Major Characters
Is reaching for the green light
Gatsby
Seductive, full-figured Gal
Myrtle
Taught Gatsby hoe to be a gentleman...owned Yacht were Gatsby got his start.
Dan Cody
East Egg
Old Money
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Ch. 1)
Don't judge people because you have no idea what they have been through.
Wont leave her husband
Daisy
Witnessed the wreck (owns shop near Wilson's garage)
Michaelis
Commits suicide
Wilson
The Color Gold
Wealth
"His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people — his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” (Ch. 6)
Gatsby reinvents himself
Wants to reverse time
Gatsby
"Boarder" who stays at Gatsby's....play piano...has other things to do besides attend Gatsby's funeral
Klipspringer
Knows the truth about all relationships in Novel...he is, after all, the narrator
Nick Carraway
Moral and Social DECAY (Death)
The Valley of Ashes
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made." (Ch. 9)
Selfish upper class who don't care about other people
Moves west (think Midwest) at the end of the Novel
Nick
Wears a tooth for a cuff-link and fixed the World Series
Wolfsheim
Kills Myrtle
Daisy
Hopes and Dreams (Striving)
The Green Light
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . . . And one fine morning — So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (Ch. 9)
People hope and reach for the future but are challenged by their past
Has lunch with Gatsby and Wolfsheim
Nick Carraway
Cheats at golf...lies...gossips...dates Nick Carraway
Jordan Baker
Lies and Deceit
Wealth
Recklessness
Love
Society and Class
Themes of The Great Gatsby
God's Judgement
Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
“Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds….The poor son of a b****”
People will use you for your money and status. They are not your friends.