A basic summary of the Great Gatsby and how Nick ruins it for you

Although The Great Gatsby is one of America’s most beloved and respected novels, the book’s basic premise is so simple that it could easily become a bad comedy: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl marries girl. , boy buys a mansion nearby. , he tells the girl that he was “in the neighborhood.” What gives the story its depth and complexity, aside from the misleading pentagram of love and the depressing double murder/suicide, are the elements added by Nick Carraway’s narration.

Nick tells the story of his relationship with Gatsby from memory. First, we learn that Nick is Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, and that he attended Yale with her husband’s athlete, Tom. The two live in Manhattan’s super-swanky East Egg, while Nick lives in still-swanky but less wealthy West Egg. We then accompany Tom and Nick on a trip to visit Tom’s mistress Myrtle (who is also married). Nick is surprisingly quiet about the fact that his cousin is being cheated like a king, but since he places a lot of importance on reserving judgment, we have to assume that he doesn’t want to interfere in other people’s affairs. (Or that Tom is way scarier than we’ve given him credit for.)

Next, we hear about Nick’s scheming new neighbor, Jay Gatsby. He just moved into the mansion next door and has been throwing wild parties for the whole neighborhood. Apparently gossip is rampant; no one really knows who he is, where he came from or how he got so rich. However, Nick is more interested in the fact that Gatsby likes to stand on his lawn and stare at a nice green light across the bay for hours. We can’t help but wonder what this guy is using to increase his hit, and can we have the recipe?

Nick begins attending Gatsby’s parties and tries to meet the man. Even though Gatsby isn’t pulling off the “high society” act, he oozes charisma and likability, so we want to believe the lie. Finally, we get to the heart of the matter: Gatsby is madly in love with Daisy, Nick’s cousin, and has been trying to win her back with his way of buying mansions and throwing parties in the 1920s. Nick agrees to “accidentally” schedule a playdate so that Gatsby and Daisy have a chance to rekindle their love lost in high school. What do they do. Hurrah!

Enter Thomas. Tom isn’t very interested in this Gatsby cat, and since he’s a big, manipulative bully, he makes sure to investigate the various rumors about Gatsby’s true identity. At this point, Nick chooses to reveal to us the truth about Gatsby’s humble origins, which, in the world of the story, he won’t learn for another two chapters: Gatsby grew up poor and without a particularly good education, and only through a chance meeting. from a wealthy old man he learned what it takes to succeed in life. We still don’t know what this is, but we have a feeling he’s up to no good.

Finally, the inevitable showdown between Tom and Gatsby ensues. Tom reveals that Gatsby made his fortune smuggling, which shames Daisy into breaking off the affair. To show everyone how unthreatened Gatsby makes him feel, Tom gives Gatsby permission to bring Daisy home. Along the way, Daisy Buchanan and Gatsby accidentally run over Tom’s mistress Myrtle. Although we’re not sure who she was driving at the time, Tom will surely tell Myrtle’s husband George that he was Gatsby. To avenge the death of his wife, George shoots Gatsby and then himself, thus making everything very well for Tom. Gatsby’s funeral is held a few days later, and no one shows up. Nick concludes his story by saying that Gatsby’s desire to live in the past was his undoing. Oh yeah, and that everyone is an idiot and that he’s moving back west.

What gives the straightforward summary of The Great Gatsby such a memorable overall effect is the fact that the story unfolds on two levels simultaneously: the world of the past-tense story and the real-time narration. The irony here, of course, is that Nick criticizes Gatsby for living in the past using, whoops, two hundred pages of flashback. In fact, he even interrupts the novel’s time frame by revealing information to the reader in chapter six that he doesn’t discover himself until chapter eight! Now, who lives in the past?

In a way, Nick is both Nick’s character, quietly and tolerantly testifying to all sorts of social and moral no-no’s, and Nick’s narrator, criticizing how much he hates this guy and how much he annoys him. and phew! – Can you BELIEVE what she’s wearing? Storyworld Nick leads us to believe that he is an objective and trustworthy guy, but by the end of the story, we realize that he has become completely disillusioned, and that Nick, who narrates in real time, has been disillusioned all along. . “Oh no!” you say. “Now, when I look back on everything that happened, I *feel* disappointed!”

Exactly.