Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator, has a singular place within The Great Gatsby. First, he is both narrator and participant. Part of Fitzgerald’s skill in The Great Gatsby shines through the way he cleverly makes Nick a focal point of the action, while simultaneously allowing him to remain sufficiently in […]
Read more Character Analysis Nick CarrawaySummary and Analysis Chapter 9
Summary The book’s final chapter begins with the police and the paparazzi storming Gatsby’s house. Nick becomes worried that he is handling Gatsby’s burial arrangements, believing there must be someone closer to Gatsby who should be conducting the business at hand. When he phones Daisy to tell her of Gatsby’s […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 9Summary and Analysis Chapter 8
Summary Nick wakes as Chapter 8 opens, hearing Gatsby return home from his all-night vigil at the Buchanans. He goes to Gatsby’s, feeling he should tell him something (even he doesn’t know what, exactly). Gatsby reveals that nothing happened while he kept his watch. Nick suggests Gatsby leave town for […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8Summary and Analysis Chapter 7
Summary As the curiosity surrounding Gatsby peaks, the routine Saturday parties abruptly cease. When Gatsby comes, at Daisy’s request, to invite him to lunch at her house the next day, Nick learns that Gatsby replaced the servants with “some people Wolfshiem wanted to do something for” — he feared they […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 7Summary and Analysis Chapter 6
Summary Chapter 6 opens with an air of suspicion as a reporter comes to Gatsby, asking him “if he had anything to say.” The myth of Gatsby was becoming so great by summer’s end that he was rumored to be embroiled in a variety of plots and schemes, inventions that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6Summary and Analysis Chapter 5
Summary When Nick returns home to West Egg that evening, he finds Gatsby’s house lit top to bottom with no party in sight, and Gatsby walking over to see him. Nick assures Gatsby that he will phone Daisy the next day and invite her to tea. Gatsby, knowing Nick doesn’t […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5Summary and Analysis Chapter 4
Summary Chapter 4 opens with a cataloguing of Gatsby’s party guests: the Chester Beckers, the Leeches, Doctor Webster Civet, the Hornbeams, the Ismays, the Chrysties, and so on. From socialites and debutantes to the famous and the infamous, Gatsby’s parties draw only the most fashionable of people. One fellow, Klipspringer, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 4Summary and Analysis Chapter 3
Summary Nick’s attentions again turn to Gatsby in Chapter 3. Gatsby, in the summer months, was known far and wide for the extravagant parties he threw in which “men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” During the weekend, people flocked […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 3Summary and Analysis Chapter 2
Summary Chapter 2 begins with a description of the valley of ashes, a desolate and forsaken expanse of formerly developed land that marks the intersection of the city with the suburbs. In addition to its desolate feel and uniform grayness, this forlorn area is home to a decaying billboard that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Chapter 1
Summary As The Great Gatsby opens, Nick Carraway, the story’s narrator, remembers his upbringing and the lessons his family taught him. Readers learn of his past, his education, and his sense of moral justice, as he begins to unfold the story of Jay Gatsby. The narration takes place more than […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1