Chapter 5 begins with Nick seeing blazing lights, and thinking that his house is on fire; but turns out that the glowing lights that looked unreal were coming from Gatsby’s mansion. Like Nick, I also thought that there was another party going on in the tower, but I was also surprised to see Gatsby alone; and I agreed with Nick when he said ‘’Your place looks like a World’s Fair.’’ Even though I couldn’t see the place, I could still imagine and see it in my mind.
The scene suddenly got tense when Nick told Gatsby that he talked with Ms. Baker, and that he was going to call daisy tomorrow and invite her over. I felt Gatsby’s tension and restlessness as I empathized with him. As they are standing on Nick’s lawn, Gatsby makes him a business offer. He says that ‘’it happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing.’’ Even though we found out Gatsby’s secret, it still feels like he is hiding something, and he has more secrets to come. I started wondering if he was lying about the big family fortune that he inherited, and really was doing another business that needed to be kept confidential. Anything else doesn’t explain why he is getting phone calls from New Jersey or other states.
Later on, Nick calls Daisy to invite her over, and he strongly says ‘’Don’t bring Tom.’’ Daisy’s reaction to this (‘Who is ‘’Tom’’?’) surprised me. I thought that she would question the reason for this offer, and wouldn’t let go until she had an answer, but I didn’t think that she was so ready to sell Tom out.
And the day finally comes, where Gatsby meets Daisy after so many years. ‘’An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold-colored tie, hurried in. He was pale, and there were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath his eyes.’’ If I was in Gatsby’s shoes, I would also be pale, with ‘’signs of sleeplessness beneath my eyes’’. Anyone would be nervous in Gatsby’s situation.
When Daisy comes, and walks into the living room with Nick, Gatsby isn’t there. ‘’Well, that’s funny’’ exclaims Nick, and I thought so too. I would expect Gatsby to be there, and for a moment I thought that he chickened out and didn’t have the heart to face Daisy after all these years. But, unlike what I think, Gatsby knocks the door a few minutes later and comes in looking as ‘’pale as death’’. When Daisy says ‘’I certainly am awfully glad to see you again’’, it was the exact thing I expected, they were going to fall in love again.
‘’We’ve met before’’ Gatsby starts, but he never gets to finish his word as he knocks down the clock with his head. I wondered what he was going to say, but we never had a chance to find out, to my disappointment. ‘’We haven’t met for many years’’ Daisy continues, but the conversation doesn’t carry on.
Daisy and Nick sit down and start chatting as Gatsby watches them with ‘’tense, unhappy eyes’’. When Nick decides to leave, I thought that he was doing the right thing, leaving them alone and giving them some time and privacy to talk but Gatsby says that he needs to talk to him before he goes. ‘’You are acting like a little boy. Not only that, but you’re rude. Daisy’s sitting in there alone’’ Nick says and I thought that he was absolutely right. Gatsby has been acting weird all day, probably nervous with the idea of seeing Daisy, but now he is acting like a restless little boy. Given his situation, I wouldn’t judge him, but he should be able to control himself a little.
When Nick comes back, he finds the two engaged in a deep conversation ‘’their voices rising and swelling a little now and then with gusts of emotion’’. They don’t hear that nick comes in, even though he makes every possible sound in the kitchen. When Nick finally comes in the living room, he finds Daisy’s face ‘’smeared with tears’’ and she jumps up probably out of embarrassment and starts to wipe the tears off her face with a handkerchief. ‘’But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.’’ I was surprised to see Gatsby change so much, even though they only spent mostly half an hour together. Gatsby is really still in love with Daisy, you can tell by the way he gets nervous, restless, and as pale as death with the idea of seeing her, and the way he glows when he actually spends time with her.
The three then decide to go over to Gatsby’s, because Gatsby wants to show his place to Daisy desperately. When they are waiting for Daisy to come outside, Gatsby says that it took him 3 years to make the money to buy the house. Like Nick, I was also shocked. I thought that he inherited the money. This shows that Gatsby’s secrets aren’t all revealed and he has more to hide.
Gatsby changes around Daisy. From the moment he saw her, he didn’t stop looking at her. It is like he is drunk, or high on something. ‘’He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence.’’ Anyone in Gatsby’s place would go through these stages, he is so obviously in love with her; and his actions are described so well in this quote. Daisy also brings out the best in Gatsby, he changes when he is around her and starts to glow.
When they go to look at Gatsby’s wardrobe Daisy hugs the pile of shirts on the ground and starts crying intensely. ‘’ ‘They’re such beautiful shirts’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before’.’’ Even an idiot could understand that she isn’t crying because of the shirts, but because she is scared. Scared of the fact that she still loves Gatsby, and that he is back in her life overwhelms her with both gladness and sadness.
It starts raining again, so the three stay inside and just stare out of the window. ‘’If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay. You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock’’ says Gatsby to Daisy, implying that he knew all this time where she lived.
I loved the end of this chapter. It was strong and full of emotion. It was probably my favorite part of the book, and it made you want to keep on reading. ‘’As I watched him he adjusted himself a little, visibly. His hand took hold of hers, and as she said something low in his ear he turned toward her with a rush of emotion. I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn’t be over-dreamed that voice was a deathless song.
They had forgotten me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.’’
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