GREAT GATSBY- FINAL TEST REVIEW
Nick Carraway - Answers- The story's narrator. Nick rents the small house next to
Gatsby's mansion in the West Egg and, over the course of events helps Gatsby by
reunite with Daisy (Nick's cousin). Nick's Midwestern sensibility finds the East an
Unsettling place, and he becomes disillusioned with how wealthy socialites like the
Buchanans lead their lives.
Daisy Buchanan - Answers- Beautiful and mesmerizing, Daisy is the apex of sociability.
Her privileged upbringing in Louisville has conditioned her to a particular lifestyle, which
Tom, her husband, is able to provide her. She enraptures men, especially Gatsby, with
her diaphanous nature and sultry voice. She is the object of Gatsby's desire, for good or
ill, and represents women of an elite social class.
Tom Buchanan - Answers- Daisy's hulking brute of a husband. Tom comes from an old,
wealthy Chicago family and takes pride in his rough ways. He commands attention
through his boisterous and outspoken (even racist) behavior. He leads a life of luxury in
East Egg, playing polo, riding horses, and driving fast cars. He is proud of his affairs
and has had many since his marriage. Myrtle Wilson is merely the woman of the
moment for Tom.
Jordan Baker - Answers- Professional golfer of questionable integrity. Friend of Daisy's
who, like Daisy, represents women of a particular class. Jordan is the young, single
woman of wealth, admired by men wherever she goes. She dates Nick casually, but
seems offended when he is the first man not to fall for her charms. Although she is
savvy, she comes off as somewhat shallow in her approach to life.
Jay Gatsby - Answers- The protagonist who gives his name to the story. Gatsby is a
newly wealthy Midwesterner-turned-Easterner who orders his life around one desire: to
be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. His quest for the
American dream leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved and,
eventually, to death.
Myrtle Wilson - Answers- Married lover of Tom Buchanan. She serves as a
representative of the lower class. Through her affair with Tom she gains entrée into the
world of the elite, and the change in her personality is remarkable. She conducts a
secret life with Tom, wherein she exhibits all the power and dominance she finds lacking
in her everyday life. She eventually suffers a tragic end at the hands of her lover's wife.
George Wilson - Answers- Myrtle's unassuming husband. He runs a garage and gas
station in the valley of ashes and seems trapped by his position in life. Eventually, he
finds out about his wife's double life and his response to it helps drive her to her death.
Distraught at what happens, Wilson becomes Fitzgerald's way of expressing the despair
prevalent in the seemingly trapped lower-middle class.
