James Gatz reinvents himself as Jay Gatsby after being inspired by the wealthy Dan Cody. Gatsby fantasizes about attaining wealth and status and falls in love with the affluent Daisy. Years later, after amassing a fortune, Gatsby throws lavish parties in hopes of reconnecting with Daisy, who is now married to the cruel Tom Buchanan. At one of Gatsby's parties, Daisy and Gatsby's rekindled love leads to tragedy when Tom confronts them and Myrtle is accidentally killed by Daisy's car. Gatsby takes the blame for the accident and is later shot by George Wilson, leaving Nick disillusioned by the reckless

2. Identity Change:
Who is Jay Gatsby?
“It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the
beach that afternoon …but it was already Jay Gatsby
who borrowed a row boat…”
 Symbolises his desire to forget lower class identity
 recast himself as the wealthy man he envisions

3. James Gatz
• James Gatz of North Dakota
• son of poor farmers, whom he disowns
• Dropped out of college at St. Olaf’s after two
weeks– didn’t think working as janitor was up to
his standards
• Gatz was drawn to money and reinvented himself
and altered his identity
• Becomes Jay, borrowing a boat to inform Dan
Cody of treacherous winds.
• reborn, fake, superficial to fit in

4. Power to Dream
“But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The
most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him
in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable
gaudiness spun itself out in his brain...Each night he
added to the pattern of his fancies. For a while
these reveries provided an outlet for his
imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of
unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the
world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing” (99).

5. Power to Dream
• fantasies of wealth and splendor that haunted his
mind
• fantasies were a necessary part of his reality; an
escape from his own dreary world.
• He founded his dreams on this unreality – dreams
have to be based in reality to come true.
• He never had a chance when his foundation was
constructed of “fairy wings,” not practical stone.

7. Dan Cody
• 50 years old
• Millionaire
• physically robust
• soft-minded
• entangled with a number of women that tried to
separate him from his money
• the yacht represent “all the beauty and glamour in
the world” (100)

8. Danger of Wealth
“Ella Kaye came on board one night in Boston and a
week later Dan Cody inhospitably died.”
• Text suggests Ella murdered Cody for his money,
since it was she that inherited all of the money,
even though it was meant to go to Gatsby.
• money is magnet for danger and dishonesty
• Dan Cody was a heavy drinker (perhaps his
insobriety contributed to his downfall); it is
because of Cody that Gatsby drank so little.

9. Gatsby’s New Behavior
• Having followed Cody in his exploits and observing
his behavior, Gatsby’s education prepared him for
lifestyles of the rich.
• The idea of a wealthy gentleman was no longer just
a dream; now Gatsby knew how to behave and fit in
• He never got the $ that Cody meant for him, he
made it himself – what does that tell us about
Gatsby?

11. The Party
“I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women
run around too much these days to suit me. They
meet all kinds of crazy fish.”
 What does this tell us about Tom? His views on
women?

12. The Party
• Unlike Gatsby’s other parties, it had aura of
oppressiveness
• with Tom’s vigilance, unpleasantness, harshness.
• Tom’s brutality infuses the party atmosphere, alters
dynamic
 Daisy knows that he is separating himself from her
to hit on women

13. Daisy
“She was appalled by the West Egg, this unprecedented
place that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island
fishing village - appalled by its raw vigor that chafed
under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate
that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing
to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity
she failed to understand.”
What does this tell us about Daisy’s opinion of party?

15. Reliving the Past
(110)
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t
repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of
course you can!”
How do the quotes influence our feelings towards
Gatsby?

16. Gatsby’s House
• “…The lights in his house failed to go on one
Saturday night—” (113)
• Replaced his staff with people recommended by
Wolfsheim; they can keep secrets
• No longer interested in throwing lavish parties
because his goal has been accomplished

17. Pammy
(117)
• Undeniable proof of Tom and Daisy’s physical
relationship and past.
• In her presence, Gatsby cannot deny the love and
attachment that existed between the married
couple
• Shatters Gatsby’s dream of going back exactly to
the way things were.

18. Tom Knows
(119)
“You always look so cool,” she repeated.
She had told him she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw.
He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he
looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he had just
recognized her as some one he knew a long time ago.
• Tom notices the way that Daisy and Gatsby are looking at
one another and realizes what has been going on
between the two.
• Tom never imagined that Daisy would cheat on him - he
thought that he had her under control.

20. George Wilson
(123-125)
• Ill; run down
• He talks about saving money and moving West with
his wife
“I just got wised up to something funny the last two
days.”
• Locked Myrtle up in the apartment and is planning
on moving (with the help of Tom and the car that
Tom has promised to sell him).
 Tom has lost control of Myrtle and Daisy

22. Setting the Scene
 Hottest day of the summer; miserable and
uncomfortable
“The room was large and stifling…” (126)
“…the compressed hear exploded into sound and we
were listening to the portentous chords of
Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from the ballroom
below” (127)

23. The confrontation
“She only married you because I was poor and she
was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake,
but in her heart she never loved any one except
me!”(130)
• In Gatsby’s mind, his relationship with Daisy was
true love and she couldn’t have possibly loved
anyone else
• He needs to believe that Daisy never loved Tom in
order for his dream to work.
• He wants to recover the past love they shared.

24. Tom and Daisy’s love?
“She does [love me], though. The trouble is that sometimes she
gets foolish ideas in her head and doesn’t know what she’s
doing...And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off
on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and
in my heart I love her all the time.” (131)
• Tom is willing take her back; also makes excuses for his own
infidelity.
• It seems that Tom is actually willing to fight for her -- he
realizes that neither one of them is perfect, that they both
have faults, and he is willing to accept that if Daisy is.
• Theirs is a relationship based on realism, with both parties
being aware of the other’s shortcomings.

26. Daisy’s decision
“…she realized at last what she was doing - and as though she
had never, all along, intended doing anything at all” (132)
• She never meant to deny her past, she wanted to have it all -
love, glamour, past, present, money, status.
• She initially says that she never loved Tom, but admits that
she did love him, once.
“Oh, you want too much!...I love you now - isn’t that enough? I
can’t help what’s past...I did love him once - but I loved you too.”
• She cannot live up to Gatsby’s expectations, he wants too
much from her - no one can erase their past or deny their
feelings.
• He loses her by asking for the impossible.

28. The Accident
“The ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t
stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered
tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around
the next bend…Myrtle Wilson, her life violently
extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick
dark blood with the dust” (137).

29. What really happened?
• Daisy was the one driving the car
• Myrtle ran out in the middle of the road to speak to
them -- she had seen Tom in that car earlier and
thought that it was him
• Gatsby willing to take the blame for the accident;
will tell people that he was the one driving in order
to save Daisy.

30. Nick’s Reaction…
• After experiencing the recklessness and tragic violence
of the afternoon, Nick has had enough of the company of
his friends
• He does not approve of their lack of morality and their
dangerous lifestyles - they hurt themselves and others…
lead a brutal existence that contains casualties.
 Tom and Daisy are reckless together, understand and are
willing to live with one another’s flaws. Gatsby wanted
perfection and was left “watching over nothing” since
nobody is perfect - everything and everyone is gone, even
the illusions.