1. I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life.
In this quote, Fitzgerald makes the argument of how money can buy things, but cannot fulfill an individual. Gatsby is a wealthy man who went to Oxford and the son of a family in the Middle West. However, he is still not emotionally fulfilled. The reader would think that since Gatsby is so wealthy that he would have an easy life without struggle. When Fitzgerald uses word “tried” it just shows the emptiness inside Gatsby and how he is going through the motions of life and not enjoying it. The quote then ends with “enchanted”, because that is the life Gatsby should be living. (Words 104)
2. “When I said you were a particular friend of Tom’s, he started to abandon the whole idea.”
Here Nick starts to understand why Gatsby has been particularly nice to him. Fitzgerald makes the point how everyone in the world uses other people to get what they want. Gatsby wants to be involved in Daisy’s new life. He knows that he can’t just freely go to her house and talk to her. Instead he comes up with this clever plan to get Nick to invite Daisy to his house, so he can speak with his long last love Daisy. This quote just reinforces that everyone in this world is only interested in their selfish desires and not others. (Words 100)
3. Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.
Here Fitzgerald makes the argument of how money does not always provide confidence. Gatsby has all the money in the world, but he still gets nervous when talking to Daisy. He does not know how to impress her. The history between them makes him feel uncomfortable, because Daisy is married to another man and he has not seen her in years. The reader no longer sees Gatsby as this confident wealthy man, but instead as a nervous man .This quote shows how Gatsby is just as human as anyone else. He still gets nervous when talking to someone he likes, and money cannot change this nervous feeling. (Words 107)
4. So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded.
In this quote the author makes the point of how once someone gets to know someone they start to lose their immediate impression of them. Nick’s impression of Gatsby is changing. He used to see Gatsby as a mysterious man who was wealthy without a reason. However, he has started to get to know Gatsby and has started to understand that he does fit the rumors that other people say about him. He is instead a man of knowledge and not just a man who throws lavish parties. Nick starts to see that although Gatsby is wealthy he is still not happy. (Words 102)
5. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”
Nick makes the point of how humans hide their real emotion. Daisy is still in love with Gatsby and when Gatsby is showing them around she starts to remember all of the memories her and Gatsby enjoyed. However, she can’t express this emotion, because she lives a completely different life now. She is married to Tom and has a daughter, so her expressing this emotion would be totally inappropriate. In the quote the reader can tell that she makes a hesitation. This hesitation just shows how she is covering up what she really feels by ending the quote with “such beautiful shirts before”. (Word 103)
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