Great Gatsby

Zakk Agentowicz

Ellen Kanavy

ENGL 1125

10/29/2018

The Great Gatsby

The story “The Great Gatsby”, by F Scott Fitzgerald, takes place in New York City (East Egg) and Long Island (West Egg), during the early 1920’s. The United States was experiencing a time of change and growth coming out of World War I. Henry Ford production line introduced many new jobs and created a cycle of prosperity. During this time the government decided to introduce prohibition along with the 18th amendment. By putting forth the regulations during prohibition this prohibited the manufacturing, transporting, importing and exporting, and sale of alcohol. People who illegally made, imported, or sold alcohol then were considered bootleggers. Bootleggers would sell alcohol illegally through their saloons or drugstores, like Gatsby. While the roaring 20’s were happening, so was social climbing, as we saw throughout the whole novel.

  Nick Carraway, the narrator, moved to West Egg, and worked in the bond business, after he graduated from Yale and served in World War I. Shortly after arriving in town, he reconnects with his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom, and meets their friend Jordan Baker. Tom and Nick know of each other from when they attended Yale. Jordan begins to ask Nick about where he lives and says “you must know Gatsby” (1). Daisy lights up asking about Gatsby but before anymore was said dinner was called. During Dinner Tom received a phone call that got Daisy upset. Jordan explained to Nick that the phone call was Tom's mistress from New York. When Nick gets back home he notices that Gatsby is outside his mansion, looking across the bay at the green light.

Tom takes Nick to the “Valley of Ashes” (2) the area between West Egg and New York. On their journey they come across a Dr. T.J.Eckleburg billboard that has giant eyes that seem to observe and judge everyone around. While there, they stop at George Wilsons shop so Tom can make arrangements to meet George’s wife, Myrtle, later. On the train to Manhattan, Myrtle sees that puppies are for sale and Tom buys her one. Nick tries to leave Tom and Myrtle, but they insist on him coming to their apartment. Tom serves everyone drinks. Later that night a fight broke out between Tom and Myrtle. Around midnight Myrtle started shouting “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” at Tom, not saying a word, Tom broke Myrtle's “nose with his open hand” (2).

With Nick being Gatsby's neighbors, he has a front row view of watching Gatsby's parties every weekend. One day, a chauffeur came down to Nick's house and handed him an invitation, inviting him to Gatsby's “little party” (3). Nick attends the party where he meets up with Jordan, and realizes a lot of the guest are there for the social climbing experience. The people at these parties make Nick realize that nobody really knows the real Gatsby. Rumors began to be spread about Gatsby's occupation, whether he killed someone or that he was a German spy. After they conversate and have dinner, Nick and Jordan decide to go on a hunt for Gatsby. On the search, they stumbled upon his library where they found a “middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles” (3) sitting drunk on a table. They leave the library, and sit at a table with a man that recognized Nick from the army. After talking about the war, Nick tells this gentleman that “this is an unusual party for me. I haven’t even seen the host.” (3) and how Gatsby's sent his chauffeur over with the invitation. Suddenly the gentleman reveals to Nick that he is Gatsby. As this information is revealed, Gatsby's butler takes him away because he had a call from Chicago. Nick begins to ask Jordan on what she knows about Gatsby. Gatsby's butler came and stood beside Nick and Jordan, saying that Gatsby wanted to speak to Jordan alone. As Jordan is gone, Nick watches the party go on around him. When Nick wants to leave he runs into Gatsby and Jordan walking out of the library. Jordan is all excited because Gatsby told her something amazing. She leaves and Gatsby apologizes to Nick about introducing himself earlier. To make up for it Gatsby offers Nick a ride in his hydroplane the next day. After this offer Nick tries to leave the party again, but the man with the owl-eyed spectacles and another man had crashed a car into a ditch leaving Gatsby's drive.

In the middle of that summer Nick and Jordan had reconnected. Nick thought it was cool that he was able to go places with her because she was famous at first but then he became on the border of loving her. He knew he could not love her because she was a pathological liar. Since calling a woman a liar is considered improper, Jordan is able to get away with it. Nick also remembers the story of her gold career, where she was accused of cheating. She had moved her ball to a better lie. The witnesses that were accusing her of this later took back their statements.

 Rumors began to spread that Gatsby is a bootlegger. A morning in July Gatsby picks Nick up and they go to the city for lunch. On the way Gatsby was speeding past Mr. Wilson’s gas station and got pulled over. When the officer confronted him, Gatsby showed the officer a white card, and the officer apologized and let them go. At lunch Gatsby introduces Nick to Mr.Wolfshiem, one of his business partners that seems very gangster like. Gatsby later told Nick that he was the one who fixed the 1919 World Series. Later that day, when Nick was with Jordan, she tells him about how she has been Daisy's friend for many years and that Daisy used to date this soldier. That soldier was Jay Gatsby. Once Gatsby left for the army, Daisy then married Tom six months later. She began to tell him how Daisy was crying trying to call off the wedding the night before. That night Nick was at Tom and Daisy's for dinner, when Gatsby's name was brought up, Daisy knew it was the same Gatsby she knew years ago. Nick is amazed by the coincidence, “Gatsby bought the house so that Daisy would just be across the bay” (4). Jordan then asks Nick if he could invite Daisy over one day and have him come over.

Gatsby visits Nick inquiring about the arrangement on having Daisy over for tea. Nick agrees and invites Daisy only, over the next day. Gatsby sends someone to mow the lawn and sends flowers to Nick's house. While waiting for Daisy to show, Gatsby waits impatiently, suggesting “nobody's coming to tea…” (5). Gatsby waits inside for Daisy and Nick to come in. after walking in there was a moment of silence before Daisy said “...awfully glad to see you again” (5). Nick leaves the room when they start to speak. When he returns Gatsby and Daisy are two different people than when he left them. Daisy looks out the window and sees Gatsby's mansion, where Gatsby takes them to show off in front of Daisy. Gatsby takes them on a tour of the house and ends up in his room. This is where he says “I've got a man in England who buys me clothes…” (5) As he starting emptying his closet of clothes. Daisy eats this up and starts crying in shock of the nice clothes. As they make their way through the house, they look across the bay and tells Daisy about the green light that burns on her dock. According to voanews.com, “people had extra money to spend on things other than food… they could experiment with new products and different ways of living”

Nick wanted to let us know about the real Gatsby, Jay Gatz. Gatsby is self-made, he came from a family with a failing farm. Gatsby meets with Dan Cody and begins to work for him as a jack of all trade employee five years. Dan was supposed to leave Gatsby money in his will but his estranged wife had taken it.

Gatsby has another party where he invited both Tom and Daisy too. Gatsby takes Daisy, Nick and Tom around introducing them to various celebrities and movie stars. They were all amazed on being at the same party as these famous people. Tom suggests that Gatsby is “some big bootlegger” (6), and begins to argue. Daisy finally says “at least they're more interesting than the people we know” (6), and “lots of people come who haven’t been invited” (6). She also tells Tom that he owns many drug stores. Gatsby, worried if Daisy liked the party, asks Nick about it, and that he wanted to repeat the past with Daisy, “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before… she’ll see” (6).

                Nick tries to visit Gatsby but the new butler that Gatsby has hired turned him away. Gatsby does this to keep his affair with Daisy discreet. Gatsby invites Nick to Daisy's for lunch one day, where both Gatsby and Daisy will tell Tom that they love each other. When they go to Daisy's, Tom is supposedly on the phone with his mistress, Myrtle. Daisy asks to go to New York, Daisy rides with Gatsby in Tom’s car, and Tom, Nick and Jordan in Gatsby's car. On the way they stop at Wilson's garage, where he tells them he suspects his wife is cheating on him. Myrtle looks out the window and sees Tom and who she thinks is Daisy in the car. When they arrive in New York they do nothing but fight. Gatsby tries telling Tom that Daisy loves him, showing Gatsby’s lack of morals. Daisy, stuck in between, tells them she loves them both. Tom starts fighting that he knows all about Gatsby's criminal activity. Daisy has enough of the fighting and demands to go home. Gatsby and Daisy ride in Gatsby car, as Nick, Jordan and Tom ride in the other. On the way back, Myrtle Wilson sees the yellow car Tom was driving earlier coming down the road. She tried running out to stop and talk, but instead Daisy ran Myrtle over. Tom stops at Wilsons not knowing about the accident. He finds out that it was a yellow car and tells Mr. Wilson it was not his car and that he had given that car back to the owner.  Tom eventually makes his way back home with Jordan and Nick and invites them back inside. Nick refuses and asks for a taxi to go home. As he walks down to the road, he sees Gatsby hiding in the bushes. He was there protecting Daisy, if she flickered the lights, Gatsby was going in to save her from Tom if he found out what happened.