by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Meet the main 7 of this story!
The mysterious millionaire who lives next door to Nick. He throws extravagant parties at his mansion every weekend, yet remains an enigma to most of his guests. There's clearly something more to him then meets the eye...
Nick's cousin who lives in the fashionable East Egg. She's beautiful, charming, and married to Tom Buchanan. Despite her wealth and privilege, there's a sadness beneath her glittering surface. Her voice is famously described by others as "full of money."
The narrator and Gatsby's neighbor. A Yale graduate from the Midwest who moves to West Egg to learn the bond business. He's the moral center of the story.
Daisy's wealthy, arrogant husband from an aristocratic East Egg family. A former Yale football star, he's physically imposing and holds racist, elitist views.
Daisy's friend and a professional golfer. She holds a very cynical and dishonest disposition. She represents the new, modern woman of the 1920s.
The wife of George Wilson, a mechanic who owns a garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle is vibrant and sensual, desperately wanting to escape her working-class life.
Myrtle's husband who runs a garage in the valley of ashes. He's a lifeless, exhausted man who seems beaten down by poverty and circumstances.
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The novel opens with Nick Carraway reflecting on advice his father gave him about reserving judgment. Nick has moved from the Midwest to West Egg on Long Island to learn the bond business. He rents a small house next door to a mysterious mansion owned by a man named Gatsby.
Nick visits his cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom in the more fashionable East Egg. Tom is a former Yale football star, now a wealthy and imposing figure with racist views. At dinner, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a professional golfer friend of Daisy's. The atmosphere is tense—Tom receives a phone call, and it's revealed he's having an affair.
Daisy seems unhappy despite her wealth and beauty. She tells Nick about the birth of her daughter, saying she hopes the girl will be "a beautiful little fool" because that's the best thing a girl can be in this world.
That night, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time, standing on his lawn and reaching toward a distant green light across the water.
Narrator's Perspective: Nick establishes himself as both an observer and participant. His claim to reserve judgment is ironic, as the entire novel is his judgment of the events and people he encounters. This sets up the tension between objectivity and bias that runs throughout the narrative.
Class and Geography: The distinction between West Egg (new money) and East Egg (old money) is immediately established. Though Nick lives in West Egg, his Yale education and family background give him access to the East Egg elite, making him a bridge between the two worlds.
The Green Light: Gatsby's gesture toward the green light introduces one of the novel's most important symbols. The light represents distant dreams and desires—always visible but never quite reachable. It's our first hint at Gatsby's romantic obsession.
Disillusionment: Despite the glamorous setting, there's an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. Daisy's cynical comment about her daughter reveals her own disillusionment with her life and marriage. Tom's affair further demonstrates the moral emptiness beneath the surface of wealth and privilege.
The chapter begins with a description of the valley of ashes, a desolate industrial area between West Egg and New York City. Above it looms a faded billboard advertising the services of an oculist named Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, featuring a pair of enormous blue eyes behind yellow spectacles.
Tom Buchanan takes Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who is married to George Wilson, a lifeless and exhausted man who owns a garage in the valley of ashes. Tom and Myrtle, along with Nick, take a train to New York City, where Tom has rented an apartment for his affair.
At the apartment, they're joined by Myrtle's sister Catherine and a couple named McKee. The group drinks and parties. Myrtle acts as though she's of a higher class than she actually is, complaining about her husband and discussing her life with increasing volume and animation.
When Myrtle taunts Tom by repeatedly saying Daisy's name, he breaks her nose with a punch. The chapter ends with Nick, drunk for only the second time in his life, leaving the chaotic scene.
The Valley of Ashes: This wasteland represents the moral and social decay hidden beneath the wealth and glamour of the eggs. It's where the consequences of the rich's indulgence literally pile up—the ashes of industry that power their lifestyles. The working class, represented by George Wilson, is trapped here.
The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg: The billboard's giant eyes watching over the valley suggest the presence of God witnessing the moral emptiness of the era, or perhaps the absence of spiritual values in a materialistic society. These eyes will become increasingly significant as the novel progresses.
Tom's Brutality: Tom's violence toward Myrtle reveals his true character—he's not just morally corrupt but physically dangerous. He believes his wealth and class status give him the right to control and hurt those beneath him. The casual nature of the violence is especially chilling.
Myrtle's Delusions: Myrtle desperately wants to escape her life with George, but she fails to see that Tom will never leave Daisy for her. She transforms herself when in the apartment, trying to adopt the mannerisms and speech of the upper class, but it's all pretense. Her affair represents her own corrupted version of the American Dream.
Nick's Discomfort: Nick is clearly uncomfortable with the debauchery and moral decay he witnesses, yet he participates. This establishes the pattern of Nick being complicit in the events he criticizes—he's simultaneously insider and outsider, judge and accomplice.
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Fitzgerald's opening establishes Nick Carraway as a first-person narrator with a crucial tension: he claims to reserve judgment based on his father's advice, yet the entire novel is essentially his judgment of the events and people he encounters. This irony is intentional and sets up one of the novel's key themes—the impossibility of true objectivity.
Nick positions himself as both insider and outsider. His Yale education and family connections give him access to the East Egg elite, yet his Midwest background and relative financial modesty keep him at a slight remove. This dual perspective makes him the perfect narrator for observing the very rich without being completely absorbed by their world.
The Green Light: Gatsby's gesture toward the distant green light is one of the most iconic images in American literature. At this point in the novel, we don't know what the light represents, but its introduction is masterful—it suggests yearning, distance, and hope. The light is both beautiful and unreachable, perfectly encapsulating Gatsby's relationship with his dreams.
East Egg vs. West Egg: The geographical divide between the two communities is more than just physical. East Egg, with its "white palaces," represents inherited wealth, aristocracy, and tradition. West Egg, though also wealthy, is described as "the less fashionable" of the two, indicating that new money—no matter how vast—carries a social stigma.
Daisy's Cynicism: Her comment about hoping her daughter will be "a beautiful little fool" is devastating in its implications. It reveals Daisy's awareness of women's limited options in her world and her own disillusionment with her marriage and life. The statement is both self-aware and deeply sad—she knows that intelligence and awareness have only brought her unhappiness.
Tom's Character: Fitzgerald wastes no time revealing Tom's true nature. His racist tirade about "The Rise of the Colored Empires" immediately establishes him as a man who believes his privilege is natural and threatened. His physical dominance—Nick describes his body as "capable of enormous leverage"—foreshadows the violence he's capable of.
The chapter's descriptions create a dreamy, almost surreal atmosphere. The Buchanan house seems to float, with curtains "rippling and fluttering" in the breeze. This dreamlike quality suggests that the world of the wealthy exists in a separate reality, beautiful but somehow untethered from the real world. This atmosphere will contrast sharply with the gritty realism of Chapter 2's valley of ashes.
The opening's focus on judgment and morality connects to the novel's broader critique of the Jazz Age. Nick's father's advice about remembering people's advantages suggests a certain moral relativism, but the novel ultimately questions whether wealth excuses bad behavior. This tension between understanding and condemnation runs throughout the story.
The Valley of Ashes: Fitzgerald's description of the valley is one of the most powerful passages in the novel. The repetition of "ashes" creates a rhythmic, almost hypnotic effect, emphasizing the desolation. This is where the consequences of the wealthy's consumption literally pile up—industrial waste, forgotten people, moral decay. The valley represents everything the eggs try to ignore.
The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg: The billboard's enormous eyes "brood" over the valley, suggesting judgment or perhaps just indifferent witnessing. Are they God's eyes watching a morally bankrupt society? Or are they empty, advertising eyes that have outlived their purpose, suggesting God's absence? Fitzgerald leaves this ambiguous, but the image is unforgettable and will become increasingly important.
Chapter 2 deliberately contrasts with Chapter 1. Where the first chapter was dreamlike and ethereal, Chapter 2 is gritty and harsh. The pristine lawns of East Egg give way to ash heaps. The elegant dinner party becomes a sordid, drunken gathering. This structural contrast emphasizes the novel's critique—beneath the glamour lies ugliness.
The apartment scene itself contains contrasts: Myrtle's transformation from working-class wife to would-be socialite, the shift from empty streets to crowded rooms, from sobriety to drunkenness. These contrasts create a sense of instability and falseness.
Myrtle's Transformation: When Myrtle changes clothes in the apartment, she attempts to change her entire identity. Her gestures become more expansive, her speech more affected. She literally tries to perform the role of a wealthy woman, but the performance is transparent. This connects to the novel's broader theme of constructed identity—if Myrtle's performance is obvious, what about Gatsby's?
The American Dream's Dark Side: Myrtle believes her affair with Tom is her ticket to a better life, her version of the American Dream. But Fitzgerald shows us the delusion in this belief. Tom will never leave Daisy for Myrtle, and Myrtle's inability to see this demonstrates how the dream can blind people to reality.
Tom's breaking of Myrtle's nose is shocking in its casualness. There's no buildup, no dramatic confrontation—he simply hits her for saying Daisy's name. This violence reveals several things: Tom's belief that he can control everyone around him, the casual brutality of the wealthy toward those beneath them, and the physical danger lurking beneath the surface of this glamorous world.
The violence also foreshadows the tragedy to come. The novel will build to another moment of violence, and again it will involve Tom, Myrtle, and vehicles (literal and metaphorical) that the wealthy use to destroy those in their way.
Nick's discomfort throughout the chapter is palpable, yet he stays. He's getting drunk (only the second time in his life, he claims), participating in deception, and witnessing domestic violence—yet he doesn't leave. This establishes a pattern: Nick judges but also enables. His moral superiority is complicated by his complicity. He's not just an observer; he's implicated in the events he describes.
The chapter's ending, with Nick drunk and leaving the apartment building, creates a sense of disorientation that mirrors his state. The description becomes fragmented and surreal. This stylistic choice immerses readers in Nick's experience and suggests the unreliability of his narration when he's drinking. It also captures the chaos and moral confusion of the world he's entered.