The Great Gatsby Summary | Chapterly
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Complete Summary "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Overview The Great Gatsby (1925) is the great American novel about the great American lie. Set during the Roaring Twenties on Long Island, it tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who throws extravagant parties in hopes of reuniting with Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loved and lost five years earlier. Narrated by Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin and Gatsby's neighbor, the novel is a shimmering, devastating portrait of ambition, wealth, love, and the impossibility of recapturing the past. Fitzgerald wrote it as a critique of the American Dream -- the belief that anyone can achieve success through hard work and determination. Gatsby has achieved the wealth but not the happiness it was supposed to guarantee. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock, which Gatsby reaches toward night after night, symbolizes everything he desires and everything he can never truly possess. The novel was a commercial disappointment during Fitzgerald's lifetime. It was rediscovered after World War II and is now widely considered the finest American novel of the twentieth century. Themes The Corruption...