Gatsby- Jay Gatsby is the protagonist in the novel. He lives on the West egg and is apart of the “new money”. He is in love with Daisy throughout the whole book and once they actually meet they start to see eachother alot. Gatsby and nick become friends after Gatsby invites him to his party. He is somewhat  a compulsive liar and is involved in bootlegging, which is how he earned all his money. Tom and Gatsby do not get along not only because Tom later finds out about Daisy and Jay, but also because Gatsby is new money and during the time new and old money didn't get along very well.Him and Meyer wolfsheim work together bootlegging. Jordan and Gatsby become acquainted because Gatsby wants intel on Daisy.Jay Gatsby is hard headed, immature, and reckless.  

Jordan- Jordan is one of Daisy’s friends who falls under the “old money” category. Her and Nick are intimate but not on a serious level. She is a very mysterious character that we don't learn too much about other than that she is a recognized golfer. Jordan is classy, mysterious, and blunt. 

Daisy- Daisy is a perfect representation of old money.She comes from a very wealthy family in Louisville which is where she first meets Gatsby. She is the person everyone loves in the book. Her and Jordan are close friends, her and nick are cousins, and her and tom are married and have a child together. Tom and Daisy’s relationship is odd in the sense that Tom and Daisy do love each other which is shown in the end, but at the start of the book Tom is cheating on Daisy and she is well aware of this. Daisy is manipulative, gorgeous, and fake.

Tom- Tom is Daisy’s husband whom he “loves”. Tom is apart of the old money and lives on the East egg with daisy. He has a mistress, myrtle, who lives in the valley of ashes. Throughout the whole book he is very arrogant, entitled, and extremely rude. 

Myrtle - she is married to George and lives in the valley of ashes with him. But she also has a place in New York thanks to her secret lover tom.She is also ironically the one killed by Daisy. She is very much an outsider and not of the same social class as the other characters. She is not very classy, under educated, and immature. 

George- he is Myrtle's husband and works at a garage in the valley of the ashes. He is of the lower class but is a very nice guy. We don't see much of him except for when Tom goes to get Myrtle and after myrtle is killed. He is your typical lower working class guy at the time. He isnt close with any of the characters except Myrtle, through him and Tom do know each other because Tom sometimes goes to his shop. 

Meyer wolfsheim- He is a man we don't learn to much about. He is involved with bootlegging and that is how him and Gatsby are friends. Tom knows him because of his bootlegging and him fixing the world series. He is an older man in the New money category. He is very flashy and reminds me of a mobster.  

Scott Fitzgerald before he met Zelda was in the army and stationed in Montgomery where he met Zelda. Scott became and author and wrote many books some of which are influenced by his wife Zelda. 

What was there marriage like?

They married not to long after they met, a week after publishing “This Side of Paradise” they got married. Early into the marriage Scott started heavily drinking and Zelda began to suffer mental health issues. In 1930 she suffered a breakdown and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she ended up spending the rest of her life in mental hospitals. 

What was his motivation for writing?

Scott Fitzgerald knew he was a very good writer at around the age of 15. He graduated from a preparatory school in New York and moved on to further his education at Princeton, where his desire for writing took over and he was eventually kicked out of school. Though he wrote mostly short stories to support him and his wife he has 4 well known books. He became a writer for no other reason than the fact that he enjoyed to write and was good a it. 

How did they represent the 1920’s?

 The Fitzgeralds are a great example of the 1920’s. Scott especially, after receiving lots of fame for his first successful book he becomes attracted to the party lifestyle and constantly drinking. This leads him down a bad path,he goes through many “rough stages”, struggling with writer's block, alcoholism and depression, he had a lot of things in common with the average person living in the 1920’s. Everyone had a substance abuse problem, everyone wanted to drink, everyone wanted to party and spend money, an everyone wanted to be rich and famous. And for Zelda she was said to have been a “quintessential 1920s flapper”.

Two interesting facts i learned

Scott was a terrible speller

He kept a very detailed journal of his life.

.

West egg- New money, where NIck and Gatsby live

East egg- old money, where Daisy and Tom live, the green light is on the end of the dock on the East egg at Tom and Daisy's house.

Valley of ashes- Where Myrtle and George live, Where Georges body shop is, Where Myrtle dies.

Downtown- where Myrtle and Tom's apartment is, where nick works, where they all go to the Hotel on the hot day. 

Themes 

wealth - I believe this is the biggest theme throughout the novel because the idea of being rich is low key on everyone's agenda. Tom prides himself on the money he has and Daisy loves the money that Tom has, when she met him though she had money Tom had more and she went after someone based on their wealth. Gatsby thinks that if he is richer than Tom he can win back Daisy. Money is the Motive of many conflicts throughout the novel.

Marriage

Throughout the book any type of marriage isn't your typical marriage. Tom and daisy who are married both cheat on each other and lie to the other, while the other knows they are lying to them they simply don't care and let it happen. Even myrtle is cheating on her husband George. All of the relationships in this book represent the mood of the 1920s, carless, many people stuck to “relationships” like nick and jordan's, they were dating but nothing serious. The people who don't fall under this category are married and not faithful.

Memory and the Past

This plays a huge role throughout the novel when dealing with Jay and Daisy. The Protagonist whole goal during the story is to rekindle a love that had happened in the past. Gatsby is constantly trying to relive the future. He is constantly thinking and talking about his past.

Visions of America

The vision of America is mainly freedom. Freedom to be able to do as you please. This is something everyone is doing in the 1920s especially the characters in the book. Everyone is doing what they want to do,not worrying about how it could affect anyone else.  All of the characters other than Nick and george are careless, they live the american dream and do whatever it is they want to do. Gatsby for example became rich off of bootlegging and that is perfect example of the idea of the American dream.

Dissatifaction

 This theme is prominent in the relationships between the characters, especially those characters involved in relationships. For example Tom and Daisy were not satisfied with each other. This resulted in Tom getting his mistress Myrtle and Daisy eventually sneaking around with Gatsby. Now on the other end Myrtle is not satisfied with George and seeks for better with Tom. Not only is dissatisfaction tied to relationships but almost everything that happens in the wealthy characters lives they are unsatisfied with. They always want better, better parties, better cars, better suits, richer husbands, bigger homes. Nothing or no one was safe because there was always better .