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Description
Mind Map by Chelsey Swann, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Chelsey Swann
over 8 years ago
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The Great Gatsby - Characters
- Daisy Buchanan
- Daisy's voice makes her sound
untouchable. Nick thinks of it as "full of
money," and that it sounds like it belongs
to someone who lives "high in a white
palace, the king's daughter, the golden girl
[…]" (7.99). You know, the prom queen, the
sorority president, the pageant winner:
exactly the kind of girl that neither Gatsby
nor Nick would ever have a chance with.
But Tom does. And Daisy may marry him
at first because she feels like she has to,
but she does end up falling in love with
him. (Or at least lust.) Jordan clues us in: If
he left the room for a minute she'd look
around uneasily, and say: "Where's Tom
gone?" and wear the most abstracted
expression until she saw him coming in the
door. She used to sit on the sand with his
head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her
fingers over his eyes and looking at him
with unfathomable delight. (4.143)
- One of the things Gatsby and Daisy share is
an idealized image of their relationship, a
rose-colored view makes everything in the
present seem dull and flat in comparison.
She longs for the innocent period of her
"white girlhood," before she was
forced/forced herself into her marriage to
Tom.
- Daisy may be a married woman with a child, but she doesn't
seem like she's managed to grow up very much. She can't live
with the consequences of her actions, trying to (drunkenly)
change her mind on the night before her wedding (4.120), and
then being unable to make up her mind between Tom and
Gatsby: "I did love him once," she says, "but I loved you too"
(7.266).
- Daisy's voice makes her sound
untouchable. Nick thinks of it as "full of
money," and that it sounds like it belongs
to someone who lives "high in a white
palace, the king's daughter, the golden girl
[…]" (7.99). You know, the prom queen, the
sorority president, the pageant winner:
exactly the kind of girl that neither Gatsby
nor Nick would ever have a chance with.
But Tom does. And Daisy may marry him
at first because she feels like she has to,
but she does end up falling in love with
him. (Or at least lust.) Jordan clues us in: If
he left the room for a minute she'd look
around uneasily, and say: "Where's Tom
gone?" and wear the most abstracted
expression until she saw him coming in the
door. She used to sit on the sand with his
head in her lap by the hour, rubbing her
fingers over his eyes and looking at him
with unfathomable delight. (4.143)
- Jay Gaysby
- As a rural farm boy growing up in
North Dakota without connections,
money, or education, Jimmy Gatz had
a plan: he was going to escape his
circumstances and make a name for
himself. And, luckily, his dad has
saved his plan.
- James Gatz believed in the American Dream.
He believed that you really could work your
way up through hard work, resolve, and
self-control—just like another young,
impoverished boy who made schedules: Ben
Franklin. Ben Franklin's autobiography
contains a suspiciously similar daily agenda.
And notice that young James—like Mr.
Franklin—was interested in electricity and
inventions? The problem, as Gatsby (no
longer Gatz) learns, is that it doesn't
actually work that way. The American
Dream is just that—a dream. All that hard
work and discipline only earned him
ill-gotten gains, and it set him on the path to
untimely death.
- Jimmy Gatz died the moment he
rowed up to Dan Cody's boat. A new
man was born – Jay Gatsby. Like
Nick, we're skeptical of him at first.
When we meet him, Jay Gatsby is a
man with a lot of money, a lot of
acquaintances, and very few
friends; the rumors that circulate
around him make him out to be
some kind of mysterious superhero
or supervillain.
- As a rural farm boy growing up in
North Dakota without connections,
money, or education, Jimmy Gatz had
a plan: he was going to escape his
circumstances and make a name for
himself. And, luckily, his dad has
saved his plan.
- Tom Buchanan
- He's a: sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth
and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had
established dominance over his face, and gave him the appearance
of always leaning aggressively forward … you could see a great pack
of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It
was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body. (1) But
Nick is also fascinated with Tom. He probably can't help it; like
Daisy, Tom is a fascinating kind of guy. Like Daisy, he's got
something that everyone else wants: he's got power.
- Tom's family is rich. Really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and not nouveau riche like Gatsby,
but staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America
goes, anyway.) And he does extravagant, crazy things with it, like bringing "a string of polo ponies
for Lake Forest" (1).
- In his own way, Tom is just as flashy as
Gatsby. But everyone somehow knows that
Gatsby's a newcomer. Tom, on the other
hand, has something you can't buy. You might
call it "breeding," but that sounds weird and a
little racist, or even eugenicist. So, we're going
to call it "arrogance": the absolute conviction
that, thanks to money and family, he was
born to inhabit a certain world; to marry a
certain type of woman; and to receive
homage from, well, pretty much every other
man he encounters.
- He's a: sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth
and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had
established dominance over his face, and gave him the appearance
of always leaning aggressively forward … you could see a great pack
of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It
was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body. (1) But
Nick is also fascinated with Tom. He probably can't help it; like
Daisy, Tom is a fascinating kind of guy. Like Daisy, he's got
something that everyone else wants: he's got power.
- Nick Caraway
- Nick calls himself "one
of the few honest people
that I have ever known"
(3.170), but that doesn't
mean he's very nice.
Nick may be polite and
easy to get along with
on the outside, but he's
not afraid to tell it like it
is. Nick still seems to see
himself as a good
Midwestern boy with
high standards for
everyone he meets,
including himself, and
prides himself on
maintaining his
standards, even in the
corrupt, fast-moving
world of East coast high
society.
- Nick gradually gets sucked
into the world he's
observing, both through
his friendships with Tom,
Daisy, and Gatsby, and
through his romantic
relationship with Jordan.
The deeper he's drawn
into these relationships,
the less honest he
becomes – until at the
end, Jordan rebukes him
for being just as dishonest
and careless as the rest of
them
- Nick realizes he's being drawn into a
dishonest lifestyle, and that's what
makes him scurry back West. Right
after Jordan calls him a "bad driver,"
he tells her, "I'm thirty … I'm five
years too old to lie to myself and call
it honor" (9.135). But what is Nick
lying about? That he loves her? That
he belongs in this world? That Tom
and Daisy are living acceptable lives?
It's not entirely clear. What is clear is
that this crazy summer has jolted
Nick back into real life. He's not cut
out for a world of moral ambiguity.
- Nick calls himself "one
of the few honest people
that I have ever known"
(3.170), but that doesn't
mean he's very nice.
Nick may be polite and
easy to get along with
on the outside, but he's
not afraid to tell it like it
is. Nick still seems to see
himself as a good
Midwestern boy with
high standards for
everyone he meets,
including himself, and
prides himself on
maintaining his
standards, even in the
corrupt, fast-moving
world of East coast high
society.
- Jordan Baker
- Jordan is a golfer—a professional golfer.
Already, we know she's different from Daisy.
Where Daisy is always fluttering and babbling
and giggling and basically acting like a dumb
girl (her words, not ours), Jordan is hard,
direct, and cynical. And she's bored to tears.
We don't know much about her family, except
that she has "one aunt about a thousand
years old" (1.137), but we know that she and
Daisy spent their "white girlhoods" together
(1.140). Given the looks that Daisy and Tom
give each other, we suspect that she might not
be so "white" (as in, pure) anymore.
- Jordan is a golfer—a professional golfer.
Already, we know she's different from Daisy.
Where Daisy is always fluttering and babbling
and giggling and basically acting like a dumb
girl (her words, not ours), Jordan is hard,
direct, and cynical. And she's bored to tears.
We don't know much about her family, except
that she has "one aunt about a thousand
years old" (1.137), but we know that she and
Daisy spent their "white girlhoods" together
(1.140). Given the looks that Daisy and Tom
give each other, we suspect that she might not
be so "white" (as in, pure) anymore.
- George Wilson
- Myrtle Wilson
- Myrtle and Gatsby have one thing in common: they're
both trying to rise above their station. Like Gatsby,
Myrtle isn't happy with the class she was born to. She
insists that she married beneath her, and she tries to
talk about the "lower orders" as though she's not one
of them: "I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised
her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the
lower orders. "These people! You have to keep after
them all the time" (2.69). So, what makes Gatsby and
Myrtle different? Gatsby is a tragic hero, while Myrtle,
in Fitzgerald's portrait, is a ridiculous fool. Is it that
Gatsby strives out of love, while Myrtle does it out of
greed? Or is it simply because Gatsby is a man—and
Myrtle had the tragedy of being born a woman
- Myrtle and Gatsby have one thing in common: they're
both trying to rise above their station. Like Gatsby,
Myrtle isn't happy with the class she was born to. She
insists that she married beneath her, and she tries to
talk about the "lower orders" as though she's not one
of them: "I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised
her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the
lower orders. "These people! You have to keep after
them all the time" (2.69). So, what makes Gatsby and
Myrtle different? Gatsby is a tragic hero, while Myrtle,
in Fitzgerald's portrait, is a ridiculous fool. Is it that
Gatsby strives out of love, while Myrtle does it out of
greed? Or is it simply because Gatsby is a man—and
Myrtle had the tragedy of being born a woman
- Wilson is hard-working and not cheating
on his spouse. He's in a marriage with a
woman who doesn't love or respect him,
who walks through him as though he's a
ghost; and meanwhile he just does what
she says: "'Oh, sure,' agreed Wilson
hurriedly" (2.15)
- After Myrtle's death, Wilson is in serious emotional
pain. He cries out "Oh, my God" over and over—but
because his wife is dead? Because he just found out
she was having an affair? Or because he feels guilty
for making her run out into the street? The other
thing to note about Wilson is that he's the only
character who talks about God. He tells Myrtle that
she "can't fool God," that "God sees everything"
(8.105).
- After Myrtle's death, Wilson is in serious emotional
pain. He cries out "Oh, my God" over and over—but
because his wife is dead? Because he just found out
she was having an affair? Or because he feels guilty
for making her run out into the street? The other
thing to note about Wilson is that he's the only
character who talks about God. He tells Myrtle that
she "can't fool God," that "God sees everything"
(8.105).
- Myrtle Wilson
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