the men of gatsby

Jay Gatsby - The main character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty years old, who rose from a poor childhood in rural North Dakota to become really wealthy. However, he achieved this by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. From his early days, Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication he dropped out of St. Olaf’s College after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job with which he was paying his tuition. Though Gatsby has always wanted to be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I in 1917.

Nick Carraway - A young man from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York in 1922 to learn the bond business. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island, next door to Gatsby. Nick is also Daisy’s cousin, which allows him to observe and assist the love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a result of his relationship to the two, Nick is the perfect choice to narrate the novel, which is a personal memoir of his experiences with Gatsby in the summer of 1922. Nick is also well suited to narrating The Great Gatsby because of his personality. As he tells us in Chapter 1, he is tolerant, open-minded, quiet, and a good listener, and, as a result, others tend to talk to him and tell him their secrets.

Tom Buchanan - Daisy’s wealthy husband, he was once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. He is well built and comes from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He feels no guilt whatsoever about his own affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.