Nick Carraway is from a respected and well-off family from the Midwest. At first, we can’t help but wonder whether Nick is the one who wrote The Great Gatsby? He studied at the Ivy League school, went to war as a soldier, and then moved to New York in 1922 to study credits and bonds. He settled in a house in West Egg, a nice place in Long Island that is expensive yet not too well known. For just 80 dollars a month he got a nice house and wealthy neighbors, among which was Jay Gatsby.
At that time, wealthy people who have made their fortune not so long ago and were keen to show off their prosperity and success inhabited West Egg. East Egg was a little bit more fashionable, and that’s exactly where his cousin Daisy lived. Daisy has made it in life, judging by the standards of that time. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a fabulously wealthy man, who even owns his stable for playing polo. Tom and Nick went to school together and didn’t manage to build a very close friendship. Nick always thought Tom to be arrogant and full of himself.
Tom and Daisy’s relationship leaves much to be desired. Tom started cheating on his wife already during their honeymoon. He couldn’t wait to tell Nick about his new affair with Myrtle Wilson already in the first evening they met after a long time. Daisy knows about it, and it bothers her. After the first encounter at his cousin’s house, Nick leaves with an impression that they should part.
Nick takes a trip with Tom to New York. They visit an apartment at which Tom spends time with his mistress. She lives in an industrial district of New York and is married to a car repair engineer. The apartment is filthy, and so are the people who are there. They have a party that leaves Nick indifferent. At the end of the party, Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose for mocking Daisy.
Very often Nick hears music and party sounds from the house of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Many famous people frequent these parties. The nice music, live orchestra, huge tables, expensive alcohol, Rolls Royce as a taxi to New York… No summary of The Great Gatsby is enough to describe those crazy nights. After each party, at least a dozen of housekeepers clean up the consequences of previous nights.
Finally, Nick gets an invitation to one of these parties. Mixing with people, he learns more rumors about the owner of the house than the truth. People say that he murdered somebody, or that he is a German spy. Men think of him as a fat and ugly man, ladies dream of him as a son of a devil. An important point that shouldn’t be missed in any Great Gatsby summary – Nick was one of the few characters who got an invitation to a party. People didn’t get an invitation to the Gatsby parties, they simply came and had fun!
When we finally meet the legendary Jay Gatsby, he is different than what most readers expect reading The Great Gatsby summary: he is cool, reserved, keeps his distance. It seems that the public that used Gatsby for having fun on the premises of his house paid him by not meddling in his affairs. Upon closer look, he turns out to be a great listener and an interesting person.
At the party, Nick also meets Jordan Baker – a beautiful young lady whom he met for the first time while visiting his cousin Daisy. Jordan finds out a secret that Gatsby is in love with Daisy. They knew each other before. They met when Daisy was 18 and Jay was just a soldier without any money in his pockets. When Jay went to the war, Daisy married Tom.
What Jay doesn’t know is that right before the wedding, Daisy got drunk with her friend, threw away her wedding present – an expensive pearl necklace, and begged her friend not to let her marry Tom.
Now Jay is rich and ,famous and still loves Daisy. He knows exactly where she lives and how her life turned out so far. But he doesn’t dare approach her. That’s why so much effort for the parties and notorious lifestyle was to attract the attention of a woman he truly loves. So if you ask a person to tell you what is The Great Gatsby about in just one sentence – it’s about extravagant things a man could do for the woman he once lost but continues to love.
Nick arranges an “accidental” meeting for Jay and Daisy in his home. After a couple of weird moments, the love between them reignites again and they begin an affair. After Daisy entered Jay’s Gothic mansion house for the first time, which was very important to him, the parties became less frequent and almost stopped altogether. He changed the maids to those “who knew how to keep quiet”. Needless to say, when Tom Buchanan met Jay Gatsby, he liked neither his house nor his parties, or the man himself. He started wondering and doubting the origins of Gatsby’s wealth.
After a clash between Tom and Gatsby over who will stay with Daisy, Daisy is driving Gatsby’s Rolls Royce and accidentally hits Myrtle. Tom decided to take advantage of the opportunity and persuaded her husband, George, that the driver was Gatsby. George, overwhelmed with sorrow and rage, kills Jay and then himself.
Only three people came to Gatsby funeral: his father, Nick and one of the party lovers. Even though Nick made thousands of calls to people who used to be at Gatsby’s house every weekend. Tom and Daisy left town without letting anybody know where they were headed. They were a careless couple, they broke the things and relationships who surround them and then ran away and hid behind their money, letting others clean up after them.
That’s it for a quick The Great Gatsby synopsis. But the essence of the book isn’t in a plot, which is quite simple and short. The reason why the novel resonates with so many readers are the all the symbols that are in it, and especially in its characters.