Major Character List

George Willard: He is the central character of the book, a young reporter for the Winesburg Eagle who grows to manhood in Winesburg, Ohio.

Wing Biddlebaum: Hands. He was a fat, little old man who lived near Winesbe Ninth Machine-Gun Battalion. It was Gatsby. He was elegant and young, not florid and corpulent as he expected. At that moment a butler called Gatsby away. Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby was an Oxford man. Jordan is called in to speak with Gatsby, and she does for almost an hour. It was almost two; the party was almost breaking up. When Jordan comes out from speaking with Gatsby, she tells Nick that she heard the most amazing thing. Nick and Gatsby scheduled to go hydroplaning the next day. A car, while leaving, went into a ditch. Owl Eyes was a passenger. The wheel fell off. Most of the time, Nick worked. He even had an affair with a girl from Jersey City. He took dinner at the Yale Club, a dour event. For a while Nick forgot about Jordan, but then felt as if he might be in love with her. It was suggested that she cheated in a tournament. Jordan was incurably dishonest. Nick is one of the few honest people he has ever known.

Chapter Four: There was more gossip about Gatsby: he was a bootlegger who killed a man who found out that he was nephew to von Hindenburg. It was another party on July 5th. Many people attended Gatsby's parties. At nine o'clock one morning Gatsby came in his cream colored car to go to town. Gatsby told Nick that he was the son of now-dead wealthy people from San Francisco, educated in Oxford. After his family died, he traveled Europe, then went to the war, where he received a decoration, even from Montenegro! Gatsby refers to a 'sad thing' which happened to him. A dead man in a hearse passed them as they traveled to New York. They were then passed by a limousine driven by a white with three Negroes. Gatsby introduced Nick to Meyer Wolfsheim at the restaurant. Wolfsheim reminisces about the Metropole, where Rosy Rosenthal was killed. He thinks that Nick is there about a busines 'gonnegtion." Nick asks Gatsby why everything has to come through Miss Baker. Wolfsheim tells Nick that Gatsby went to Oxford. Wolfsheim wears cufflinks made of human molars. Gatsby tells Nick that Wolfsheim is a 'denizen of Broadway,' a gambler who fixed the 1919 World Series. Tom Buchanan was at the restaurant, and before Nick can introduce Gatsby and Tom, Gatsby is gone. Jordan told Nick about one October day in 1917. Jordan was walking about and noticed the red, white and blue banners. It was Daisy Fay's house, and she was eighteen. Daisy called Jordan over and told her that she wouldn't be working at the Red Cross that day, for she was going out- with Jay Gatsby. Later, there were wild rumors about Daisy, that she had been stopped from running off to say goodbye to a soldier going overseas, but later she married Tom at the Seelbach Hotel. Half an hour before her bridal dinner, Daisy was drunk and did not want to marry. She began to cry, so Jordan bathed her. They married the next day. Daisy and Tom lived in Santa Barbara, then Cannes and Deauville and Chicago, then New York. Jordan told Nick that Gatsby bought his house so he could watch Daisy across the bay. Jordan asked Nick to invite Daisy to his house.

Chapter Five: When Nick returned home, he was afraid that his house caught fire, but it was merely the lights from Gatsby's house during another party. Gatsby invited Nick to go to Coney Island, and Nick informed him of his plan. Gatsby plans for Nick's grass to be cut, and offers to get him a better job. Nick called Daisy up and invited her to tea. Gatsby sent flowers over. Gatsby became nervous that Daisy would not show up, for it was 3:58 and Daisy had not yet arrived. However, Daisy did show up. She saw Gatsby and there was a horrible pause. Gatsby almost breaks Nick's clock. Gatsby tells Nick privately that he feels that he made a horrible mistake, but Nick tells him that he's acting like a child. Nick went outside while Gatsby and Daisy spoke. Nick saw that Gatsby glowed. Gatsby takes Nick and Daisy to his house. Gatsby tells Nick that he was in the drug business and the oil business. Through the house, there was the sense that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table. Mr. Ewing Klipspringer, the 'boarder,' was there. Gatsby brushed Daisy's hair. Gatsby shows Daisy his shirts, which he throws out from his closet onto the bed. Daisy began to cry at the beauty of the shirts. Gatsby tells Daisy about the green light which he noticed, and the colossal significance of that light was lost forever. Gatsby showed them a picture of Mr. Dan Cody. Klipspringer played the piano for them- "The Love Nest." Nick left the two alone.

Chapter Six: A reporter from New York arrived one morning at Gatsby's door asking him to 'give a statement'- about what, nobody really knew. Contemporary legends attached themselves to Gatsby. Gatsby was really James Gatz, but he changed his name at seventeen when he saw Dan Cody's yacht drop anchor near Lake Superior. Gatsby's parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people, and his idea of "Gatsby" sprang from a Platonic conception of himself. He went to college in St. Olaf, then left and fond Cody's yacht. Cody was fifty, a product of Nevada silver fields, the Yukon, and every rush for metal since '75. He was a millionaire, but many women, such as Ella Kaye, the newspaperwoman, had tried to separate him from his money. Cody bought him a blue coat, six pair of white trousers and a yachting cap. Gatsby was a personal assistant to Cody until he died the week after Ella Kaye came aboard. Nick saw nothing of Gatsby for several weeks for he was in New York with Jordan. He went over to Gatsby's house and saw Tom Buchanan there with a man named Sloane and a pretty woman in brown. Gatsby invites them to his next party. Tom mentions to Nick that he wonders where Gatsby met Daisy. He thinks that women run around too much. Tom accompanied Daisy to Gatsby's next party. Daisy told Nick that he if wanted to kiss her, present a green card. Tom didn't enjoy the party, although Daisy did. Dr. Civet and Miss Baedeker argue during the party. Daisy despised West Egg. Tom felt that Gatsby must be a bootlegger, for it was the only way to get rich so quickly. After the Buchanans left, Gatsby told Nick that Daisy didn't enjoy the party. He felt far from her. Gatsby wanted Daisy to tell Tom that he never loved him. Gatsby tells Nick "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" Gatsby wanted to recover something that was lost with Daisy.

Chapter Seven: Gatsby replaced his staff with an entirely new one. They were siblings who ran a small hotel, and Wolfsheim got them for Gatsby. He wanted them because they wouldn't gossip. Gatsby told Nick that he was invited to Daisy's house the next day. It was perhaps the hottest day of the year. Nick went into a dark, cool room where Daisy and Jordan lay like silver idols. Daisy introduced her daughter, Pammy, to Nick and Gatsby. Daisy told Gatsby that she loved him, and Tom saw, astounded. They decided to go to the city. Tom drove Gatsby's car with Jordan and Nick, while Gatsby took Daisy in his car. Tom does not believe that Gatsby is an Oxford man, for he 'wears a pink suit.' Tom stops to get gas at Wilson's station. Wilson told Tom that he and his wife were going away, west. Wilson looked physically sick, perhaps at the notion that his wife had a life outside of his own. He felt almost guilty. Myrtle was upstairs, looking out the window, intensely at Jordan, whom she thought was Tom's wife. Tom felt that his wife and mistress were slipping from his control. They went to the Plaza Hotel. Tom remarks on Gatsby's inclination to call others 'old sport.' Daisy mentions how somebody fainted during her wedding- 'Blocks' Biloxi. Tom asks Gatsby about Oxford, not believing that he went there, then asks him what kind of a row he is trying to cause. Tom finally confronts Gatsby for trying to steal his wife. Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy never loved him, and only loves him. Tom feels that Daisy loves him. Daisy tells Tom that he is revolting, and denies that she ever loved him. She tried to light a cigarette, but she was trembling. Daisy finally tells Gatsby that she loved Tom but now loves him. Tom mentions Gatsby's shady dealings with Wolfsheim, and how Walter Chase went to jail because of him. Daisy and Gatsby left together. Nick realized that he turned thirty that day. Michaelis, the young Greek who ran the coffee shop near Wilson's garage, witnessed the accident. Wilson had locked Myrtle up, but she came out and was hit by a car. She died instantly. Tom drove near with Jordan and Nick, and commented that it was good that Wilson would now have some business. At last he stopped and realized what had happened. Wilson was sobbing. A Negro identified the car as yellow. Tom realized who was driving. Tom tells Wilson that the car was not his. Tom tells the policemen everything. Nick reached home, and spoke with Gatsby. He asked if the woman was killed, and asks about her. He tells Nick that Daisy was driving, although he will take the blame. Tom locked Daisy in her room. They could see in the windows that Tom and Daisy were sitting at a table together, as if they were conspiring together.

Chapter Eight: Nick couldn't sleep because of a fog-horn on the Sound. Gatsby waited up all night for It's an idea."

Seth Richmond:

"When it comes to loving someone, it won't never be me. It'll be someone else, some fool, someone who talks a lot, someone like that George Willard."

Curtis Hartman:

"The Lord has devised this temptation as a test of my soul and I will grope my way out of darkness into the light of righteousness."

"I want to look at teh woman and to think of kissing her shoulders and I am gonig to let myself think what I choose."

"Man has a right to expect living passion and beauty in a woman."

:The ways og God are beyond human understanding."

Kate Swift:

"What's the use? It will be ten years before you begin to understand what I mean when I talk to you."

Enoch Robinson:

"You don't get the point, the picture you see doesn't consist of things you see and say words about."

"I wanted her to understand, but I couldn't let her understand. I felt that then she would know everything, that I would be submerged, drowned out, you see."

"It was warm and friendly in my room but now I'm all alone."

Mook:

"I'll be washed and ironed. Well, well, I'll be washed and ironed and starched."

Elmer Cowley:

"I guess I showed him I ain't so queer."

Ray Pearson:

Tricked by Gad, that's what it was, tricked by life and made a fool of."

"I didn't promise my Minne anything and Hal hasn't made a promise to Nell."

Minnie Pearson:

"You're always puttering. Now I want you to hustle."

Tom Foster:

"It was good to be drunk. It taught me something. I won't have to do this again. I will think more clearly after this. You see how it is."

"I wanted to learn things, you see. That's why I did it."