Though Gatsby himself turns the man away, Nick interrupts the narrative to relate Gatsby's past the truth of which he only learned much later to the reader. His real name is James Gatz, and he was born to an impoverished farmer in North Dakota, rather than into wealth in San Francisco, as he claimed. Hover for more information. In Chapter IV when Nick and Gatsby ride together into New York, Gatsby tells Nick about his past, in Gatsby's words "something about my life." He then tells Nick of his wealthy Midwestern family background and his Oxford education--a family tradition, he said.
