World War I

World War I, referred to in the novel as the Great War, forms a crucial historical backdrop that shapes the lives and fates of the central characters. Nick Carraway, the narrator, participated in the conflict, describing it as a "delayed Teutonic migration" that left him restless upon his return, prompting his decision to move East and enter the bond business. The war's aftermath created a sense of dislocation and a break from the past, a condition that permeates the novel's atmosphere.

Gatsby's Military Service and Transformation

Jay Gatsby's experience in World War I was a period of rapid advancement and personal transformation. He accepted a commission as a first lieutenant when the war began. During the Argonne Forest campaign, he led two machine-gun detachments so far forward that a half-mile gap existed on either side, where the infantry could not advance. His unit of a hundred and thirty men with sixteen Lewis guns held the position for two days and two nights. When the infantry finally arrived, they found the insignia of three German divisions among the piles of dead. For this action, Gatsby was promoted to major, and every Allied government gave him a decoration, including Montenegro, which awarded him the Orderi di Danilo for "Valour Extraordinary." He carried this medal with him as a physical token of his wartime heroism. The war also provided Gatsby with a crucial social opportunity: after the Armistice, he was sent to Oxford University for five months, an opportunity given to some officers. This brief period at Oxford became a cornerstone of his fabricated identity, which he later used to claim a background of wealth and education.

The War's Impact on Daisy and Tom

The war also directly affected Daisy Buchanan's life. In 1917, when she was eighteen, she was deeply involved with Gatsby, then a young lieutenant stationed at Camp Taylor. Her mother found her packing a bag one winter night to go to New York to say goodbye to a soldier going overseas, a plan that was prevented. After Gatsby went abroad, Daisy felt the pressure of the world outside. She began to move again with the season, keeping multiple dates with different men, while something within her cried for a decision. That decision came in the spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan, whose "wholesome bulkiness" and position provided the force she needed. She married Tom in June, and they started a three-month trip to the South Seas. The war thus created the separation that allowed Tom to enter Daisy's life, setting the stage for the central conflict of the novel.

The War as a Marker of Generation and Class

The war serves as a generational marker, distinguishing those who fought from those who did not. Nick Carraway, who served in the Ninth Machine-gun Battalion of the Third Division, and Gatsby, who served in the Seventh Infantry until June 1918, share a bond of experience that allows them to connect at Gatsby's party, discussing "wet, gray little villages in France." In contrast, Tom Buchanan, though of the same generation, is defined by his pre-war athletic glory at New Haven, and his restless, aggressive demeanor seems a search for a drama his football career could no longer provide. The war also accelerated social change, contributing to the rise of new wealth and the breakdown of old social hierarchies, a world in which Gatsby could reinvent himself but also one in which his past could be used against him. Tom's accusation that Gatsby is a "common swindler" and a bootlegger is rooted in the post-war underworld of figures like Meyer Wolfsheim, who fixed the World's Series in 1919. Gatsby's death, a direct consequence of the tangled relationships born from the war's aftermath, marks the end of an era, and Nick's final reflection on Gatsby's dream—"a fresh, green breast of the new world"—is a meditation on the promise and failure of the American Dream in the post-war world.