The Great Gatsby
Chester McKee
The photographer
A pale, artistic neighbor in Myrtle’s building who shows Nick his portfolio of photographs.
Chester McKee is a pale, soft-spoken photographer who lives in Myrtle’s building. He is languid, a little pretentious and easily distracted, and he drifts in and out of the afternoon party with his wife Lucille.
He is mainly comic relief. Nick finds him sitting up in his underwear with a great portfolio in his hands, reading out titles such as Beauty and the Beast and Loneliness. His artistic seriousness is a funny contrast to the chaos of the room.
“Beauty and the Beast... Loneliness... Old Grocery Horse...”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Chester is a guest at the New York party and is still there when it falls apart. He is not involved in Myrtle’s death or the quarrels that follow, and the story does not follow him afterward.
Nick leaves the McKees behind and goes to Pennsylvania Station to wait for the four o’clock train, thinking over what he has just seen.
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