Great Gatsby: The Moral Journey

Great Gatsby: The Moral Journey of Nick Caraway

Brief overview of the novel.

What Gatsby represents

To society at large

To Nick Carraway, the narrator

Exposition: The values of the different 'Eggs'

Fashionable East Egg

Less fashionable, new money West Egg

The Buchannans

Old money

Hypocrisy

Rising Action: Gatsby

The mystery of Gatsby

Not so mysterious after all -- his class origins and bootlegging are well-known

Nick's infatuation with Gatsby

Climax: Jay's love for Daisy is revealed

Nick's belief in the couple's 'true romance'

Nick's belief in Gatsby's lies

Falling action: Falseness of American dream and Daisy

Death of Myrtle

What Gatsby's father reveals unintentionally about his son, Jay Gatz

The Great Gatsby: The Moral Journey of Nick Caraway

The Great Gatsby is a story of the rise and fall of the title character, Jay Gatsby, a man who 'makes himself up' -- that is, manufactures a persona of himself as a titled, moneyed American aristocrat, even though he has actually made his fortune in bootlegging, not through inheritance. To create his persona, Gatsby obtains a house in the less fashionable, new moneyed section of West Egg, where he throws lavish parties. People who attend these parties hold him in contempt, but go anyway to pass the time and to drink his alcohol. Gatsby does not understand that he cannot buy social class the same way he can buy material goods like fresh oranges and imported shirts.

The story is told through the point-of-view of Nick Carraway, a kind of insider/outsider figure. Nick works in the financial industry, but he is not of the higher echelons of Long Island society, like Tom and Daisy Buchanan who live in fashionable East Egg. As Nick details his life and mores, and chronicles the crude and often racist comments of Tom, the expeditionary phases of the novel set the stage for Gatsby: a snobbish and inclusive world is created through Nick's detailed observations. In East Egg, people not morally better, but markers of status are extremely important. Appearances are of greater value than what is real -- Tom is adulterous behind closed doors, but presents an image of a happy couple with Daisy and their beautiful young child.

The storyline begins to take shape as people try to discern who Gatsby might be -- they ask: who is the mysterious owner of the great palace? What is the source of his wealth? Some of the speculation is fantastic; other aspects of the gossipy stories contain grains of truth. Nick hesitates to believe any of these negative tales. He half-admires Gatsby, and gradually as the story wears on he begins to admire Gatsby uncritically and becomes overly credulous: at one point he actually believes that Jay is an Oxford man. Gatsby did serve in World War I, but the most significant aspect of his service manifests itself in meeting Daisy -- Gatsby vowed to be worthy of Daisy by any means necessary, even if he had to lie, cheat, steal, create a false persona, and break the law.

The climax occurs when Daisy and Gatsby meet, and commence their affair, getting back together as if nothing ever changed. By this time, Tom is almost completely 'in love' with the idea of Gatsby and Daisy, and sees them both as pure and noble. However, gradually this image begins to erode, especially after Gatsby willingly takes the blame when Daisy runs over Myrtle, Tom's lover. The falling action is not so much from a specific plot event but the impressions the reader gleans of Gatsby through Nick. During the exposition Gatsby is presented. The rising action involves Nick's infatuation with the mysterious man. The climax is when what Gatsby and to some extent Nick have been hoping for occurs, namely Daisy's return to Gatsby's arms, and the falling action is when the supposed purity of the relationship unravels.