The Great Gatsby

Character Guide

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Nick Carraway

The novel's narrator, a young Yale-educated Midwesterner who moves to West Egg, Long Island, to learn the bond business. He is Daisy's second cousin and becomes drawn into the lives of his mysterious neighbor Gatsby and the wealthy Buchanans.

Jay Gatsby (Mr. Nobody from Nowhere (per Tom's mocking remark))

Nick's enigmatic, fabulously wealthy neighbor who throws lavish parties at his West Egg mansion. He is first seen alone at night, reaching toward a green light across the bay, and rumors swirl about his origins and how he made his fortune.

Daisy Buchanan

Nick's beautiful, charming cousin, married to Tom, living across the bay in fashionable East Egg. Her voice is described as full of a magnetic, thrilling quality, and she seems restless within her marriage.

Tom Buchanan

Daisy's powerfully built, wealthy husband, a former college football star with an arrogant manner and old money. He is known to be having an affair, which is common knowledge among his acquaintances.

Jordan Baker

A professional golfer and friend of Daisy's who spends time with Nick; she has a cool, self-possessed demeanor and a reputation for being somewhat dishonest in her sport.

Myrtle Wilson

A vivacious, married woman living in the 'Valley of Ashes' who is involved with Tom Buchanan. She is married to George Wilson, a garage owner.

George Wilson

A weary, hardworking garage owner in the Valley of Ashes, married to Myrtle; he is unaware at first of the full nature of his wife's activities.

Meyer Wolfshiem

A shadowy business associate of Gatsby's, a gambler with a notorious reputation, said to have fixed the 1919 World Series.

Glossary

Old sport

Gatsby's signature term of address for others, an affectation meant to suggest upper-class breeding and ease.

Bootlegger

Someone who illegally makes, sells, or transports alcohol, a common occupation and rumor during Prohibition (1920s America).

Valley of Ashes

A desolate industrial wasteland between West Egg and New York City, symbolizing moral and social decay beneath the glittering wealth of the Roaring Twenties.

West Egg / East Egg

Fictional Long Island communities representing new money (West Egg) versus old, aristocratic money (East Egg).

Bond business

Nick's profession, selling stocks and securities—a common respectable Wall Street job in the 1920s financial boom.

Mint julep

A Southern alcoholic cocktail made with bourbon, mint, and sugar, associated with genteel Southern leisure.

Fixed the World's Series

A reference to the real 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which gamblers bribed players to throw the World Series—here attributed within the novel to Meyer Wolfshiem.

Prohibition-era Jazz Age slang

Period expressions like 'old sport,' 'big man,' and party chatter reflect 1920s American vernacular and its emphasis on youth, wealth, and excess.

Trimalchio

An allusion (used by Nick to describe Gatsby) to a nouveau-riche character from the ancient Roman satire the Satyricon, known for throwing extravagant, vulgar feasts.

Green light

The light at the end of Daisy's dock, visible from Gatsby's lawn, symbolizing his longing and the broader unattainable American Dream.

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