Summary Of The Great Gatsby

Improved Essays
Despite being the title of the book, Mr. Gatsby does not appear during the first two chapters where many characters have already been introduced to the reader. The narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway, claims that at a younger age he learned to reserve all judgments, but in chapter three when he finally meets Mr. Gatsby, Nick seems to immediately begin to make assumption about him even before meeting Gatsby face to face. Nick along with the other guests who attend Gatsby lavish and extravagant party converse about the mysterious nature of Gatsby because many people show up to his parties, yet few have actually met him personally, and they trade bizarre rumors of Gatsby, none of which seem to hold. In the end, …show more content…
As soon as Nick arrives at the party, he tries to seek out the host, Gatsby, whose whereabouts no guest seems to know, and his enigmatic nature is incepted. After being unsuccessful in locating Gatsby, Nick walks toward the cocktail bar lonely and purposelessly where he encounters Jordan Baker. As they settle down at a table with two other women and three men, the topic of Gatsby is immediately brought up again. Initially Gatsby is spoken of as a generous and kind man who immediately sent Lucille one of the guest a very expensive replacement gown for one which she torn at one of his parties. However, someone raises the question of his motives for …show more content…
Upon finding Owl Eyes, a drunk man hoping to sober up by looking at books, Nick and Jordan are immediately shown Gatsby extensive collection of books which symbolize his high level of education. Owl Eyes goes on to show that they are authentic “Absolutely real-have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard…It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too-didn’t cut the pages” (45-46). Though the authenticity of the books would signal that Gatsby is a true scholar and very prestigious in his studies, this ignores the last piece of evidence “didn’t cut the pages,” which needs to be further explored in order to achieve a more accurate judgment of Gatsby. Owl Eyes was not invited to this party, but rather he was brought, so he is drawing this conclusion that Gatsby is scholarly solely off of the books in his library. However, on closer inspection, one can see that these books despite being real have not been read. Owl Eyes points out that the pages are not cut meaning Gatsby is yet to read up to that, thus the books are not fulfilling their purpose as books to be read. These elite books instead are doing nothing but put

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn’t cut the pages…’” (Fitzgerald 46).…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But to be polite they invite Gatsby to dine with them, which he accepts but they leave without him. On the following Saturday night Tom and Daisy go to one of Gatsby’s illustrious parties. Tom seems to have no interest in the party but he just wants to keep an eye on Daisy. Nick feels that this party isn 't at favorable as the other party and Daisy even seems to feel the same way. Tom upsets Daisy even more by accusing Gatsby of earning his wealth by bootlegging.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Another theme in The Great Gatsby was isolation. Gatsby keeps himself completely isolated except for when he throws these parties in hopes of seeing Daisy. When him and Daisy finally get together, they don’t want anyone to know because she hasn’t left Tom yet and so he completely isolates himself. He sends home all of his staff and the only people he really sees during that time are Nick and Daisy. This ties into the themes of the course because Nick observes the way Gatsby interacts with society in the same way we observe the relationship between certain nations and the rest of the world.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby, after being pulled over and signaled the ok to go, mentions “‘I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.’” (Fitzgerald, 68) which shows he was more in contact than with the people who invited themselves to his parties. Once Gatsby and Nick go for lunch, they enter into what seems to be a hidden underground club at Forty-second Street. Nick is then introduced to Gatsby 's friend Mr. Wolfshiem during lunch. The waiter who is waitressing both Wolfsheim, Gatsby and Nick, asks Gatsby “‘Highballs?’ asked the head waiter….’Yes, highballs,’ agreed Gatsby” (Fitzgerald 70) which confirms the fact that Gatsby is well known…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A book that is known for taking place in this decade is The Great Gatsby. In this book, a character, Nick Carraway comes to the city for a summer. When he comes he learns everyone parties, and commits adulterine. Carraway meets many characters throughout the summer and none of them show values like Carraway does. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Carraway shows behaviors that classify his mid-western such as getting invited to events, not showing up, treating people the way you want to be treated, and don’t leave behind a person for selfish priorities.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby invites Nick out of the blue to lunch in the city, as he has a favor to ask of him. Nick accepts, but is understandably cautious. He knows next to nothing about his neighbor, and many of the speculation he has heard are directly contradictory to one another. Gatsby frankly asks what Nick thinks of him, a question that even Nick himself struggles to answer. Gatsby then launches into an elaborate tale of growing up as the offspring of rich parents from San Francisco, coming into their money after their deaths, and attending Oxford.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Silas Marner Chapters

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages

    He went to the town pub to spread the news that his gold had been stolen. Chapter Six: The Rainbow is filled mostly by the lower class citizens of Raveloe, with most of the high class patrons at a party. The conversation is mild and lackadaisical throughout the chapter, with brief arguments breaking out over conflicting opinions. The arguments are all quickly settled by Mr. Snell, the landlord of the…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though Nicks observant nature is fluent through the novel his introverted, pure and alienated nature swiftly changes upon meeting Jay Gatsby. When Nick first meets Gatsby he is intrigued by Gatsby's mysterious aura and wants to know who he really is which leads to Nick having a strong bond with Gatsby and becoming involved with the lavish lifestyle of the upper class that leads him to losing the pure, introverted part of him most notably when he is at one of Gatsby's parties, “I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” (Fitzgerald 47). Although Nick becomes involved with the lavish upper class lifestyle his demeanor quickly changes back into his old introverted pure…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While Nick and Gatsby are on there way for lunch Nick feels that in the time his met Gatsby he has only spoken to him six time and finds him to be a person who “has little to say”.Then suddenly Gatsby brakes the silence while they are in the car by asking Nick “Look here old sport.” he broke out surprisingly “what’s your opinion of me, anytime?”(65) Gatsby although not very many know who he is seem to know and hear the conversations that people make up of him while at his parties.Gatsby has been seen as a character who is very mysterious from the beginning of the book and throughout his life. He begins to tell Nick about his past in being in the war and how he develop through his time of being in it. Gatsby pulls out, “ a piece of metal shing on a ribbon” the one he got when he got promoted to Major. When Gatsby pulls out this metal there seems to be a feeling of humbleness in him that fact that he is a rich man carrying around a metal like this in his pocket shows he has not forgetting where he came home.As he begins to about where he came from and his past while Gatsby is telling him about where he is from he seems to hurry when he says the phrase “educated at Oxford” as if it bothered him to say. While he is telling Nick his story it seems to be highly improbably which lead Nick to believe its not truth.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gatsby has the most outstanding and exciting parties, although he never bothers to go down to his parties to greet his guests. Gatsby’s grand parties are part of his façade to portray himself as an extremely wealthy and popular, yet mysterious man, as everyone knows his name although not his true identity. Gatsby throws parties for society, to impose his name more and to be seen as the striking person he always wished to be. As the story progresses, Fitzgerald shows the reader a glimpse of a different side of Gatsby in contrast to the Gatsby initially introduced in the novel. In Chapter four, Gatsby questions Nick, “Look here, old sport…What’s your opinion of me anyhow?” Gatsby asks Nick on his thoughts of him so he can tell him about himself, in order to prevent Nick’s belief in the various rumours spread about Gatsby.…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays