Summary
Summary AP English - The Great Gatsby
AP English notes on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. These notes contain brief character outlines and notes on the theme of Freedom and Responsibility including quotes.
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The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
Nick Carraway (narrator)
- Quiet, reflective Midwesterner
- Moved from Minnesota to New York in to learn the bond business
- Daisy’s cousin
- Tolerant, open-minded, good listener
- Gatsby treats him as a confidant
- Inner conflict – he likes New York but knows it is damaging
o This is symbolised by the affair with Jordan Baker
- He realises the life of revelry is a cover for moral emptiness
Jay Gatsby
- About 30 years old from Minnesota
- He went from being a poor child to a rich adult (involved in organised crime)
- Longed for wealth and sophistication – he saw it in Daisy and fell in love
- Soldier in World War 1 and studied at Oxford
- Wants to win Daisy back from Tom and uses parties to do this
- He has celebrity status but is revealed as a lovesick naïve man
- He is theatrical – he has a talent for self invention which makes him “great”
Daisy Buchanan
- Beautiful, young woman from Louisville, Kentucky
- Nick’s cousin and Gatsby’s love
- Promised to wait for Gatsby but left him for Tom in 1919
- Represents perfection to Gatsby
- Beautiful and charming, but fickle, shallow, bored and sardonic
- Nick views her as careless, messing up and hiding behind her wealth
o Proves this by choosing Tom and then letting Gatsby be blamed for Myrtles death
- In love with ease, money and materialism
- Capable fo affection but not love or loyalty
o She is indifferent to her daughter
Tom Buchanan
- Characterised by mental and physical hardness
o Large, muscle-bound and imposing with and air of anger and aggression
- Mentally inflexible and single-minded
o Repeats racist statements and still believes he and Daisy are in love (despite his
cheating on her)
- Uses threats and violence to maintain control
- He has a victim complex
o He has no reason to feel threatened by people of colour but is still racist
o He is jealous of Gatsby despite his own history of cheating
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