Get The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Quiz

Summary and Analysis Chapter 1. As The Great Gatsby opens, Nick Carraway, the story's narrator, remembers his upbringing and the lessons his family taught him. Readers learn of his past, his education, and his sense of moral justice, as he begins to unfold the story of Jay Gatsby.

○ Daisy jokingly tells Nick that she intends to set him and Miss Baker up together.

Nick admires Gatsby highly, despite the fact that Gatsby represents everything Nick scorns about New York. Gatsby clearly poses a challenge to Nick's customary ways of thinking about the world, and Nick's struggle to come to terms with that challenge inflects everything in the novel.

Tom lies about having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, Gatsby lies about how he became the man that he is, and all three of them lie about who really killed Myrtle Wilson.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Summary After returning home from the Great War (World War I), Nick decides to move east to New York to become a bond salesman; he moves to West Egg on Staten Island to a small, modest house with his family's approval.

Gatsby's mansion represents the "new money" class, which overcompensates for its lack of social connections through lavish displays of wealth. The "old money" class considers this tacky, proof of their superiority to "new money."