The Great Gatsby

James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby, is the novel's protagonist and main character. He's rich, mysterious, and madly in love with Daisy Buchanan. Over the course of the novel, we learn that Gatz (Gatsby) was born to a poor family in North Dakota, that he fell in love with Daisy during the war, and that everything he did afterward was with the intent to make himself worthy of her.