The Great Gatsby

This quote is taken from chapter one when Daisy is telling Nick about the birth of her daughter. Through this quote, Daisy makes an important point about 1920s American society. Specifically, she...

Despite their differences in wealth and social status, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson have a number of things in common. For one thing, they are both dependent to some extent on Tom Buchanan....

The Great Gatsby concludes with one of the most famous lines in all of literature: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Gatsby invested all of his...

Gatsby admits to Nick that Daisy was driving the car and was the one who ran over Myrtle: "Was Daisy driving?" "Yes," he said after a moment, "but of course I’ll say I was. You see, when we left...

In chapter seven, Daisy Buchanan openly flirts with Jay Gatsby in front of her husband and Nick Carraway remarks that she has an "indiscreet voice." Nick means that Daisy lacks restraint and is...

Gatsby’s lavish parties in The Great Gatsby are one of the most memorable aspects of the novel. The narrator and Gatsby’s neighbor, Nick, first sees them from a distance. Besides actually seeing...

Gatsby's car is the one that hits Myrtle. Daisy is driving it, and after she runs Myrtle over, she keeps on going. Myrtle, however, believes the car belongs to Tom. This is because Tom is driving...

In Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby acquires his wealth through the underground bootlegging industry. Unlike Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who are born into wealth and considered...

While Myrtle Wilson and Daisy Buchanan occupy completely different social classes, both characters share similar personality traits and values. Both women are portrayed as superficial, selfish...

Chapter 4 occurs after Nick first attends one of Gatsby's large, flamboyant parties. Nick continues to talk about the rumors flying about Gatsby at the parties as the chapter opens. First, we learn...

Gatsby very much wants Nick to help him in his quest to reunite with Daisy so he takes him to lunch in the city. On the drive in, Gatsby knows it is important to dispel some of the rumors Nick...

Nick's relationship with Jordan in The Great Gatsby begins as infatuation on his part, moves into a romantic one, and ultimately falls apart when Nick sees flaws in Jordan that he cannot accept. In...

I agree with Nick. However, a person who is so completely willing to engage in pretense and make believe, as Gatsby is, might be able to convince himself that this possible. This ability on...

Daisy Buchanan sobs when she sees Jay Gatsby's impressive collection of tailor-made shirts for several reasons. Her initial reaction being to sob at the collection of shirts highlights her...

When Gatsby first met Daisy before the war, he was not in love with her. Having come from such humble beginnings himself, Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth...

I would argue that Gatsby himself is responsible for his own death. While Nick certainly portrays Gatsby heroically, it's important to step back from his narration and consider the truth about the...

One symbol of time in The Great Gatsby is the color green. Green pops out throughout the novel. Gatsby’s torn shirt, the interior of the car that hits Myrtle, the sickly face of Myrtle’s...

The weather is brutally, oppressively hot in chapter 7. Nick emphasizes that it is the hottest day of the year. The extremely hot weather symbolizes the way events are heating up in the novel. Tom...

On the surface, Daisy and Myrtle seem very different. Daisy is an ethereal, charming, and delicate woman from a sheltered, well-to-do family. She has the security of being married to Tom Buchanan...

A metaphor is a comparison that does not use the words like or as. The Great Gatsby, an extraordinarily lyrical novel, offers a great wealth of metaphors A few examples are below. In a famous...

Gatsby's funeral is sparsely attended, to say the least. Besides Nick, who'd grown quite attached to him, only the local postman, a handful of servants, Owl Eyes, and Jay's father, Henry Gatz, are...

In chapter 2, Tom Buchanan takes Nick with him into New York City, where he meets up with his mistress, Myrtle Wilson and invites people over to his apartment for a party. During the party, Nick...

In Chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, the rain first foreshadows the tension between Gatsby and Daisy when they are reunited. The rain also symbolizes Daisy's tears later in the chapter. At the...

The shirts symbolize the way Gatsby is trying to impress—to buy—Daisy with his wealth. He believes that his money makes him worthy of her love. As he tosses out beautiful shirt after beautiful...

The owl-eyed man is an observer, someone whose clear-sightedness allows him to see Gatsby for who he really is. We first meet him in chapter three: He claims to have been drunk "for about a week,"...

When Nick is first introduced to Meyer Wolfsheim in chapter 4, Wolfsheim tells him that he has known Gatsby for several years and mentions that Gatsby is an "Oggsford man." He mentions that he met...

Some possible thesis statements below: 1. Although Jay Gatsby lived his life loving Daisy, she did not even attend his funeral. 2. Although the night life was all glitter and glamor at West Egg,...

Gatsby's mansion is located on West Egg, a fictional town modeled on Great Neck. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald rented a house in Great Neck for his wife and daughter and observed it as a working-class...

George Wilson gets it into his head that his wife, Myrtle, has been run down and killed by Tom Buchanan. Under the circumstances, and with the limited information available to him, that seems a...

Tom Buchanan and his two upper-class friends, the Sloanes, are out horseback riding. They stop at Gatsby's merely because they are thirsty and want a drink of water. Tom wants to use Gatsby, as he...

Towards the end of chapter 4, Jordan Baker speaks these words during a conversation with Nick Carraway regarding Jay Gatsby's request to have Nick invite Daisy over to his home. Jordan Baker...

At the end of chapter 6, Nick cautions Gatsby that he should not expect too much of Daisy, because it's impossible to recreate the past. Aghast, Gatsby exclaims that it's absolutely possible to...

The way Mrs. Wilson behaves upon exiting the cab at the apartment she shares with Tom is completely at odds with the way the apartment appears to Nick. To Mrs. Wilson, the apartment and the...

Tom Buchanan never tells George Wilson outright that it was Gatsby who was responsible for Myrtle's death. However, Tom does tell the police, in front of Wilson, that "[Wilson] says he knows the...

Jordan Baker recounts that the night before Daisy's wedding she found Daisy with "a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and a letter in another." In addition, she explains that after reading this...

Jay Gatsby was not always a wealthy and well-connected man. Instead, he was originally named James "Jimmy" Gatz and was a poor farm boy from North Dakota. He was admitted into college but had to...

Jordan and Nick have a cryptic and complicated relationship, and our perception of it is colored by Nick's unreliable narration. He projects his own worst traits onto Jordan while trying to absolve...

For Jay Gatsby, at this point, when everything is out in the open, Daisy's confession that she never loved Tom, is a public affirmation that she loves him. Even though Daisy admits this with some...

In Chapter Six of The Great Gatsby, Daisy attends one of Gatsby's parties, but she does not enjoy it. In fact, she is "offended" by the party, especially by the people who are in attendance. Daisy...

The first incident in chapter 3 is the one in which Owl Eyes, one of Gatsby's guests, crashed his vehicle into a ditch, losing a wheel in the process. When Nick Carraway asked him about the...

From the start, Nick senses an enigmatic quality to the relationship between Daisy and Tom. The first night he comes to their house for dinner, he learns that Tom is having an affair. Daisy...

The puppy episode is significant because it is symbolic of the way Tom views Myrtle as well as how Myrtle views her husband. Tom clearly does not see Myrtle as his social equal. He thinks of her as...

In chapter 6, Nick recounts Gatsby's past. The reader discovers that his real name was James Gatz and that he had no use for his real parents. In fact, his imagination leads him to believe that he...

In chapter 2, Tom and Nick head to the city together, and Tom wants Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle. Nick spends part of the evening talking to a woman named Catherine, Myrtle's sister. She fills...

Following one of Gatsby's summer parties, Gatsby complains that Daisy did not enjoy herself and tells Nick that it is hard to make Daisy "understand." Nick Carraway mentions that Gatsby wanted...

It is in Chapter One of The Great Gatsby that Nick first visits the home of his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom, in the fashionable East Egg neighborhood. Knowing that Tom and Daisy are...

The first time Nick sees Gatsby is at the end of chapter 1; Nick is sitting outside his bungalow in West Egg after having dinner with Tom, Daisy, and Jordan in East Egg. He notices that he is not...

This quote is found near the end of chapter 4, in a moment that Nick shares with Jordan. She has just revealed that Gatsby has purchased his elaborate mansion for the explicit purpose of being...

The argument between Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan takes place in chapter 7. The men cannot stand each other, and Tom has been suspicious of Gatsby since the first time they met. When Jay Gatsby...

It is in Chapter Three of The Great Gatsby that Nick meets Owl Eyes and discovers the uncut books in Gatsby's library. The uncut books are significant because they prove that Gatsby has never read...