The Great Gastby Chapters 4-6

Favorite parts

• Gatsby at tea

Superficiality vs Truth

• Materialism

  • Gatsby thinks of materials as showbiz

    • Doesn’t really care about materials

    • Daisy appreciates this

    • Daisy is materialistic

• Gatsby’s two different depictions

  • Jordan sees Gatsby as a romantic soldier

  • Nick sees Gatsby involved in organized crime

    • Wolfsheim

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception, he was faithful to the end.”(105)

• Comparison between Jesus and Gatsby

  • Showing Gatsby’s superficial identity

• Gatsby concocted his identity from his dreams-- very idealistic-- but is willing to go through any obstacles to obtain it

“‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all. . . .’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.” (74)

• Gatsby ability to succeed is limitless

• In America especially New York it is possible to become successful without having any connections-- unlike the rest of the world

Daisy’s and Gatsby’s love

• Gatsby tries turning back time

  • He almost breaks the clock on Nick’s mantelpiece

    • Symbolic of how he's trying to reverse time unsuccessfully

• He is could up on Daisy because of his insecurity

  • He has to come around the house before entering again

  • He wants to return to who he was

  • He is also very nostalgic

  • Maybe he wants Daisy to make him feel more alive since he has already accomplished so much

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.” (118)

• Shows how Gatsby love for daisy is not all about her

  • It's him being nostalgic and trying to connect with his past

  • Moreover, his concept of daisy is relayed into his dream and persona-- particularly his lust for wealth

• Both of them drop their fronts when they are together

  • Gatsby stops being his straight-laced oxford educated himself and becomes more nervous

• Look at the progression of weather throughout the day

  • Symbolic of how the meeting goes

“[H]e gave her a string of pearls . . . I was a bridesmaid. . . . She...pulled out the . . . pearls . . . “Take ’em down-stairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mind!’” (82)

• Returning the pearls is symbolic

  • Shows how she only married tom for his wealth and status

• He wants Daisy to admit she never loved Tom and marry him-- the only way to complete his dream

  • Shows his endless greed

Pace Changes

• Faster setting changes

• First 3 chapters → nick experiencing

• In the 4-6 chapters, we get less of Nick’s opinion

Symbolism

• The green light on Daisy's porch

  • Envy

  • American Dream

  • Gatsby's love for daisy

  • The wealth he hoped to amass to get Daisy

  • Gatsby is also more about the game, he is jealous of daisy and he wants to get her (not necessarily keep her)

  • The green light is perpetual→ he always wants more

Class

• Shows Gatsby hamartia: thinks money can buy all when it really cannot and hard work can achieve all

  • Despite having as much wealth-- there is still this divide between east and west egg

  • Shows the dislike for the excess by Daisy and others

• The House Tour

  • The idea of a modern feudal system

    • Gatsby is constantly compared to that along with his ostentatious possessions

“A brewer had built it early in the ‘period’ craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he’d agreed to pay five years’ taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw.” (94, 95)

• The American dream, in the end, results in a bad imitation of the European feudal system