The Great Gatsby is a novel published in 1925. It has been written by a renowned American author F.Scott Fitzgerald. The fictional town of East Egg and West Egg has been used as the setting of this novel. In this novel themes like idealism, decadence, stubbornness and many more can be found.
Summary
The narrator of the novel Nick Carraway is a young man from Minnesota. In the summer of 1922 he comes to New York to learn the tricks of bond business. He takes a house on rent in the district of West Egg. This area is known for newly rich people. It is wealthy but unfashionable. Jay Gatsby is a mysterious man who is the neighbor of Nick. He is a wealthy man and he lives in a mansion which is not less than any palace. He has the habit of throwing extravagant parties on every Saturday. Nick has taken his education from Yale and his cousin lives at East Egg. Established upper class people live at the East Egg and it is considered as the most fashionable area of Long Island. One day Nick goes to East Egg to meet his cousin Daisy Buchanan and Tom who is her husband. It is interesting to find that Tom and Nick are classmates as they have studied together at Yale. In East Egg he is introduced to Jordan Baker by Tom and Daisy. She is a young woman who is beautiful but cynical. A romantic relationship is initiated between Nick and Jordan. Further we find that Jordan tells Nick that Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. She lives in an area which is known as valley of ashes. It is a waste dumping ground situated between the West Egg and New York. As the plot advances we find that Nick goes to New York with Tom and Myrtle to attend a party at the same apartment where Tom and Myrtle used to make physical relationship with each other. In the party Myrtle starts passing loose comments to Tom about her wife Daisy. Tom becomes irritated and in a fit of rage he breaks her nose. One day Nick is invited to the party of Jay Gatsby. Here it is revealed that Jay Gatsby knows Daisy from earlier days and he is in love with her. He throws parties only to impress Daisy. He asks Nick to arrange a meeting between him and Daisy. Nick agrees and he calls Daisy at his house without making her aware about Jay Gatsby. A meeting between Jay Gatsby and Daisy occurs there. Soon an affair between Daisy and Jay Gatsby starts developing. Jay Gatsby meets Daisy again at her house on a luncheon. He stares her in front of her husband. Tom becomes outraged as he cannot bear this thought that his wife has an affair with Gatsby. He says to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal. He earns money by bootlegging alcohol and other illegal works. The whole group is forced to go at a hotel in the New York. Here again there are some verbal exchanges between Gatsby and Tom. Now, Tom is convinced that Gatsby cannot hurt him, sends Daisy to East Egg with Gatsby. When Tom, Nick and Jordan are returning to East Egg they come to know that Gatsby kills Myrtle in a car accident. Later we know that it was Daisy who was driving the car but the blame was taken by Gatsby. However, Tom says to George that his wife Myrtle has been killed by Jay Gatsby. George wants to take the revenge and in a fit of rage he kills Jay Gatsby and commits suicide. Nick arranges funeral for Gatsby where nobody comes except a few. Nick has understood that people in the East Coast were hollow and morally corrupt. He returns back to Midwest breaks the relationship with Jordan.
Critical Analysis
Jay Gatsby was a corrupt man but the title of the novel shows his greatness. It is also acknowledged by Nick Carraway that his greatness lies in his dream to win his love. Although he is a corrupt man but he has the potential to accept the reality. Failure of Gatsby is the failure of America where the citizens are running behind money and wealth. They are forgetting the morality associated with humanity.
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