1. By F. Scott Fitzgerald Prepared by: Martin Tanchev

2. Pursuing his dream to learn the bond business, Nick Carraway (the narrator) moves from
Minnesota to New York. There he rents a house on the island of East Egg across from West
Egg, where his cousin Daisy lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. Not long after his
arrival, Nick finds out that Daisy is being cheated on with a lady named Myrtle Wilson.
One day during the summer, Nick receives an invitation to one of Gatsby’s, his mysterious
neighbor’s, grand parties. Eventually, they become friends and Nick learns that Gatsby is in love
with Daisy. He helps them meet and they have an affair.
Tom becomes suspicious of this and is determined to unravel the mystery surrounding
Gatsby. At first, Daisy doesn’t know how to react but when she finds out that Gatsby is a
criminal, she decides to stay with Tom. Tom sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting
to prove that he cannot hurt him.
On the way back Daisy is at the driving wheel of Gatsby’s car when it hits Myrtle. Thinking
that Gatsby is the killer, Mr. Wilson goes to his house and shoots him, and then commits suicide.
Gatsby dies alone, because no one attends his funeral except for Nick, his father, and a few
servants. Tom and Daisy go to Chicago and Nick never sees them again.
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK

3. The book offers an extremely wide range of various themes. However, the
easiest to distinguish and understand, in my opinion, are the following ones:
• Love – Gatsby’s true love to Daisy made him take all the actions
(bootlegging, making parties, etc.) in order to get closer to her.
• Wealth – It is possible to achieve great wealth without being accepted
into the elite class.
• Compassion and Forgiveness – All of the characters are willing to
forgive but too stubborn not to.
• Lies - Only a few characters are truly honest.
THEMES

4. • Gatsby vs. Tom - Gatsby wants something he can't have – Daisy. She
wants to be financially stable, so she married Tom, a millionaire and part
of the American upper class. Gatsby wants to be like Tom in a way as Tom
has everything Gatsby dreamt about.
• Gatsby vs. Society – Gatsby is different than the others by the fact that
he earned his money in an illegal way, standing against the society.
• Gatsby vs. self – Gatsby is trying to change himself for the better in
order to attract and keep Daisy.
CONFLICTS

6. “The Great Gatsby” seems to be a short book but in spite of its size it took me so long to
read it. It was not that is boring that slowed me down but the complexity of the book itself. I had
to read some sentences two, three or even four times in order to understand their meaning and
even then I couldn’t fully understand them. Here the film and the Internet came in handy. Also
there were many unfamiliar words and I had to constantly look them up in the dictionary, which
was tiring.
As for the content of the book I can’t say that I understood everything as the era in the
book is distant and the people had different moral values. I couldn’t understand the theme about
the American dream but the main themes were clear and simple enough.
All in all, “The Great Gatsby” as a compelling book that took me long to read and some
knowledge in history would make it even more interesting.
PERSONAL RESPONSE

7. Information and Ideas:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literatur
e/g/the-great-gatsby/book-summary
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gats
by/summary.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gats
by/themes.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnot
es/literature/what-is-a-major-theme-
of-the-great-gatsby
Music:
Duke Ellington – The Mooche
Pictures:
https://www.google.bg/search?gs_rn
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m=bv.52434380,d.Yms&biw=1680&
bih=949&dpr=1&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&hl=bg&tbm=isch&source=og&sa
=N&tab=wi&ei=YJhBUujILMGjhgf
ckoHQAw
BIBLIOGRAPHY