Dan Cody

Jame Gatz is one of the main characters in "The Great Gatsby". The story pretty much revolves around him. When he was 17 he decided to change his name to Jay Gatsby, witch was when he also started his "career". He started to "work" for a wealthy man named Dan Cody. Dan was a softminded and niave person, who was taken advantage of by many women. He had a very serious drinking problem and was often drunk. Gatsby became his steward, mate, skipper, secratary, and over all sitter. Dan Cody trusted Gatsby very much because of the many years of service. Cody died and left $25,000 to Gatsby, witch he never received due to Cody's mistress. Dan Cody is an important figure in "The Great Gatsby" because influences Jay Gatsby alot. He motivates Gatsby to make himself a wealth and sucessful man. Cody's death also englightened Gatsby to the dangers of excesive drinking, which is why Gatsby drinks little.

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The Green Light

"The Great Gatsby" is a full of many great literary devices. One, being a more well known symbol in the book, is "the green light" that is first introduced when Gatsby reaches out for it in an ernest way. The main reason for Gatsby's passionate interest in the light is the fact that it is were Daisy, the women he loves, lives. Later in the book it is confirmed that the green light is actually located at the end of Daisy's dock. Gatsby's attitude and the mysterious nature of the green light makes it a symbol of Gatsby's hope. Hope for the future, a future with Daisy. Green is said to be the color of promise and hope, so it fits the story perfect. Whether F. Scott Fitzgerald put that much thought or research into it is unknown. It is used a couple different ways in the story. The green light symbolizes the joyful and the distraught along with it and the "wasteland" between west and east egg. Its used to compare Gatsby's dreams of being with Daisy and failing due to material objects. Fitzgerald does this by saying Gatsby's wish is like explorers discovery of wealth, they're both foiled by wealth and material objects.

www.msu.edu/~millettf/gatsby.html

The Men of Gatsby

The major men in the Great Gatsby are Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Tom Buchanan.

Jay Gatsby is the main character and person in the story. He is very wealthy and throws the most luxurious and biggest parties in town, but he got all his money through bootlegging. Gatsby sold alcohol illegally in the 1920's Prohibition, but lies about having drug businesses instead. He is madly in love with Daisy Buchanan and she's basically the reason why he throws all his parties hoping that she will come to them. Also, he believes that he can still win her heart back when it's impossible because Daisy loves her husband Tom. Gatsby shines a green light at his house to Daisy's dock to always check up on her and see if she's alright. Near the end of the story, Daisy drives over Myrtle with Gatsby, but he takes the blame for it and gets shot by George Wilson. At his funeral, no one attends except for Nick, his father, and the minister. I feel pity and sad for Gatsby because everybody hated him, but deep inside he's not even a bad person.

Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story and the person who pretty much knows everything that's happening. He is a very down to earth person and not judgemental, which makes him the good person in the story. He doesn't like lies but he is a real person. Nick isn't super rich, yet he is content and happy with the home, and belongings that he has. He is the only person that Gatsby got really close to and basically became his best friend. Nick also gets close to Jordan Baker in the beginning, but their relationship fades away because he can't stand dishonest people. Nick is related to Daisy Buchanan being cousins, but dislikes her selfish personality. He pities Gatsby because of how people look at him with no respect and think that he's a bad person. I personally like Nick's character the most because he is real and true.

Tom Buchanan is one of the selfish and careless men in the story in my opinion. He is Daisy's husband and one of the richest men in East Egg. Tom inherited his wealth and riches from his family that was passed down. In the story, they describe him as arrogant, big, and tough. He is very selfish because all he cares about is his happiness and not others. Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson which shows that he's not truthful to Daisy, yet he still says he loves her. Also, he thinks that he is the best because he's so rich and can afford all the things in life that he wants unlike the rest of the people. Later in the story, he meets up with Nick and thinks that Nick is avoiding him, which he really is, then goes off to buy more jewelry which shows how much money plays a huge part in his life.

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-great-gatsby/study-guide/character-list/

The Women of Gatsby

In "The Great Gatsby", there are three major female characters, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. First off is Daisy Buchanan. She is married to a man named Tom Buchanan and is cousins with Nick Caraway, the narrator and main character of the novel. Daisy is a very extravagant and generally excited lady. Her speech is always very happy, upbeat, and passionate, witch also follows her personality. As the novel progresses, we find out that Daisy and Jay Gatsby had a relationship in the past and that Gatsby never stopped loving Daisy. Later on in the story, Daisy and Gatsby rekindle there love with each other, but in the end Daisy stays with Tom, leaving Gatsby emotionally and mentally devastated. Jordan Baker is Daisy's friend, she is a competitive golfer, beautiful, and a dishonest. Her and Nick have a progressively romantic relationship as the novel goes on. Like Nick, she is "just there" most of the time and serves as a comfort for others. Besides her relationship with Nick, she plays more of a minor role in the story. Myrtle Wilson is George Wilson's wife, but is known to be cheating on him with Tom Buchanan. Her and Tom are having an affair throughout the book, until she gets hit and killed by a car driven by Daisy. "The Great Gatsby" has some complicated situations and a full story that couldn't of been constructed without these characters.

www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/characters.html

East Egg Vs. West Egg

East Egg and West Egg are the two main locations and setting in the Great Gatsby. They are both located in Long Island, New York. They both symbolize two different social classes and also two very different areas in life. Geographically, these two areas are separated by the valley of ashes, but metaphorically, it is separated by the two different social levels in the Great Gatsby. East Egg and the West Egg represent the wealth of the people that live there, and the point of how they managed to earn or have all those riches. Also, these two places stand for the separation and isolation between all the characters in the story. It is where people envy each other and desire all the materialistic things in life that are not even worth it.

East Egg is also known as "old money" in the Great Gatsby. This is where all the aristocratic, wealthy people live because they either inherited their wealth and got it passed down from generation to generation. People who live here did not have to work for their money or try to earn all their wealth some other way, because they were "naturally" wealthy already. They thought they were superior and higher than the West Egg people and were more sophisticated because they were already rich. Also, they believe that the "new money" were less sophisticated than them and are at a lower level. Dealing with the West Egg people is like taboo to them because West Eggers are "not fit to be wealthy" The character that live in the East Egg that represent it best would be Tom Buchanan.

West Egg is known as "new money" in the Great Gatsby. The people who live here had to work and earned all their wealth and riches. Because of that, they extravagantly spent all their money on such things like mansions, cars, and clothes. They were disregarded by the East Egg people because they were referred to as a lower level in society. A good example of characters in the West Egg is Jay Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim. They both earned all their money through bootlegging, which is illegal selling of alcohol in the 1920's. With that business, Gatsby was able to throw all his luxurious and extravagant parties at his house most of the time. These people try to live up to the name of the East Egg people, but they can never really match up to them and try to even reach them. In the eyes of the East Egg, West Egg will always be below their level and status in life.

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Selfish People

The Great Gatsby is composed mainly of selfish characters. Most of the characters only think about themselves and only care about what is good and best for them. In life, many people desire things such as money, love, wealth, and all the riches in the world. They don't know that these things are all meaningless, yet they crave more and more of everything they want and become a selfish person. In the Great Gatsby, the characters desire for many things they can not even have or even get close to, yet they force themselves to have it just to please themselves. Most of their goal and desire in life is to have a happy life that they like with all the things and wealth they can get.

Characters in the Great Gatsby that represent and portray selfishness would be Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson.

Gatsby represents selfishness in many different ways. His unfailing love and desire for Daisy, his reputation in town, his mansion and riches, and his overall as a person makes him one of the most selfish people in they story. His love for Daisy Buchanan is what keeps him going and living. Gatsby thinks that he can still bring back Daisy after five years that they've been separated and make her love him like she did before. Selfishness takes place in this in a way that he only thinks of himself and how this will affect Daisy and especially Tom, Daisy's husband. He wants her back in his life but he can not accept the fact that Daisy is married to Tom and that she loves her husband very much. In the story, Gatsby even tells Daisy to admit to her husband that she doesn't love Tom anymore. Also, he brags about his wealth and riches through his gigantic mansion and luxurious parties he throws. Gatsby lies about how he got all his money by saying he was involved in business with drug stores and such, when he really was into the illegal bootlegging of alcohol. This is selfish in a way that he doesn't acknowledge the fact that Dan Cody was the one that really brought him to the wealth he has, and not himself who brought himself to where he is now.

Other examples of selfishness would be Tom and Daisy Buchanan. They both are wealthy and living the good life, but they are also both hiding a serious affair from each other. Their affairs show that they are not true to each other and just lying to each other. Both of them are selfish in a way that pleasing themselves with another woman and man is what makes them happy. Tom and Daisy should be happy together and to be content with one another and not looking for happiness some place else such as having affairs.

Myrtle Wilson should be ashamed of what she is doing to her husband, George Wilson. Not only is she selfish with the affair she's having, she is also unfaithful. George has been kind, caring, and faithful to Myrtle yet she chooses to have an affair with Tom Buchanan. Maybe the reason for this is she wants to become wealthy by being with Tom and have him to buy her anything and everything she wants. She is selfish in a way that her husband has been faithful to her but she treats him unfairly by cheating on him.

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The Great Gatsby Film Version

The Great Gatsby was orignally a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in in 1925. The plot being of a young man by the name of Nick Carraway, who lives next to a mysterious and extravagent man, Gatsby. Nick and Gatsby become friends and Nick learns of Gatsby's true "job" and his obsession with Daisy, Toms wife. In 1974, Jack Clayton and Francis Coppola, turned Fitzgerald's novel into a hollywood movie. Francis, who wrote the screneplay for the movie and Jack who directed the movie kept them very similar in plot. In fact, besides a couple minor variations, the movie and the book are exactly the same. The minor varitations are Daisy is portrayed a little more snobbier in the movie than she is the the novel, wardrobes in the movie were a little off from what was said to be worn in the novel, and some other minor changes were made in the plot. For the most part the novel and the movie are very similar.

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