That being said, the novel suggests that Gatsby made his money through illegal means. During his training in , for the infantry in World War I, 27 year old Gatsby met and began to fall in love with 18 year old debutante Daisy Fay, who was all that Gatsby was not: rich, beautiful, and educated in the behaviors that most people find acceptable. While there, he got a letter from Daisy, revealing to him that she had hitched the affluent Tom Buchanan.
In spite of the fact that Gatsby himself never unequivocally says how he got affluent, readers and critics assume that his cash originates from unlawful or nefarious works, filling in as either a German covert agent or a gambler. Moreover, Gatsby likewise earned a great deal of his cash from counterfeit stocks.
All the more solidly, Daisy discloses to Tom that Gatsby possessed a chain of drug stores. It was probably here that Gatsby dispersed liquor. Following are a few important quotes from the text that might give the readers a hint as to how Gatsby got rich:. As stated earlier, his birth name was James Gatz. A college dropout, Gatsby saved the life of a rich man called Dan Cody, who acknowledged and admired the act and took James Gatz under his wing.
It was then that Gatsby swore to become a wealthy man once again while he looked for Daisy. Some people question whether or not Gatsby inherited his money.
The answer to that is no he did not. One question that pops up again and again is why did Gatsby kill himself? The truth is that Gatsby did not commit suicide. Most people who have not read the book or seen the movie simply assume that Gatsby killed himself even when that is not the case. There he meets George Wilson the owner of the gas station , who confides in Tom that his wife, Myrtle, might be having an affair. This alarms Tom and he leaves in a rush, since he was the one who had been having an affair with Myrtle.
Gatsby sold a lot of alcohol with Meyer Wolfshiem , a man prominent in organized crime, and would later use the funds to buy a house across the water from Daisy. It is implied he still works with Wolfshiem through the duration of the novel. Prohibition ended in , making it impossible to amass a fortune in the same way that Gatsby did in the story. That means that this tale is most effective taking place in the Roaring 20s- when there was economic growth across the country.
While both characters are rich, it is implied in the novel that Tom has more money. However, at that time, what most people cared about was how you would get your money. Gatsby is still involved in organized crime secretly- meaning that he is technically working to keep his status. Tom does not need to work ever, he had inherited such a large sum that he was set for life. On the other hand, Gatsby was new money and made his wealth on his own- raising his status from being poor.
Perhaps Gatsby having more of a "blank slate" appearance allows the reader to more easily project his shifting characterization onto him from mysterious party host to the military man madly in love with Daisy to the ambitious farmboy James Gatz , whereas characters like Tom Buchanan and Myrtle are more stiffly characterized.
Gatsby was born "James Gatz," the son of poor farmers, in North Dakota. However, he was deeply ambitious and determined to be successful. He changed his name to "Jay Gatsby" and learned the manners of the rich on the yacht of Dan Cody, a wealthy man who he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by. However, although Cody intended to leave his fortune to Gatsby, it ended up being taken by Cody's ex-wife Ella Kaye, leaving Jay with the knowledge and manners of the upper class, but no money to back them up.
Gatsby ended up enlisting in the military during World War I. He met Daisy in Louisville before he was shipped out to Europe. In his uniform, there was no way for anyone to know he wasn't wealthy, and Daisy assumed he was due to his manners. He kept up this lie to keep up their romance, and when he left she promised to wait for him.
Gatsby fought in the War, gained a medal from Montenegro for valor, and was made an officer. After the war ended, he briefly attended Oxford University through a program for officers, but left after five months. By the time Gatsby returned to America, he learned that Daisy had married and became determined to win her back.
Through Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby got into shady business read: bootlegging, gambling to get rich. It worked, and Gatsby accrued a huge sum of money in just 3 years. He moved to West Egg, bought an extravagant mansion and a Rolls Royce, and started throwing lavish parties and building up a reputation, all in the hopes of meeting Daisy again.
Luckily, an aspiring bond salesman named Nick Carraway moves in next door just as the novel begins. Nick is Daisy's second cousin, and through that connection he is able to reunite with Daisy during the novel. To see how Gatsby's life fits into the biographies of the novel's other characters, check out our timeline. Although Nick briefly glimpses Gatsby reaching out to Daisy's green light at the end of Chapter 1 , we don't properly meet Gatsby until Chapter 3.
Gatsby has been throwing lavish parties, and he invites Nick Carraway to one. They meet, and Gatsby takes a liking to Nick, inviting him out on his hydroplane the next day. He also speaks to Jordan Baker in private, and reveals his past history with Daisy Buchanan. In Chapter 4 , he spends more time with Nick, telling him about his service in WWI as well as a made-up story about his past as the only surviving member of a wealthy family. Later, he has Jordan explain Gatsby and Daisy's background in a bid to get Nick to help the pair reunite.
Through Jordan and Nick, Gatsby is thus able to meet with Daisy again and begins an affair with her in Chapter 5. Throughout all of this Gatsby continues to do business with Meyer Wolfsheim and run his own bootlegging "business," mainly based on the mysterious phone calls he's always taking. Rumors begin to swirl about where he got his money. Tom Buchanan, in particular, is instantly suspicious of Gatsby when they meet in Chapter 6 and even more so after he and Daisy attend one of Gatsby's parties.
Daisy seems particularly unhappy and Gatsby frets. At the beginning of Chapter 7 , he stops throwing the parties, fires his current staff, and hires Wolfshiem's people instead, telling Nick he needs discreet people—this makes the affair easier, but also hints at Gatsby's criminal doings.
In the climactic Manhattan confrontation with Tom and Daisy later in Chapter 7, Gatsby tries to get Daisy to admit she never loved Tom, and to leave him, but she doesn't. Later in the same chapter, he and Daisy leave together to drive back to West Egg in Gatsby's distinctive yellow car.
However, Daisy is driving and hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, who ran out into the road since she thought the car was Tom's. Gatsby resolves to take the blame for the incident and still believes that Daisy will leave Tom for him. During Chapter 8 , Gatsby confides in Nick about his past, the true story this time. At the end of Chapter 8, Gatsby is shot and killed by George Wilson, who believes Gatsby killed Myrtle and was the one sleeping with her.
Meanwhile, Daisy and Tom have left town to avoid the repercussions of Myrtle's death. In Chapter 9 , Gatsby's funeral is sparsely attended, despite Nick's efforts to invite people. Gatsby's father does make an appearance, sharing some details about young Jay's early ambition and focus. Nick leaves New York shortly after, disenchanted with life on the east coast. Thus Gatsby's actual death has caused Nick's metaphorical death of leaving New York forever.
Gatsby adopts this catchphrase, which was used among wealthy people in England and America at the time, to help build up his image as a man from old money, which is related to his frequent insistence he is "an Oxford man. In this moment, Nick begins to believe and appreciate Gatsby, and not just see him as a puffed-up fraud.
The medal, to Nick, is hard proof that Gatsby did, in fact, have a successful career as an officer during the war and therefore that some of Gatsby's other claims might be true.
For the reader, the medal serves as questionable evidence that Gatsby really is an "extraordinary" man—isn't it a strange that Gatsby has to produce physical evidence to get Nick to buy his story? Imagine how strange it would be to carry around a physical token to show to strangers to prove your biggest achievement. He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence.
He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock. In Chapter 5, the dream Gatsby has been working towards for years—to meet and impress Daisy with his fabulous wealth—finally begins to come to fruition. Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as the aloof, enigmatic host of the unbelievably opulent parties thrown every week at his mansion.
He appears surrounded by spectacular luxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women. He is the subject of a whirlwind of gossip throughout New York and is already a kind of legendary celebrity before he is ever introduced to the reader. Gatsby has literally created his own character, even changing his name from James Gatz to represent his reinvention of himself. As his relentless quest for Daisy demonstrates, Gatsby has an extraordinary ability to transform his hopes and dreams into reality; at the beginning of the novel, he appears to the reader just as he desires to appear to the world.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. See Important Quotations Explained. Gatsby invests Daisy with an idealistic perfection that she cannot possibly attain in reality and pursues her with a passionate zeal that blinds him to her limitations. Gatsby is contrasted most consistently with Nick.
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