The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Paper

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, Nick Carraway. Nick tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, who is his neighbor in the West Egg. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a man who everyone wants to know and copy but deep down are very envious of him. Gatsby trusts few people and those whom he trusts know his life story. To everyone else, he is a mystery. Everyone seems obsessed with Jay Gatsby. For this reason the novel revolves about rumors of Gatsby rather than the truth.

Nick Carraway and another character named Jordan Baker are two people whom Gatsby trusts. But even these two characters question some of the rumors about Gatsby. Carraway and Baker question whether Gatsby really attended Oxford University. It is not until another character, Mr.Wolfshiem, confirms it that he did attend Oxford that Nick decides it must be true.

Gatsby is also one of those people who is often associated with a lot of rumors. Catherine, the sister of Tom Buchanan's mistress, says "Well, they say he's a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's. That's where all his money comes from"(pg.37). The guests of Mr. Gatsby's parties also suspect him of murdering a man.

Many of the rumors have to do with a woman Gatsby is obsessed with named Daisy Buchanan. This shows that this book is either a love story or a character study of Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald not only makes Gatsby a mystery to the other characters in the novel but to the readers as well. He is not sure if the reader can be trusted yet, so by keeping Gatsby mysterious Fitzgerald can later decide if he wants to share the truth. This shows that there are two main types of rumors that the other characters spread around. The ones about strictly Gatsby's past life, and the ones about him and Daisy.

Before Nick Carraway meets Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy had a brief relationship. Gatsby unfortunately had to leave for war but begged Daisy to wait for him. Daisy won't wait and when Gatsby returns Gatsby wants to see Daisy again. Daisy and Gatsby are having tea at Nick's house when she says, " We haven't met for many years"(pg.92). Gatsby then answers "Five years next November"(pg.92). This shows that Gatsby and Daisy have still thought about each other often and want to become involved in a relationship once more. Unfortunately for Gatsby, this will cause more suspicion and rumor.

Fitzgerald is putting Gatsby and Daisy in the same situation that he and Zelda were in when they first fell in love. Like Daisy, Zelda was from a wealthy family and would not marry Fitzgerald until he became a wealthy novelist. Fitzgerald uses this real life experience with Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby asks Daisy why she did not wait for him and she responds that she could not wait for him any longer since he was poor. But now that Gatsby has tons of money, like Fitzgerald, he and Daisy have a secret affair. Fitzgerald shows this by saying, "As he left the room again she got up and went over to Gatsby, and pulled his face down kissing him on the mouth"(pg.122). Daisy does this only when Tom is not around for fear of him finding out, but once Tom does find out, he is very hypocritical to the situation. It is hypocritical because not only is Tom having and affair with Myrtle but he refuses to tell Daisy straight out.

Tom soon becomes very resentful of Gatsby and Daisy's affair, but Daisy does not get angry with Tom for having his mistress. Gatsby and Tom have a fight over Daisy in the plaza and the end result causes chaos and more hatred. During this fight Tom says, "Go on, he won't annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over"(pg.142) . Tom says