Summary reviewed by:
Terrence Timmons
Terrence Timmons
Analyst
Bachelor of Arts (BA), University Of California, Santa Barbara 2019
With over 4 years of experience as an analyst. Terrence Timmons is committed to analyzing summaries without compromising on quality.
Fall into the Roaring Twenties with 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a tale of decadence and despair set amidst the glamour and recklessness of New York and Long Island's North Shore.
Our story orbits around the enigmatic Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire with a proclivity for flamboyant parties and an unquenchable thirst for a lost love. Wrapped in a mysterious aura, Gatsby exudes an intense magnetism that permeates throughout the narrative, drawing other characters into his universe of dreams and disillusionment.
The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner drawn to the East to learn about bonds, but he finds himself entangled in a web of romantic intrigue, extravagant wealth, and moral bankruptcy instead. Floating amidst opulence, unrequited love, and deceit, the tale echoes the hollow beat of a time that revelled in the superficial, questioned the American Dream, and danced with reckless abandon on the precipice of financial ruin.
Date Published: April 10, 1925
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Fiction
Tragedy
Modernist Literature
Social Commentary
Jay Gatsby: The eponymous hero, a millionaire known for his lavish parties. An embodiment of the American Dream, Gatsby values determination and relentless pursuit of desires. His dream of rekindling his romance with Daisy embodies this value.
Nick Carraway: The novel’s narrator, Nick is an honest, reflective, and open-minded man from the Midwest. He values honesty and moral integrity, as seen when he confronts Daisy about her culpability in Myrtle’s death.
Daisy Buchanan: Beautiful and alluring, Daisy is Gatsby’s love interest. She is a symbol of wealth and status but values little beyond material comfort and social position. Her reckless driving that kills Myrtle exemplifies this.
Tom Buchanan: Daisy’s wealthy, brutish husband, Tom values power and dominance. This is displayed through his affair with Myrtle and his disregard for her death.
The American Dream: Through Gatsby’s rise and fall, the novel critiques the American Dream as an illusory pursuit of wealth and status without moral grounding.
Love and Obsession: Gatsby’s desire for Daisy reveals a destructive obsession masked as love, leading to his downfall.
Social Class and Disillusionment: The difference between the wealthy and the working class and the moral decay of the elite is laid bare, culminating in Nick’s disillusionment with the East.
Appearance vs Reality: The veneer of happiness and glamour in Gatsby’s life hides his loneliness and dissatisfaction, revealing a stark contrast between outward appearances and inward realities.
