The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, seems like it would be based on a true story. After all, the lavish lifestyles of West Egg residents, the bootlegging, and the speakeasies all seem like they really existed. So it would be natural to wonder “is The Great Gatsby based on a true story?”
Many Question Is the Great Gatsby a Real Story?
To the surprise of many, the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is actually a hybrid of sorts. It’s a work of fiction, however, it should be noted it is slightly based on real people and places.
Great Gatsby Character Inspiration
Writers are always told to stick to “writing about what they know.” Even if they create characters and situations out of thin air, there’s always an aura of reality to them. Fitzgerald took this to an extreme and based many of the characters in The Great Gatsby on people that he crossed paths with in the past.
Nick Carraway
It’s easy to see parallels between Nick Carraway and Fitzgerald, leading many to believe that the author based the character on himself. Carraway was the outsider, stopping by the towns of East and West Egg, hobnobbing with wealthy people although he didn’t have any money to speak of. The narrator was the true voice of the book, making Carraway and Fitzgerald one and the same.
Jay Gatsby
The character of Jay Gatsby has two different origins (Learn more on how did Jay Gatsby got rich ). According to interviews that Fitzgerald gave about the book, he initially based the character on Max Gerlach. An Army officer during World War I, as well as a bootlegger, Gerlach had many things in common with Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, even backed up this claim.
Was the Great Gatsby a Real Person?
Jay Gatsby himself was not a real person, however, Fitzgerald once told a reporter that although Gatsby started out as Gerlach, the character wound up having a lot in common with the author himself. Gatsby was in love with Daisy Buchanan (Fitzgerald was in love with the woman the character takes after), the two spent time at the same army camp, as well as Trinity College in Oxford, and so on.
There are too many commonalities to believe that Gatsby was based solely on Gerlach, as bits of Fitzgerald’s past are clearly there as well.
- Related Topic: How Old Was Jay Gatsby When He Died?
Tom Buchanan
Thomas, commonly known as Tom, Buchanan was Daisy’s husband. He showed up on the social circuit and throughout the book as a white supremacist who attended Yale. The character was wealthy and had a very large mansion located close to the water.
Clearly, parts of Tom were based on Ginevra King’s real-life husband, William Mitchell. After all, the wealthy man was seen as a good match for King. However, other parts of Tom, including his college degree from Yale and his white supremacist habits, run parallel with King’s father, Charles Garfield King.
Daisy Buchanan
Daisy Buchanan, the wife of Tom Buchanan, was a flapper and socialite, as well as the cousin of Nick Carraway. Jay Gatsby was still in love with her, although their relationship had ended quite a few years before the events in the book. According to many experts, Fitzgerald based Daisy on Ginevra King.
When Fitzgerald lived in Chicago, he spent quite a bit of time on the social circuit, where he met up with King and her friend Edith Cummings. Both were socialites and former debutantes. According to the gossip of the period, Fitzgerald wanted to marry King but was dissuaded when her father made an off-hand, derogatory comment about poor men wishing to marry rich women.
- Related Topic: How Did Jay Gatsby Die?
Jordan Baker
Jordan Baker, the best friend of Daisy Buchanan, was an amateur golfer and debutante who spent time on the social scene in East Egg. The character cheated at golf and enjoyed dancing up a storm at speakeasies and parties. She was based on the Fairway Flapper, also known as Edith Cummings. The woman was an actual real-life debutant and competitive golfer, although there isn’t any proof that she cheated on the game.
The Location
The Great Gatsby is set in the fictional towns of East Egg and West Egg. Carraway describes both as being located on Long Island. It’s clear from the outset that these towns, both full of spectacular mansions and fashionable people, are meant to be the city of Great Neck, New York, where Fitzgerald lived while he wrote the book.
In fact, several years ago a 1920s-era mansion on Long Island’s Gold Coast went up for sale. Among the building’s pedigree is the fact that Fitzgerald spent some time there back in 1923. He was a friend of Mary Harriman Rumsey, a wealthy scion of a railroad magnate.
The house consists of 13 bedrooms, each with a 12-foot ceiling, on over five acres of land. A tennis court, private beach, and a boathouse are just some of its amenities. It’s easy to see Gatsby and some of his cohorts hanging out there, drinking bootleg liquor at night, or lounging on the beach during the day.
In Conclusion
The infamous Great Gatsby novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald may be a work of fiction, but it is based on real people and places that Fitzgerald encountered in his life during his time in Chicago.
Many of the characters in The Great Gatsby, such as Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker, were inspired by real-life individuals, including Fitzgerald himself, his wife Zelda, and his former love interest Ginevra King.
The characters and their relationships in the novel are based on real people and their interactions, although the events depicted in the book are fictional.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is Gatsby a fictional character?
Yes and no. While Jay Gatsby didn’t exist, the character was based on both Max Gerlach and Fitzgerald himself.
2. What influenced F Scott Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby?
Fitzgerald based a lot of his works loosely on himself and his friends. It’s believed that he wanted to ascend to the upper classes that he admired, and hoped that this book would be the key to getting there. However, it didn’t work out that way.
3. When did The Great Gatsby become famous?
At first, the book was a commercial failure and less than 20,000 copies were sold. However, a few years after Fitzgerald’s death in 1940, copies began to fly off of the shelves. First, a group of publishing executives sent copies of the book, along with others, to soldiers fighting in World War II. Retrospectives of Fitzgerald’s life and works followed, and by the 1960s, the book was on school reading lists all over the country. It was then that The Great Gatsby became famous.
Written by Kerry Wisby – GatsbyFlapperGirl.com
Owner & Founder of GatsbyFlapperGirl.com
Kerry Wisby, a former teacher with a BA in English, is the founder of GatsbyFlapperGirl.com. With a passion for all things 1920s, including The Great Gatsby novel, her website is the ultimate source for Roaring Twenties fashion, history, and party ideas. Read more about Kerry here.
