Gatsby
What was Fitzgerald trying to tell us?
Guilty:
- Blinding love for daisy
- Impossible desire to recreate the past
- Tried to achieve the American Dream by being immoral
Tom Buchanan
George B. Wilson
- The American Dream is dead!
- The American Dream is not stable nor secure nor in reach of most people
- Gatsby was successful economically but not socially
- He would never be accepted into Tom and Daisy's social circle completely
- The American Dream is impossible to achieve
Tom Buchanan
Guilty:
- Had the motivation
- Misled Wilson
- Tom is able to get his revenge through Wilson
Innocent
- Trying to protect himself
- “I told him the truth...He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn't told him who owned the car. His hand was on a revolver in his pocket every minute he was in the house-” (178)
Myrtle Wilson
George B. Wilson
Myrtle Wilson
Guilty:
Innocent:
- He is in a precarious mental state
- Cries out "Oh, my God" over and over (P157-158)
- He was misled by Tom and Daisy
- Is powerless for the majority of the novel, but he is suddenly given the power to murder Gatsby?
- One of the most moral characters
Guilty:
- She ran into the road like a careless idiot
- Cheated on her husband with Tom
- Made Wilson want revenge
Innocent:
- She thought the car would stop for her
So who killed Gatsby
Daisy Buchanan
Suspects
A careless and greedy society
- George B. Wilson
- Myrtle Wilson
- Tom Buchanan
- Daisy Buchanan
- Gatsby
Guilty:
- Ran over Myrtle
- Has a "killer" Voice
- “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again” (9)
- Siren's song
- Her voice sound like everything Gatsby wanted
- Gatsby died in a pool
Innocent:
Questions?
Who Killed Gatsby?