gatsby and Daisy’s earlier relationship. Her disagreements with Nick also challenge his flattering account of himself.
Themes and symbols in context
Self-invention and the past
Chapter VI links Gatsby’s invented identity with his insistence that he can repeat the past. Test whether his dream requires a future with Daisy or her agreement that the intervening years did not matter.
Wealth and protection
East Egg, West Egg, and the valley of ashes place inherited wealth, recently acquired wealth, and economic hardship near each other without making them equal. Track who can leave after the deaths in Chapters VII–IX and who must deal with the consequences.
The green light
In Chapter I Gatsby reaches toward it; in Chapter V Nick imagines its enchantment fading; in Chapter IX it enters Nick’s broader account of aspiration. Its meaning depends on the scene and the observer, so a single definition misses its movement through the novel.
The eyes above the ashes
The billboard appears in Chapter II; George connects its eyes with divine judgment in Chapter VIII. Distinguish what George believes from what the narrator establishes. The sign can invite a reading about judgment without proving that the novel supplies a reliable judge.
Nick’s introductions
CHAPTERS I–III
Nick opens with his father’s advice (“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone … just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”) and says he is “inclined to reserve all judgements.” A few sentences later he admits that his tolerance “has a limit.” As you read the first three chapters, note when Nick judges and whom.
Look at: the opening pages of Chapter I.Daisy says she hopes her daughter will be “a beautiful little fool.” What does this suggest Daisy understands about her own position? Is she being cynical, honest, or both?
Look at: Chapter I.The road between West Egg and New York passes through a valley of ashes under the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. Why might Fitzgerald place this landscape between the two worlds? Which characters live there?
Look at: the opening of Chapter II.Nick says Gatsby’s smile “understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood.” What does this say about Gatsby? What does it say about Nick’s first impression?
Look at: Chapter III.Chapter III ends with Nick’s claim: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” Is it a joke, a boast, or a warning to the reader? Support your answer with something Nick does, not only something he says.
Look at: the end of Chapter III.
Stories and the reunion
CHAPTERS IV–VI
Gatsby tells Nick his life story in Chapter IV. Nick tells you the story of James Gatz in Chapter VI. Why might Nick hold the real history back until then? What would change if you learned it first?
Look at: Chapter IV; the opening of Chapter VI.After the reunion, the green light across the bay “was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” What has Gatsby lost at the moment he gets what he wanted?
Look at: Chapter V.“Can’t repeat the past?” Gatsby cries. “Why of course you can!” What exactly does he want to repeat? Is it Daisy he wants, or 1917?
Look at: the end of Chapter VI.Nick writes that Jay Gatsby “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” Explain the phrase in your own words. In this novel, is inventing yourself admirable, dangerous, or both?
Look at: Chapter VI.
The Plaza and after
CHAPTERS VII–IX
Gatsby says Daisy’s voice “is full of money,” and Nick writes, “That was it. I’d never understood before.” What does Nick suddenly understand? What does the line suggest about what drew Gatsby to Daisy?
Look at: Chapter VII.At the Plaza Hotel, what does Tom win, and how does he win it? Pay attention to what he says about Gatsby’s past and to what Daisy does in response.
Look at: Chapter VII.Nick calls to Gatsby, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together,” then tells you, “I disapproved of him from beginning to end.” Can both be true? What does Nick admire, and what does he disapprove of?
Look at: Chapter VIII.Nick calls Tom and Daisy “careless people” who “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money … and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Who cleans up? Make a list, and decide whether Nick belongs on it.
Look at: Chapter IX.The novel ends: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Who is “we”? Is the ending hopeful, resigned, or something else?
Look at: the last page of Chapter IX.
Across the whole novel
FOR ESSAYS AND FINAL DISCUSSIONS
In New York, Nick feels “within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” Find one scene where he is enchanted and one where he is repelled. Which feeling wins by the end?
Start at: Chapter II.Follow the green light from Chapter I to the final page. What does it stand for each time it appears, and who is deciding what it means?
Myrtle and George Wilson get far fewer pages than the Buchanans. What do the Wilsons show you that the wealthy characters cannot?
Is this novel about an American dream, or about one man’s private dream? What in the text supports the larger reading, and what resists it?
TRY IT HERE · NO ACCOUNT NEEDED
When the light is only a light.
From Chapter V, Project Gutenberg eBook #64317. The example answers are editorial, written for this guide.
Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.
Before you look at the example answer
- Why would the light lose its significance now, of all moments?
- What does “enchanted objects” suggest about how Gatsby has been living?
- Whose thoughts are these? Look at the first word.
See one possible interpretation
While Daisy was across the bay, the light stood for her; distance was what gave it meaning. Now that she is in the room, the light is ordinary again. The passage suggests that part of what Gatsby loved was the longing itself, and that getting close to Daisy costs him something the distance gave him.
The passage opens with “Possibly.” This is Nick guessing at Gatsby’s thoughts, not reporting them. A careful reading keeps that uncertainty: the idea may say as much about Nick as about Gatsby.
Compare a claim with a supported explanation
A claim that needs more support: “Gatsby stops loving Daisy once he sees her again.” The passage says the light’s significance has vanished, not his feeling for her, and the chapters that follow show him still devoted to her.
A more supported explanation: “Being near Daisy removes something that wanting her had given Gatsby, at least as Nick imagines it.” This connects the distance, the ordinary light, and the “Possibly” that frames the whole passage.
These are examples, not scores. Other interpretations can be reasonable when the passage supports them.
Build an essay: what does Nick’s admiration leave out?
Start with Nick’s compliment to Gatsby in Chapter VIII, then compare the history of James Gatz in Chapter VI and the funeral in Chapter IX. Explain what Nick values in Gatsby and what that admiration costs his account. Include an objection: Nick acknowledges Gatsby’s deception, so admiration alone does not establish that he is unaware of it.
READ IT WITH SOMEONE TO TALK TO
Discuss The Great Gatsby in Parlor.
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About this guide
Quotations come from F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Project Gutenberg eBook #64317, which is in the public domain in the United States. The questions and example answers were written for Parlor Study by Nevel Trade Inc.
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