Week 2.2 -The Great Gatsby Chapter 6-7

1.   “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.”

Here Nick explains how Gatsby became Gatsby. There are so many rumors going around in West Egg about Gatsby and his enormous wealth. No one understands why Gatsby is so wealthy and throws extravagant parties. However, Nick starts to know and understand Gatsby’s history of how he obtains his wealth and why he calls himself Jay Gatsby. Nick starts to see that Gatsby is not just this man that throws parties, but actually was a regular guy that happen to walk into wealth. This quote shows how everyone has an idea of how someone really is but never knows who they really are until they get to know them. (109)

2.   “Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy’s eyes.”

Here Nick is starting to become familiar with the lavish lifestyle of West Egg which is ironic because at the begin of the book this is the lifestyle Nick made stereotypes of. Nick now fits into this social clique so he no longer sees this clique as this upper class. This quote shows the hypocrisy of human beings because many of us say that we will never be like that person or group for whatever reason. But secretly we envy what they have and desperately want to be accepted into their upper social class. (94)

3.   “I wanted somebody who wouldn’t gossip”

The gossip about Gatsby in West Egg has started to affect Gatsby’s life. Gatsby finally has Daisy back in his life and he will not let anyone ruin that for him. Gatsby fires all his staff and replaces them with people who he feels will not talk and spread rumors about his personal life. This quote shows how rumors and gossip can cause unnecessary problems in people’s lives, because it was not necessary for Gatsby to just fire all his staff if people could just mind their business. (90)

4.   “She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw.”

This quote is important because Tom finally comes to the realization that Daisy and Gatsby are still in love with each other. Tom had been speculating that Daisy and Gatsby were not just ordinary friends, but something more ever since Gatsby’s party. Tom can’t believe that his wife has feelings for another guy especially Gatsby who he sees as a “bootlegger” because he is mysteriously wealthy. However, the irony to this situation is that Tom is cheating on Daisy with Mrs. Wilson and his behavior is even more disgraceful because he is just using Mrs. Wilson because he knows that he can get any woman because he is wealthy. (111)

5.   “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own.”

This quote shows how Daisy and Gatsby have this unspoken love that could not have be broken no matter how much time had passed between them. Gatsby and Daisy are madly in love with each other even though Daisy is married to Tom. He moved to West Egg to rekindle their love and he throws lavish parties in hopes of impressing her. This quote shows Gatsby’s commit to getting Daisy back and makes him a more relatable character because throughout the book Gatsby is not usually portrayed as a man with emotions unless it has something to do with Daisy. (101)