Summary of the novel by Francis Scott Fitzgerald – The great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby – Summary
The Great Gatsby is novel, first published in 1925.
The location is Long Island – West and East Egg(Gatsby’s, Nick’s and Tom’s houses), and New York.
Time is early 1920s, after WW1.
Narrator is the first person, at the same time main character – Nick Carraway.
Other characters are:
- Tom Buchannan
- Daisy Buchannan
- Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby) – James Gatz
- Jordan Backer
- George Wilson
- Myrtle Wilson
- and others…
1. Chapter
The story starts with an introduction to narrators life, Nick Carraway’s life so far.
He graduated on New Harven in 1915. and participated in WW1.
In 1922., he rented a hous in West Egg, beacuse he got a job in New York, small house for $80 a month next to the Gatsby’s big mansion, like castle.
He had a cousin, Daisy, who was living in East Egg, and one day he went there for a dinner with her and her husband Tom Buchannan. They had a daughter as well and lived in a huge house. At that dinner, Nick met a golfer, Jordan Backer(woman).
They had a great house, but love dissapeared, Tom had another woman in New York.
2. Chapter
The other day Nick went to NY with tom and met there his lover, Myrtle Wilson, wife of George Wilson who was an automechanic and owned a gas station.
3 of them, Nick, Tom and Myrtle went to NY and rented a hotel room and met some of their friends.
They were causally chatting, but when Myrtle started talking about Daisy, Tom told her to shut up and after she refused to, he punched her into the face, and Nick went home then.
3. Chapter
Every summer, Gatsby was hosting parties on weekends. Every time it was a huge party with a lot of people.
One day, Nick got invited as well, and he met there Jordan Backer.
They were sitting at the table with another man and woman, while they were searching for Gatsby. Then Nick asked him does he knows where is Gatsby, and he told him “I am Gatsby”, and then Nick finally met him.
4. Chapter
Nick met at the lunch with Jordan, and she told him that Gatsby asked her to tell him to call Daisy on a tea, but that she has to come alone.
Then Nick realised that Gatsby was hosting these parties in order to make a chance for Daisy to come there, because there were coming a lot of people. And Gatsby was in love with Daisy, actually, they were dating when he was participating in war, but after he stayed in Oxford after war, Daisy got married for Tom Buchannan.
5. Chapter
Next day, Nick invited Daisy on a tea tomorrow and she accepted.
Tomorrow, Gatsby arrived half an hour earlier and then when Daisy knocked on the door, he went out on a back door, and after Daisy got into the house, he knocked on the door, like he was just randomly coming there.
When they met, they were left with no words. Nick left them alone and went outside while they chatted. Gatsby remembered exactly when they have seen each other last time “5 years ago”.
Then, they went to see Gatsby’s house and Daisy and Gatsby were so occupied and in love that they forgot about Nick who just left home
6. Chapter
Jay Gatsby was called James Gatz before and his parents were poor.
He met one day Dan Cody, multimilionaire who took him on his yacht and gave him a job, as his manager and assistant.
After the tea time with Daisy, Nick didn’t hear from Gatsby till the next sunday he went to his house to see what is going on with him and there was Tom Buchannan on a horse with some friends. Gatsby then invited Tom and Daisy to come to his party.
Next saturday, Tom and Daisy arrived to the party and Gatsby and Daisy went for a walk alone. Gatsby wanted her to admit that she never loved Tom, and to go with him and get married, but she couldn’t.
7. Chapter
One saturday, Gatsby didn’t host a party and Nick thought he was ill, but he made a drastic change in his house staff and he wasn’t hosting it then.
Other day, Nick and Gatsby got invited on a luch at Buchannan’s home.
It was so hot, and there was a huge tension between all of them. It felt like Tom and Gatsby are fighting for Daisy.
As it was so hot outside, Daisy said they should go to NY, so they did.
They rented a room in the Plaza Hotel and Gatsby tried to tell Tom that Daisy doesn’t love him and they started an argument which ended with all them leaving. Nick, Tom and Jordan, were driving in one car, Tom’s and in Gatsby’s car were Gatsby and Daisy.
Gatsby and Daisy were faster and went first. Then, when Nick and Tom were passing by George’s garrage, they saw that Myrtle was killed and George said that a car hit her, so they stayed there to help for a few minutes but left soon.
In the car, Tom was sad, and they thought that Gatsby killed her, which later turned out as true.
They got back home to Tom and Nick went back to his home by Taxi, and Gatsby stayed in front of Tom’s house, to “Take care of Daisy”.
8. Chapter
In the morning, Gatsby got back home and Nick visited him.
Gatsby told him about his and Daisy’s relationship.
After he went to war, she started seeing other man and then met Tom.
That morning, at 10am, Nick went to NY, and Gatsby stayed to swim in his pool.
Jordan wanted to meet with Nick but he couldn’t.
Then Nick realised what happened.
Wilson went to the Long Island in the morning and was looking for Gatsby, because he knew he killed Myrtle.
When Nick got back home, him and Gatsby’s driver, found Gatsby dead in the pool, and when they were going back to house, they found Wilson dead on the grass.
9. Chapter
Wilson – the man who’s mind was destroyed by pain.
After Gatsby died, Nick was the only one who stayed with him, organising his funeral and calling his father.
A friend of Gatsby, Wolfsheim, refused to come to funeral with the words:
“Let’t learn to show friendship to a man while he is still alive, and not when he dies. My rule is that after that, I don’t get involved in anything.”
That quote is one of the biggest lessons, for me from this book. You can watch them here:
After the funeral, Nick went on a holiday, and then decided to leave the West Egg. – so this story, novel starts with Nick moving to West Egg and ends when he leaves the West Egg.
He met Jordan one last time and found out that she is engaged. That made him a bit sad, but he didn’t wanted her that much so he wasn’t able to be sad.
Gatsby believed in the green light, in better future.
The last sentence of the novel: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly, into the past.”
The biggest lessons:
- “When you want to criticise someone, remember that not everyone had the advantages you have had.”
- “Let’t learn to show friendship to a man while he is still alive, and not when he dies. My rule is that after that, I don’t get involved in anything.”
- “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly, into the past.”
- “The past can’t be repeated”
- Love does not for the barriers.