The Great Gatsby - Chapter 1 Summary

The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a young man from Minnesota named Nick Carraway. He not only narrates the story but casts himself as the book’s author. The first pages of The Great Gatsby, Nick comments on himself, saying he learned from his father to reserve his judgement of other people, because if held them up to his standards, he would not fully understand them. but although he describes himself as tolerant and non-judgmental, he views himself as being morally privileged and have more 'decency' than other people. He mentions Gatsby stating that although he is everything that he dislikes about new York, he exempts him from his judgement and admires him greatly.
  In the summer of 1922, Nick writes that he decides to move to New York in order to join the bond business. He rents a house on a part of  Long Island called West Egg. The West Eggers differ from the East Eggers in that, the they are the newly rich; the people who have worked hard and earned their money in a short period of time. Their wealth is based on material possessions and are said to have poor taste. Nick's West Egg house is next door to Gatsby's monstrosity of a mansion.
   As he graduated from Yale, unlike his neighbours, Nick has connections within the East Egg society. One night, Nick chooses to drive out to East Egg to visit his friend Tom Buchanan whom he met at a social club at Yale,and his wife Daisy for dinner. The marriage of Tom and Daisy Buchanan is coated with desperation  although is seems pleasant. Unlike Nick, Tom is arrogant and dishonest, advancing racist arguments at dinner and carrying on relatively public love affairs. Daisy  stands in stark contrast to her husband. She is frail and diminutive, and actually labors at being shallow, and hides her sadness under he laughter at every opportunity.  Nick is greeted outside by Tom, while his wife and her friend Jordan Baker stay indoors. Jordan has a frigid, boyish beauty and affects an air of extreme boredom.  They have an awkward dinner, in which Tom tells his companions about a books trying to interest them, but is a made mockery by his wife. He proceeds to leave the table to answer a phone call  which is where Jordan informs Nick of Tom's love affair in New York. After the dinner ends, the party breaks up and Jordan goes to bed as she has a tournament the next day, and Tom and Daisy attempt to convince Nick in taking an interest in Jordan.
    When Nick arrives home after the awkward dinner, he is greeted by the sight of a handsome young man, standing on the lawn, reaching out with a trembling arm towards a green light in the darkness, which seems to mark the end of a dock. This man is Gatsby. As he looks again Gatsby vanishes and he is left alone in the unquiet darkness.