Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 4, Pages 74-80

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The second half of chapter 4, we finally get to here what Gatsby had told Jordan at that first party. Coincidentally, the whole story ties into Daisy Buchanan and her and Gatsby's past relationship. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all" (Fitzgerald 78). As Jordan tells Nick, Gatsby's real intent for moving into the West egg was to be in close proximity to Daisy and his sudden interest in Nick was in hoping that he would have her over for tea. So now the life and motives of the mysterious great Mr. Gatsby are starting to come into focus and oddly enough it is not that fascinating. It's like that moment in The Wizard of Oz when they realize that the wizard is not the all powerful being he claims to be but rather just a man behind a curtain; or it is like what the masking of Master chief would be like when you lift his hallowed helmet to find just a man staring back at you. When we learn more about this character, he soon starts to become more human, thus making him much less grand and amazing.



One big development before the end of chapter 4 is Nick and Jordan's kiss where Nick finally abandons his self-control and gives into the moment by kissing Jordan. I believe that in discussing the plights of men such as Tom Buchanan and Gatsby involving their women problems, Nick gains a kind of confidence that assures him that he, in some aspects, has it better than these rich powerful men; in his case it is his steady relationship with the beautiful women whom his arm is around. "Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs , and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms" (Fitzgerald 80).

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