1. The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
Kees IJzerman April 2013

2. Storyline
• Nick Carraway rents a small house in West
Egg, Long Island
• Visits cousin Daisy and her husband Tom
• Notices they are not happy.
• Meets golf player Jordan Baker there.
• She informs Nick Tom has a mistress, Myrtle.
• Myrtle is married too: George Wilson, owner
of garage in the Valley of Ashes

3. Storyline
• Tom takes Nick to see Myrtle.
• Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose.
• Partying next door to Nick: huge house.
(Jay Gatsby)
• Nick gets invited to one of these parties.

4. Party Time
• Click picture

5. Storyline
• Nick is introduced to Gatsby
• Gatsby take Nick to see Meyer Wolfsheim
(shady character)
• Jordan tells Nick part of Gatsby’s history:
- poor officer, in love w. Daisy, go to war
- Daisy married Tom (=old money)
• Gatsby returned from war: new Gatsby
(rich, opulent lifestyle)

6. Storyline
• Via Jordan, Gatsby asks Nick to arrange a
meeting with Daisy.
• They still love one another

7. Why did you marry him?
• Click picture

8. Storyline
• Gatsby & Daisy have an affair
• The five of them go into the city; at Wilson’s
garage Tom stops for petrol.
• Wilson has found out his wife Myrtle has a
lover, but doesn’t know who.

9. You can’t repeat the past
• ……of course you can!
Gatsby’s great hope.

10. Storyline
• At N.Y. hotel Tom and Gatsby fight over Daisy
• Tom accuses Gatsby of being a bootlegger
• Daisy breaks down and tells her husband
openly that she loves Gatsby

11. You want too much

12. Storyline
• Daisy and Gatsby drive back in G’s yellow car.
• The other three later
• They see accident: Myrtle has been killed by a
yellow car.
• Wilson finds out whose car killed his wife
• Thinking Gatsby drove, he kills him and the n
commits suicide.
• In fact, it was Daisy who drove the car.

13. Storyline
• Nick tries to get Gatsby’s friends to attend the
funeral.
• Nick and Jordan break up.
• Only Gatsby’s father turns up at the funeral

14. What does it mean?
• Fitzgerald’s take on the ‘roaring twenties”.
• Easy money; shallow people.
• East Egg vs. West Egg
• Gatsby is killed because he loved and was
loyal.

15. What does it all mean?
• The Green Light at Daisy’s Dock: symbol of
Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream
• The Valley of Ashes: the dirt and rubbish that
is caused by trying to become rich.
• ‘Great’ Gatsby: bootlegger, in with criminals,
but ‘good guy’
• He dies; with him his dream dies: the
American Dream?