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Chapter 1
Mythological and Historical
I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Mæcenas knew.
This quote contains several allusions: The name Midas is an allusion to the Greek god Midas, who turned everything he touched to gold, and “Morgan and Mæcenas” are allusions to the Gilded Age financier J. P. Morgan and the wealthy Roman patron Mæcenas.
Literary
"Civilization's going to pieces," broke out Tom violently. "I've gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read 'The Rise of the Coloured Empires' by this man Goddard?"
"Why, no," I answered, rather surprised by his tone.
"Well, it's a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved."
In one of our earliest encounters with Tom Buchanan, we learn that he is a pseudo-intellectual racist who fears that the “white race” is under threat when he praises a book called “The Rise of Coloured Empires” by an author named Goddard. No such book or author exist, but Fitzgerald’s description is clearly an allusion an 1920 book called The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy by eugenicist American author Lothrop Stoddard (published by the same house that published Fitzgerald’s novel).
Historical
They are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead.
This is an allusion to a popular story at the time that purported that Christopher Columbus flattened the end of a hard boiled egg to solve the seemingly impossible challenge of getting it to send on its end. The story was told as a way to demonstrate the value of bringing creativity and fresh thinking to problem solving.
Chapter 2
Historical
Well, they say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s. That’s where all his money comes from.
This is an allusion to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German emperor and the King of Prussia, who abdicated right before the end of World War I and lived in exile in the Netherlands.
Chapter 3
Historical
The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.
This is an allusion to the former opulent and powerful kingdom of Castile in Spain.
Historical Pop Culture
Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her, and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the Follies.
These are allusions to the jazz dancer Joe Frisco, the actress and dancer Gilda Gray, and the theatre revue the Ziegfeld Follies. “The Follies” were a wildly popular Broadway attraction at the time The Great Gatsby was written.
Literary
Taking our skepticism for granted, he rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the ‘Stoddard Lectures.’
This is an allusion to the American writer and photographer John Lawson Stoddard (1850-1931), who wrote accounts of his travels throughout the world. Incidentally, John Stoddard was the father of Lothrop Stoddard, the eugenicist author whose book Fitzgerald alluded to in Chapter 1.
Historical Pop Culture
It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco.
This is an allusion to the the innovative American theatre producer and impresario David Belasco (1853-1931).
Chapter 4
Historical
One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.
This is an allusion to Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), the leader of the German army during World War I and eventual president of Germany.
Historical
Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.” Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.
This is an allusion to the notorious “Black Sox Scandal” in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused intentionally losing the 1919 World Series in exchange for money. The undertaking is actually believed to have been organized by New York gambler and gangster Arnold Rothstein (1882-1928), who the character of Meyer Wolfsheim is at least partially based on.
Chapter 5
Historical
‘Your place looks like the World’s Fair,’ I said.
This is an allusion to the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, the first to be powered by electricity.
Historical
Gatsby looked with vacant eyes through a copy of Clay’s “Economics,” staring at the Finnish tread that shook the kitchen floor, and peering toward the bleared windows from time to time as if a series of invisible but alarming happenings were taking place outside.
Clay’s “Economics” is an allusion to the British economist Sir Henry Clay (1883-1954). “Finnish tread” is harder to pinpoint, but it seems to be an reference to the footprints of an immigrant, since at the time the book was written “Finnish” was often used to refer to hearty (but poor) Midwestern immigrants.
Literary
That’s the secret of Castle Rackrent. Tell your chauffeur to go far away and spend an hour.
This is an allusion to Castle Rackrent, a 1800 novel by Anglo-Irish author Maria Edgeworth in which leaves the ending as a mystery to readers.
Historical
There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house, so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour.
This is an allusion to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a key figure of the Enlightenment who was renowned for gazing at a church steeple while deep in thought.
Historical
And inside, as we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons, I felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through.
This passage includes two allusions. The first is to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, who was known for her expensive taste. The second is to the Restoration, the period after the return of rule of the House of Stuart to the monarchy of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1660. This period is also well-known for its opulence and lavish displays of wealth.
Chapter 6
Ancient Greek Philosophy
The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.
This is an allusion to the Greek philosopher Plato’s idea of truth as an abstraction.
Chapter 7
Historical and Literary
It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night—and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.
This is an allusion to the ancient Roman satire Trimalchio, written by Petronius, in which the title character is a former slave who dresses up as a rich man.
Chapter 8
Biblical
He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail.
This is an allusion to the grail from which Jesus was said to have drunk at the Last Supper, which has been the subject of many failed quests throughout history and literature.
