The Great Gatsby: Chapters 4-6
Episode 48
Studying for a quiz or planning a lesson for your class? Professor Pipes is here to party! And by that we mean discuss the many parties of Jay Gatsby in chapters 4-6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic tale of debauchery and American dreamers, The Great Gatsby.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Domestic Violence, Abuse, Anti-Semitism
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to another great episode of Piper's Paraphrases. I'm Professor Pipers and it is my great pleasure to tell you all about Chapters 4-6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby. Ok, enough of that.
Previously:
Previously in The Great Gatsby we met the not-particularly-great Nick Carraway, our supposedly non-judgemental narrator who recently moved in next door to the mysterious and wealthy Jay Gatsby. Nick tells us all about the geography of Long Island before heading off across the bay to visit his cousin Daisy at her mansion in “East Egg,” the fancier neighborhood. Daisy seems both cynical and sad, perhaps partly because she’s married to a big fat jerk, Tom. Tom is at least emotionally abusive, and maybe more. Plus classist. And racist. And having an affair. What a guy. Also with the couple is Jordan Baker, a golfer whom Daisy wants Nick to date. Nick tells us more about his day to day life. Bo-ring! Then one day Tom takes Nick into the city, and they meet up with the woman Tom is having an affair with, Myrtle. They have an… eventful… party, where Tom is able to make it through a full cycle of abuse: love-bombing with a gift of a puppy followed by punching Myrtle in the nose for talking about Daisy. Fun times. Later on, Nick is invited to Gatsby’s house for one of his elaborate, over-the-top parties, where he runs into Jordan and eventually Gatsby himself, who steals Jordan away for a private conversation where she apparently learned something extraordinary! The party ends and Nick goes back to his ordinary life, but also starts dating Jordan.
Plot Summary:
Are you ready for some serious name-dropping? If so, you’re ready for chapter 4, where Nick starts listing off the people who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer, and they include all of New York’s movers and shakers. No, not that kind of shakers, Cooper. One July morning, Gatsby arrives at Nick’s house and declares that they are having lunch together in New York. On the way, Gatsby asks what Nick thinks of him, but before Nick can answer, Gatsby describes his totally real and not at all made up past, like how he went to Oxford and had a rich, but dead, family in the midWest. In San Francisco, that very famously midWest town. Also he lived like a king all over Europe and was a brave and highly decorated officer during World War I. Just Gatsby things! Also he has something awful and mysterious in his past that he’s trying to forget, but he won’t tell Nick, but he told Jordan, so Jordan will tell Nick because that’s the most logical way to communicate!
Eventually they have lunch with Meyer Wolfshiem, a “business associate” of Gatsby’s, if you can call a shady, gambling, crime boss who wears teeth as cufflinks and rigged the World Series a “business associate.” After talking about various questionable or downright illegal activities, Wolfshiem leaves. Nick spots Tom across the room and heads over to say hello and introduce his friend and neighbor Jay Gats- oh! He’s disappeared!
Cut to Jordan telling Nick all about… Daisy. Wait! I thought she was supposed to be telling us about Gatsby (look in book). Oh! I see. Apparently when Daisy was 18 she fell in love with an officer named Jay Gatsby - yes, our Jay Gatsby - but he went away to war, and when Daisy tried to leave with him, her mom forbade it! Within a couple of years, she married Tom, but right before the wedding she got drunk and hysterical after receiving a mysterious letter and wanted to call off the wedding, but she didn’t and she and Tom have been together ever since. What a love story. Anyways, Daisy didn’t know that Gatsby had bought a house right across the bay from her in order to be nearby or that he threw parties in the hopes that she might come. So after years of, well, kind of stalking her, Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy over so that he can just casually drop by.
Aaaand in Chapter 5 that’s exactly what’s gonna happen. Nick gets home and tells a totally casual and not at all tense Gatsby that he’ll have the two of them over the day after tomorrow, which will just give Gatsby enough time to have the lawn mowed. Nick’s lawn. Gatsby comes by on the appointed day for a bit of a freak out, but has yet again mysteriously disappeared when Daisy arrives. Soon he knocks at the front door, walks straight past Nick, and into the room with Daisy, where he sweeps her into his arms and they share true love’s kiss! Just kidding. They stand awkwardly in silence. Nick gives them some alone time, and when he returns, they all go to Gatsby’s place for a tour. By then, Daisy and Gatsby are in much higher spirits, especially when he shows Daisy all his shirts. She cries because they’re just so beautiful! Not kidding. And to end the weirdest three-person date I’ve ever heard of, Gatsby wakes up his houseguest so he can play music for them all.
Now that we’re at Chapter 6, more than halfway through the book, we finally learn the truth about Jay Gatsby’s past - or should I say, James Gatz. Shockingly, Gatz grew up kind of poor, but he reinvented himself one day when he made friends with a millionaire who took him under his wing. Anyway, history lesson over, back to the present. One Sunday afternoon when Nick is chilling at Gatsby’s house, Tom and a few friends drop by. They all chat kind of awkwardly, and Gatsby tells Tom that he knows his wife. The lady in the group invites him out to dinner with them, but then they leave before he can even join in, saying they didn’t really want him to come at all. One of the friends suggests that they should all come to Gatsby’s next party and, sure enough, Tom and Daisy come to it together. Awkward. Both Tom and Daisy seem mildly horrified by West Egg and the debauchery of the party, but Daisy does enjoy the short time she’s able to spend alone with Gatsby during the night. As they’re leaving, Tom asks Nick if Gatsby is a bootlegger, but Daisy defends him, saying his money comes from owning drugstores. Gatsby emerges and laments to Nick that Daisy didn’t enjoy the party and seems distant, but when Nick says that you can’t repeat the past, Gatsby says that of course you can! Gatsby says that of course you can! See what I did there? Gatsby tells Nick about his past with Daisy and the moment when they kissed and his life was forever changed with, according to Nick, “appalling sentimentality.” Yeah, ‘cause who wants sentiment in a relationship? Losers.
Characterization:
So your secret’s out James Gatz, aka Jay Gatsby! In these chapters we learn both the background the Gatsby created for himself and the one he actually lived. Gatsby claims it’s the “God’s truth” that he was the son of wealthy Americans, that he was educated at Oxford, that he ran around Europe just being rich, and that he was a hero in the war. “An enchanted life,” as he puts it. But the truth isn’t so enchanted. Now we know that his parents were not rich, and he instead made his money illegally. It seems the only things true about Gatsby are his kind manners, his service in the military, and his love of Daisy.
Speaking of Daisy, we see much more of her character in these chapters. She at times puts on the facade of being carefree and self-assured, like when she arrives at the party and declares “If you want to kiss me any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you.” But at other times we see glimpses into her sadness at not following love when she had the chance, like when she drunkenly said before her wedding, “Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine.” However, while she seemed happy to see Gatsby again, his huge house and all the trappings of wealth brought out much more emotion. Might I remind you of his beautiful shirts? She wants it all: the status, the money, the marriage, the attention, and the love.
Now we always need to remember that books, even “classic” books, are not perfect. They are still a product of their time and emulate the beliefs and even stereotypes held by authors who were, in fact, living, breathing, flawed human beings. Which brings us to Wolfsheim. He is a caricature of a Jewish man and is meant to elicit disgust from the reader, just as he does from the narrator, Nick. Fitzgerald’s description of an unsavory, immoral mobster is similar to other anti-Semitic, prejudicial portrayals of the time, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or excused. Interestingly, the character of Wolfsheim was actually based on a real-life mob boss - Arnold Rothstein, who is credited, well more like discredited, with rigging the 1919 World Series. The World Series is one of those classically “American” events, so having Gatsby’s rise to prominence come with the help of someone like Wolfsheim says some interesting things about the promise - or lack thereof - of the American Dream - which is a perfect segue into thematic analysis. So let’s do that.
Analysis:
Ahh the American Dream! Manicured lawn, white picket fence, two and a half children. Wait - how would that work? *Shake head / shudder* Well I guess that’s pretty much exactly the point. The “American Dream” is the idea that the United States is a land of opportunity where everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve success and get everything they’ve ever wanted. But we know that’s just a dream. Right? Not everyone has an equal opportunity. And we all know that success in the American Dream really means money. So the poor kid digging clams on a lakeshore eventually works his way through a crime syndicate and earns a whole lot of money, but has Gatsby really achieved his dream? No, the money isn’t enough. But the girl? Well even when she’s in his arms, “the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his happiness.” So, maybe being rich and with her isn’t enough. In fact, Nick believes Gatsby “wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’” He wants to relive the past and is unwilling to accept that it can’t be done. Gatsby had been “full of the idea so long” but maybe that’s just it. The “American Dream” is better as an idea than as faulty, imperfect reality.
In fact, that brings us to the symbol of the Green Light. Back in the first chapter, Gatsby “stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way” toward “a single green light, minute and far away,” which we later learn is at the end of Daisy’s dock. When Gatsby mentions this light to Daisy, Nick realizes that it had just occurred to Gatsby that “the significance of that light had now vanished forever… Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” Green is often symbolic of money, greed, or jealousy, all things associated with the American Dream. For Gatsby, reaching out to the light was reaching out to his love, his dream. But now that he has her, something is lost. It’s almost as if the pursuit of the dream is more satisfying than the dream itself.
Next up, let’s get classy! And by that I mean, let’s talk about Class (while looking cool). The differences between the Buchanans, between East Egg and West Egg, between Old Money and New, are made very clear in this set of chapters. After all, why did Daisy marry Tom, rather than Gatsby? Money! He came “with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before” and gave her “a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” What was the letter - and love - when compared to a certain future filled with everything money could buy? Not enough, apparently. It’s not until Gatsby has enough money to buy “that huge place there” and “such beautiful shirts” that he becomes a viable option. But even still, money and social class don’t fully go hand in hand, which is really evident at the party where, despite the fact that it is filled with the rich and famous, Daisy is offended and “appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented ‘place’ that Broadway had begotten… appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a shortcut from nothing to nothing.” Even oblivious Tom recognizes Daisy’s disgust and shares in it. He also assumes that Gatsby earned his money illegally because “a lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers.” But the funny thing is, he’s not wrong. In his pursuit of wealth at any cost, Gatsby got himself involved with Meyer Wolfshiem and the “little business on the side” that keeps pulling him away into secret phone conversations. Sooo pursuing the American Dream leaves you disappointed and rashly pursuing wealth leaves you morally bankrupt.
Let’s finish this discussion of wealth and class by talking about Hypocrisy and the difference between Appearance and Reality. This is evident when the East Eggers stop by Gatsby’s place with Tom. Even though the lady in the group invites Gatsby to dinner, as soon as he goes to grab his stuff, the other friends ask why he’s coming and point out, “Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?” It’s all just the appearance of courtesy, not an actual desire to be friendly. This same false friendship is apparent with the millionaire Dan Cody who fell victim to one of the “infinite number of women” who “tried to separate him from his money.” But at the same time, James Gatz “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.” None of these people are who they appear to be, Gatsby’s wealth and background aren’t what they appear to be. The American Dream isn’t as good as it seems. So I guess the lesson here is… trust no one?
Food for Thought:
Now I can’t provide a feast like Gatsby’s party, but I can leave you with some food for thought.
First, what’s the significance of Nick's list of guests from Gatsby's parties in Chapter 4? How does it contribute to our understanding of the characters and of class?
Second, Fitzgerald seems to judge both the people partying excessively and the people who look down on such party goers. What might he be saying about society in the 1920’s?
Third, these chapters jump around in time quite a bit. How do these flashbacks and time jumps affect the narrative? Why might Fitzgerald have chosen not to tell the story fully chronologically?
Fourth, within the first pages of the book, Nick describes Gatsby as representing “everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” but also that there was “something gorgeous about him” that left him exempt from Nick’s judgment. Now that you know more about Gatsby, in what ways is he worthy of scorn and for what reasons might he be excused?
Finally, compare the relationships set up in this book: Jordan and Nick, Daisy and Tom, Gatsby and Daisy. In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different? What might Fitzgeralnd have been suggesting?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people.
