The Great Gatsby Summary and Analysis

🟩 Introduction

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) is one of the most studied novels in American schools.
Set during the Jazz Age, it explores wealth, love, and the false promise of the American Dream.
Through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway, readers see how glamour hides corruption and loneliness.

If you’re learning this novel for class, also check:
👉 Themes in The Great Gatsby
👉 Jay Gatsby Character Analysis
👉 Symbols and Motifs Explained
👉 Nick Carraway Character Analysis

🟩 Main Body

Summary
The story takes place in Long Island and New York City in 1922.
Nick Carraway moves to West Egg to start a career in finance and soon meets his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby, a millionaire famous for his weekend parties.
Gatsby’s entire fortune was built for one purpose — to win back Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loved before the war.
But Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan, an arrogant man from “old money.”

As summer unfolds, Gatsby and Daisy meet again, hoping to rekindle their past romance.
Yet, Fitzgerald shows that time cannot be repeated and dreams built on illusions collapse.
When Daisy accidentally kills Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby’s car, Gatsby takes the blame.
Soon after, he is shot by Myrtle’s husband, dying alone while the wealthy people he admired disappear from his life.

Analysis
Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s story to criticize the American Dream — the belief that success and happiness can be earned through wealth.
Money gives Gatsby everything except peace and love.
Through Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, the author shows the difference between appearance and reality, hope and corruption, and the emptiness of upper-class life.

One of the novel’s most famous lines captures Gatsby’s blindness:

“Can’t repeat the past? … Why of course you can!”
This moment reveals his tragic flaw — refusing to accept that dreams and time cannot be controlled.

If you want a deeper look at these symbols, read
👉 Symbols and Motifs in The Great Gatsby Explained.

🟩 Conclusion

The Great Gatsby is more than a love story; it’s a timeless warning about chasing illusions.
Fitzgerald shows that wealth without morality leads to isolation, and that the true cost of the American Dream is one’s soul.
Every generation of readers can see themselves in Gatsby — someone reaching for a shining dream that always drifts just beyond reach.

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