Chapter One: The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a man from Minnesota named Nick Carraway. He starts off the story by stating that he learned from his father to not judge other people because he could make the mistake of misunderstanding someone. Nick characterizes himself as highly moral and highly tolerant. He briefly mentions Gatsby. In the summer of 1922, Nick moved to New York to work in the bond business. He rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. The West Egg is home to those who have recently become come rich while the East Egg is conservative and snotty. Nick lives right next door to Gatsby’s mansion. Nick graduated from Yale and has many connections on East Egg. One Night Nick drives …show more content…
The men who live there work at shoveling up the ashes. Over the valley, there’s an old billboard advertisement of two big, blue, spectacle eyes by a long vanished eye doctor looking down from the huge sign. The eyes on the billboard belonged to Doctor T.J. Eckleburg which watched over everything that happens in the valley of ashes. There’s a commuter train that runs between the West Egg and New York which passes through the valley. One day, while Nick and Tom rode the train into the city, Tom forces Nick to follow him to one of these stops. Toms leads Nick to George Wilson’s garage which is located on the edge of the valley of ashes. Tom’s lover Myrtle is Wilson’s wife. Wilson is a lifeless man colored grey by the ashes in the air. Tom makes fun of Wilson and orders Myrtle to follow him to the train. Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to New York City, to the Morningside Heights apartment where he keeps his affair. Catherine, Myrtle’s sister and a couple name McKee throws an unplanned party at the apartment. Catherine tells Nick she has heard that Jay Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during World War I. The McKee’s are a horrid couple. The group drank excessively. Myrtle gets more obnoxious as she drinks, after Tom gives her a puppy as a gift, she starts talking about Daisy. Toms tells her to stop talking about his wife, Myrtle refused and as a …show more content…
A reporter even travels to Gatsby’s mansion hoping to interview him. Nick interrupts the story to tell the truth about Gatsby, as it all really happened. Gatsby was born James Gatz on a North Dakota farm. He attended college at St. Olaf’s in Minnesota, but dropped out after two weeks. He worked as a janitor to pay for his tuition. He worked on Lake Superior the next summer fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a wealthy copper mogul name Dan Cody, on his yacht and went out to warn him of the storm ahead. Cody took Gatz, named him Jay Gatsby, and made him his personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West Indies, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and luxury. Cody was a heavy drinker, and one of Gatsby’s jobs was to look after him on his drunken days. This made Gatsby not to ever drink because he’s aware of the dangers of drinking. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress didn’t allow him to collect his inheritance. Gatsby used his experience as motivation to become a wealthy successful man. Nick doesn’t see Gatsby or Daisy for a while since the reunion at his house. One afternoon Nick visits Gatsby’s house and finds Tom there along with the Sloanes. Gatsby lets Tom know that he knows Daisy. Tom is aware of Daisy’s solo visits to Gatsby’s mansion. He is suspicious but doesn’t know about Gatsby and Daisy’s love. Tom and Daisy attend a