1. Chapter 1
1.1. Nick introduces himself as a nonjudgmental observer. He fought in WWI and went to Yale University. After all of that, he rents a house in West Egg that is right next to Gatsby's.
1.1.1. Nick: Judgmental and nonjudgmental at the same time. He's extremely observant.
1.2. We're introduced to Tom and Daisy Buchanan when Nick goes to their house to visit. You meet Jordan Baker when she is introduced later in the chapter. When Tom answers the phone, you find out that he has a mistress in New York.
1.3. Nick eventually goes home after visiting with them and sees Gatsby on his dock reaching for a green light across the water. The green light is a symbol of the hope and future Gatsby has. We wants something.
1.4. Some themes shown in this chapter is greed, love, hate, marriage, and power. Daisy loves and hates Tom at the same time. Tom has a lot of money which shows his greed and power. A few new settings are introduced including Nick's house and the Buchanan's home. Gatsby's home/dock is another setting.
2. Chapter 5
2.1. Nick invites Daisy to Tea. Gatsby is extremely nervous which is evidenced by the way he is moving and acting in general. Daisy shows up and assumes that Nick likes her and he says no. They go into the house and Daisy is looking at all the flowers and Nick realizes that Gatsby is gone. There is a knock at the door and then Gatsby comes in and Daisy and him have a moment. Gatsby knocks over a clock that symbolizes just how nervous he is and the 5 years it has been since Daisy and Gatsby has seen each other.
2.1.1. It was raining since the beginning of the chapter and doesn't stop until Nick gets back. It's another symbol in the book and it symbolizes the feelings and emotions that is occurring between Gatsby and Daisy like new beginnings. He shows her that her house is directly across the bay from his. Then Gatsby invites them over to his house and Daisy is amazed. He measures the worth of everything by Daisy's reaction because it symbolizes how in love he is with her as well as the American Dream. His American Dream is Daisy's love and having all of these things so that Daisy will love him.
2.1.1.1. "He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real." (p 98)
2.2. Gatsby starts throwing luxurious shirts at Daisy and she begins to cry. It's symbolic of the realization Daisy has. She realizes that she could have been with Gatsby if she had waited longer for him instead of rushing to marry Tom.
3. Chapter 2
3.1. The Valley of Ashes is symbolic of the poorer lower class people in New York. There is a billboard located there that is symbolic of a godly figure watching over everyone/looking down on society.
3.2. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading eyes on an old billboard over the valley of ashes. The eyes represent God looking down on or judging American society. We understand this due to the fact that it is directly between East and West Egg, "But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground" (p 26). This implies that this is some kind of wasteland, perhaps a moral wasteland.
3.3. Nick meets Tom's mistress for the first time. Her name is Myrtle like the flower. She is married and lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband George Wilson. Tom buys her things all the time and in this chapter he gets her a puppy. She wants to get out of the Valley of Ashes and live with Tom having all of the money she could ever want. George owns a gas station.
3.4. Tom tells Myrtle to go with them and she does. They go to Tom's apartment that he keeps to have it for his affair with Myrtle. At this setting in the book, Myrtle's sister, Catherine, comes over and Nick gets drunk for the second time in his life.
3.5. We are introduced to Mr. McKee and Mrs. McKee. Catherine mentions Gatsby and one of his parties. You find out that Tom told Myrtle that Daisy was catholic and that is why they can't get a divorce. Later on, Tom hits Myrtle and breaks her nose because she kept saying Daisy's name over and over again. Nick slipped out trying to be unnoticed and left.
4. Chapter 6
4.1. Jay Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz. His parents were failed farmers. He is an entirely self-made man, so ambitious and convinced of his own success that he transformed himself into his version of the perfect man: Jay Gatsby. James Gatz met Dan Cody, a copper and silver mine millionaire, on Cody’s yacht on Lake Superior. Cody seemed glamorous, and Cody liked Gatz enough to hire him as a kind of jack-of-all-trades for five years. Gatz learned how to be Jay Gatsby. Cody tried to leave him money in his will, but an estranged wife claimed it instead. Nick tells us that Gatsby told him all of these details later, but he wants to dispel the crazy rumors.
4.1.1. "The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty."
4.2. Tom has no idea who Gatsby is, but Gatsby goes out of his way to remind him that they met (in Chapter 4), and to tell him that he knows Daisy. Gatsby invites them to stay for supper. Tom comes with Daisy to Gatsby’s party. Nick notes that with them there, the party suddenly seems oppressive and unpleasant. Gatsby takes them around and shows them the various celebrities and movie stars that are there. Gatsby and Daisy dance and talk. Tom makes see-through excuses to pursue other women at the party. Daisy is clearly miserable. While Gatsby takes a phone call, Daisy and Nick sit at a table of drunk people squabbling about their drunkenness. Daisy is clearly grossed out by the party and the people there. Tom guesses that Gatsby is a bootlegger. Daisy tries to stick up for Gatsby. Daisy seems reluctant to go, worried that some magical party guest will sweep Gatsby off his feet while she’s not there.
4.2.1. Tom doesn't like being called a polo player which symbolizes an arrogant rich man.
4.3. Later that night, Gatsby worries that Daisy didn’t like the party. His worry makes him tell Nick his ultimate desire: Gatsby would like to recreate the past he and Daisy had together five years ago. Gatsby is an absolutist about Daisy: he wants her to say that she never loved Tom, to erase her emotional history with him. Nick doesn't think that this is possible. Gatsby tells Nicks about the magical past that he wants to recreate. It was encapsulated in the moment of Gatsby and Daisy’s first kiss. As soon as Gatsby kissed Daisy, all of his fantasies about himself and his future fixated solely on her.
4.3.1. While reliving his first kiss with Daisy, Gatsby mentions a ladder, "Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees—he could climb to it, if he climbed alone" (p 119). This represents success and the reach for the American Dream. The American Dream is attainable as long as you're willing to climb the ladder of success. This is something that he will have to do alone if he wants to obtain everything that he wants.
5. Chapter 8
5.1. Nick tries to call Gatsby but he can't reach him since he has been blowing everyone off so that if Daisy calls then no one can ruin that.
5.2. Gatsby waits for Daisy to call. He goes for a swim. We learn that George is going to find the man he believes to be responsible for Myrtle's death, Gatsby. When Gatsby is in the pool, George shoots him and then shoots himself and then Nick and the gardener find them.
5.3. Gatsby and Nick discuss Gatsby's past but this time with more truth to it. At one point the gardener mentions draining the pool to which Gatsby replies that he doesn't want it drained yet, this is important later in the chapter. After Nick leaves and goes to work he calls Jordan and they are both very cold to each other and we discover that their relationship has ended. We also get a glimpse of George Wilson who is grieving over the death of his wife. He suspected his wife of cheating on him and goes on a search for the person who killed her. He traces the car back to Gatsby and, while clouded with grief, shoots and kills Gatsby and then himself, "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete" (p 173).
5.3.1. The falling leaves represent the downfall of Gatsby. Falling leaves often remind us of fall, with fall comes decay. When mentioning to Gatsby that he's going to drain the pool, the gardener says that the "leaves’ll start falling pretty soon" (p 164). This to me could symbolize that soon everything is going to go downhill for Gatsby. After Gatsby is shot and killed it states that " The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water" (p 173). The leaves around Gatsby represent the end of his life.
6. Chapter 9
6.1. This chapter revolves around Gatsby's funeral and how Nick struggles to get people to come. We also meet Gatsby's father in this chapter who talks about how he wanted to nothing but rise about the life of his poor, uneducated family. He also talks about how proud he is of his son. No one shows up to Gatsby's funeral.
6.1.1. Gatsby's funeral symbolizes the emptiness of his life. When Gatsby was alive, he threw these lavish parties and hundreds of people attended but now that he has died, people can't get anything from him so no one comes to his funeral, "But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came" (pdf 186).
7. Chapter 7
7.1. Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, Daisy, and Tom were all hanging out together on the hottest day of the summer. Daisy suggests going to the Plaza Hotel and everyone dismisses it until Daisy says that Gatsby is cool (she loves him). Tom blows up and they immediately go to the hotel and Tom takes Gatsby's car with Jordan and Nick. Gatsby takes Tom's care with Daisy and they head that way speeding throughout the city. Tom has to stop to get gas at the Wilson's place and you discover that George has Myrtle locked up in her room and she's crying. More than likely because she thinks that Jordan is his new mistress and she is doomed to stay. Tom realizes that he is losing Daisy and Myrtle.
7.1.1. In this chapter we understand that the dresses Jordan and Daisy are wearing are white, "weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans" (p 122). The white dresses symbolize purity which is quite ironic considering that Daisy's actions are not very "pure."
7.2. This chapter talks a lot about the weather and how hot it is. Also in this chapter Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan all decide to go into town together. Once there, Tom and Gatsby begin to argue, seemingly over Daisy. It's also in this chapter that Daisy finds out the truth about Gatsby, "I found out what your ‘drug stores’ were.’ He turned to us and spoke rapidly. ‘He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter" (pdf 143). Also at the end of the chapter, while Daisy is driving, Myrtle is hit and killed. Gatsby says that he is going to take the blame for everything and cover it up. He wants to take care of everything like he wants to take care of Daisy.
7.2.1. On this particular day the weather is very hot and that is mentioned quite a bit in the chapter. The heat symbolizes the tension between Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom. After Daisy kisses Gatsby she "Then she remembered the heat and sat down guiltily on the couch" (p 124). After remembering "the heat," Tom, she guiltily sits back down.
8. Chapter 4
8.1. Nick makes a list of all of the names of people who has been to Gatsby's party and it's extremely long. After this, Gatsby picks Nick up in his fancy car and he takes Nick to Manhattan for lunch. Gatsby explains his life story and Nick doesn't believe most of it because of the way he speaks so fast like Jordan Baker once said previously in another chapter. Gatsby says that he has a request of Nick that Jordan will tell him about later over tea.
8.1.1. "He looked at me sideways—and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all." (p 70)
8.2. Gatsby's car, among many other things, symbolizes his wealth and the extravagant life that he currently lives. His car "was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns" (p 69). It shows that even when buying the simplest of things, such as a car, he can turn it into something flashy and expensive.
8.3. Gatsby and Nick go to lunch and he gets introduced to Meyer Wolfsheim. Wolfsheim thinks that Nick is interested in business and Gatsby nervously says that he isn't. Gatsby states that Wolfsheim is the person who fixed the 1919 World Series. Wolfsheim is a gambler which you find out from Gatsby. Nick sees Tom and introduces him to Gatsby and then he mysteriously disapears so Nick leaves to meet Jordan.
8.3.1. "The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling. Gatsby answered for me: ‘Oh, no,’ he exclaimed, ‘this isn’t the man!’ ‘No?’ Mr. Wolfshiem seemed disappointed. ‘This is just a friend. I told you we’d talk about that some other time.'" (p 76-77)
8.4. In 1917, when she was 16, Jordan became good friends with Daisy in Louisville. Daisy was 18, super popular, with a white car, white clothes, and tons of boys asking her out. On the day Daisy chose to single Jordan out as a new friend, Daisy was having a romantic afternoon with Jay Gatsby. A few years later, Jordan heard a story that Daisy had tried to run away from home to say goodbye to a soldier going overseas. Six months later, Daisy married Tom Buchanan in the biggest wedding ever. Tom's wedding present to Daisy was a pearl necklace worth $350,000 (over five million dollars in today's money). Jordan was one of Daisy's bridesmaids. The night before the wedding, she found Daisy completely wasted, holding a letter. Daisy drunkenly cried and begged Jordan to call off the wedding. She then crumpled the letter up in the bathtub. But the next day, none of this was mentioned, and the wedding went fine. After the honeymoon, Daisy seemed very much in love with Tom, but Tom was already cheating on her. Daisy, meanwhile, has never had affairs – at least none that anyone knows about. Jordan finishes her story by saying that when Nick came to dinner with Daisy and Tom is the first time Daisy had heard the name Gatsby in all these years – and she realized that he was the same Gatsby she had known in Louisville.
8.4.1. "'He wants to know—’ continued Jordan ‘—if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over.’" (p 85)
8.4.1.1. Gatsby's love symbolizes his love for Daisy. He bought the house to be closer to Daisy. The green light that symbolizes hope and the future is on the dock at her house.
9. Chapter 3
9.1. Gatsby's parties are described as wild and messy by Nick. Nick gets an invitation from Gatsby saying to go to his party. He goes but knows no one else there and just sees a bunch of people who are lost in the American Dream (symbol of hope and the future). He finds Jordan Baker at the party and socializes with her. Rumors are spread about Gatsby like wildfire. There were claims that he was a spy, an oxford man, a killer, etc.. Nick and Jordan meet the Owl-Eyed man in the library. The man finds it extremely difficult to believe that the books are real which symbolizes that there is more to Gatsby that everyone thinks. He has a story and it isn't some fairy tale version made up by strangers.
9.1.1. Rumors: "We all turned and looked around for Gatsby. It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world." (pp 48-49)
9.1.2. Owl-Eyed Man and symbolism of books evidence: "‘Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and—Here! Lemme show you.’" (p 50)
9.2. Nick keeps wondering where Gatsby is for a majority of the party and then he meets him in an awkward situation. Gatsby asks Jordan to speak to him making Nick jealous. After, Jordan says that Gatsby told her everything then she exclaims, "‘It was—simply amazing,’ she repeated abstractedly. ‘But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.’" (p 58).
9.2.1. "I haven’t even seen the host. I live over there——’ I waved my hand at the invisible hedge in the distance, ‘and this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation.’ For a moment he looked at me as if he failed to understand. ‘I’m Gatsby,’ he said suddenly. ‘What!’ I exclaimed. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon.’" (p 52)