The Great Gatsby Characters — Grouped by Location (Spoiler-Free)

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a novel of neighborhoods — West Egg's new money, East Egg's inherited wealth, the industrial valley of ashes between them, and the Manhattan rooms where deals get made. If you're rereading for class or trying to keep the Jazz Age cast straight, grouping characters by where they live and meet is the fastest mental map.

This guide organizes the main Great Gatsby characters by location, without spoiling what Fitzgerald reveals later. For chapter-by-chapter analysis, portraits, and relationship maps, see the full Great Gatsby character guide on CharacterViz.

West Egg — Nick and Gatsby's side of the bay

West Egg is where the newly rich build oversized houses. Nick rents a modest place next door to the most famous estate on the sound — the one throwing parties every weekend.

Nick Carraway — The narrator, a Midwesterner who arrives in the summer of 1922 to sell bonds. His cottage on West Egg puts him at the edge of a world he both admires and distrusts.

Jay Gatsby — The host of those legendary parties, visible across the lawn from Nick's windows. Neighbors trade rumors about his fortune; Gatsby himself stays oddly selective about who he actually talks to.

Explore: Nick Carraway on CharacterViz · Jay Gatsby on CharacterViz

East Egg — old money and Daisy Buchanan

Across the bay, East Egg holds the families who were born into wealth. The Buchanans' place is the social counterweight to Gatsby's spectacle — quieter on the surface, no less charged underneath.

Daisy Buchanan — Nick's cousin, married to Tom and settled in East Egg. Daisy is magnetic and restless, with a voice that seems to promise more than ordinary conversation can deliver.

Tom Buchanan — Daisy's husband, a former football star with old-money confidence and a habit of taking up space wherever he goes.

Jordan Baker — A professional golfer and Daisy's friend in the East Egg set. Cool, witty, and self-possessed — she becomes Nick's companion through much of the summer.

Explore: Daisy Buchanan on CharacterViz · Tom Buchanan on CharacterViz · Jordan Baker on CharacterViz

The valley of ashes — Wilson's garage

Between the Eggs and New York, a bleak stretch of ash heaps and billboards marks the working-class world that the wealthy drive through without stopping.

George Wilson — Runs a garage in the valley, worn down by economic struggle and a marriage that has gone cold. He is easy to overlook — which makes his entanglement with the novel's glittering figures all the more unsettling.

Myrtle Wilson — George's wife, hungry for the glamour she sees in Tom Buchanan's orbit. Her apartment in the city and her life above the garage represent two different fantasies of escape.

Explore: George Wilson on CharacterViz · Myrtle Wilson on CharacterViz

Manhattan — business and back rooms

The city is where bonds are sold, affairs are hidden, and Gatsby's past connects to shadier enterprise. Fitzgerald keeps several key encounters off Long Island entirely.

Meyer Wolfsheim — A businessman with Prohibition-era connections and a taste for discretion. He moves through restaurants and hotels like someone who has learned exactly which stories never leave the table.

Explore: Meyer Wolfsheim on CharacterViz

How to read without spoilers

The Great Gatsby is narrated in retrospect, so Nick already knows how the summer ends while he introduces you to each location. CharacterViz gates every bio, chapter analysis, and relationship detail to your bookmark, so you only see what you've actually read.

Start here: The Great Gatsby on CharacterViz — set your bookmark to Chapter 1 and explore characters as you go.

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CharacterViz is a spoiler-safe reading companion. Analysis for this title is grounded in Fitzgerald's public-domain text.