The Great Gatsby

In chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby Nick is invited to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. He arrives only to find he doesn’t know where Gatsby is, and then he runs into Jordan Baker. Together they set off to find Gatsby and they head to the library where they find “Owl Eyes”, a drunken man trying to get sober. After talking to “Owl Eyes” for awhile they head outside again where Nick unknowingly starts a conversation with Gatsby. After revealing himself, Gatsby tells Jordan that he would like to speak to her privately. Later “Owl Eyes” drives his car into a ditch and the chapter ends with Nick describing his life in New York and driving in a car with Jordan. The quote that best describes Jordan Baker is, “Let’s get out…this is much too polite for me” (45). The bad qualities of Jordan Baker are she is deceitful, derisive, and contemptuous. Jordan’s good qualities are she is a strong and supportive woman. Fitzgerald developed Jordan Baker throughout The Great Gatsby because she is an example of how people prey on other people for money. In addition, Jordan Baker is important because she represents a new type of woman in her time. This chapter’s meaningful quote is significant to the novel’s plot. This is evident when Nick first talks to Gatsby and describes his smile: He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in life…It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, hoped to convey. (48) This quote is important to the stories plot because it described Gatsby as people saw him, a charismatic person who cared. It also was Nick’s first impression of how Gatsby can seem like the greatest person in the world. In addition, this quote showed why Gatsby was so liked and why his parties were always hopping. In The Great Gatsby the colors yellow and gold symbolize corruptness, destruction, and wealth. The color yellow is mentioned often when describing Gatsby’s parties. For example, yellow is mentioned when describing the music, “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music…” (40). Then again when describing what people were wearing, “She held my hand impersonally…and gave ear to two girls in twin yellow dresses, who stopped at the foot of the steps” (42). The symbol yellow is important to the story because it symbolizes wealth, which Gatsby is using to impress Daisy. The color gold is used to describe the food, “On buffet tables…and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (40), and to describe Jordan, “With Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine…” (43). This symbol is important to the story because it symbolizes corruptness and displays the grandness of the parties. In chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby Nick lists all the people that attended Gatsby’s parties during the summer from a faded timetable. Later, Nick goes to lunch with Gatsby and during the car ride Gatsby tells Nick about his past but Nick doesn’t believe his story. When they get to the restaurant Nick meets Meyer Wolfshiem, a shady friend of Gatsby, and after lunch Nick meets up with Jordan Baker who tells him about her and Gatsby’s mysterious conversation from his last party. Jordan tells him that Gatsby is still in love with Daisy and bought his house just to be close to her. The chapter ends with Jordan telling Nick that Gatsby wants him to invite Daisy over for tea. The quote that best describes Klipspringer is, “A man named Klipspringer was there so often and so long that he became known as ‘the boarder’ – I doubt if he had any other home” (62-63). The bad qualities of Klipspringer are that he is a mooch that only hangs out with Gatsby for his wealth and he is a very shallow person. Just like Myrtle Wilson, Klipspringer has no apparent good qualities, as he is a person with absolutely no morals. Klipspringer was important to the story because he showed how no one really cared about Gatsby except for his money. They abused his hospitality and didn’t think twice. A meaningful quote in this chapter is, “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired” (79). Nick says the quote when he was thinking about Jordan Baker. This quote is important to the story because it describes the different types of people in the novel. Additionally, this quote also discusses about the different types of love and how some are happy and some are not with their love life. So, the significance of this quote in the novel is that Fitzgerald wanted the readers to understand the varieties of love. In The Great Gatsby Meyer Wolfshiem’s cufflinks symbolize him being a mixture of sophisticated and crude man and the faded timetable symbolizes the diversity of social classes that attended Gatsby’s parties. Meyer Wolfshiem’s cufflinks were first seen on Wolfshiem by Nick at lunch, “They were composed of familiar pieces of ivory” (72), and when Wolfshiem describes them as, “Finest specimens of human molars”(72). This symbol is significant to the novel’s plot because it focuses in on the fact that Meyer Wolfshiem is a very shady character. The faded timetable is mentioned by Nick in the beginning of chapter 4, “Once I wrote down on the empty spaces of a timetable the names of those who came to Gatsby’s house that summer” (61), and through pages 62 to 63 Nick reads off the names on the timetable. This symbol is significant to the novel’s plot because it shows how everyone from every social class attended Gatsby’s parties, even though they didn’t know him. In chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, Nick comes home from a date with Jordan and finds Gatsby’s house lit up brightly but no one inside. Gatsby then approaches him about tea with Daisy and then offers Nick a place in a side business but he refuses. The next day Daisy comes over as planned but when Nick takes her inside to see Gatsby the room was empty as Gatsby had left to walk around the house. When Gatsby returns the date starts off very awkward but Nick leaves them alone for awhile and returns to find them happy with each other. Gatsby, Daisy, and Nick head over to Gatsby’s mansion and Daisy gets emotional over Gatsby’s obvious wealth. The chapter ends with Gatsby and Daisy forgetting Nick is there so Nick just leaves them alone. The quote that best describes Daisy Buchanan is, “Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy” (89). The good qualities of Daisy Buchanan are she is charming, enthusiastic, and sophisticated. Daisy’s bad qualities are she only loves for money, she has no long term loyalty to anyone but herself, and she is careless of other’s feelings. Daisy is developed throughout the novel to show how seemingly innocent people are not always innocent. In addition, Daisy is the woman that Gatsby loves and she shows how shallow people can become for money. A meaningful quote in this chapter is, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything” (95). This quote is meaningful to the novel because it tells how Gatsby had set his expectations for Daisy too high and he was setting himself up for disappointment. Also, since Gatsby thinks Daisy is a perfect woman he will be surprised when he discovers her true character. So, this quote is significant because it foreshadows what will happen at the end of the novel. In The Great Gatsby the rain symbolizes despair and hopelessness over a doomed relationship and Gatsby’s clothes symbolize his wealth and extravagance. The rain starts at the beginning of tea with Daisy, “The day agreed upon was pouring rain” (83), and is mentioned again later on, “Once more it was pouring…” (88). This symbol is significant to the story because it shows the strain of Daisy and Gatsby’s newfound relationship. Gatsby’s clothes were first described by Nick, “An hour later… Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in” (84), and later when Daisy finds all of Gatsby’s beautiful shirts, “He took out a pile of shirts… shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… covered the table in many-colored disarray” (92). This symbol is significant to the story because it shows Gatsby’s wealth and how Daisy is reacting to the fact that Gatsby has enough money to own all of this beautiful clothing.