30 Ağustos 2010 Pazartesi

Chapter 6: Reflection

The chapter starts with a reporter knocking on Gatsby’s door, hoping to interview him. He says that he heard Gatsby’s name somewhere and came over to look. From this alone, we can understand that Gatsby has done a great job of increasing his popularity not just in West Egg, but in New York.

The chapter then continues with Nick telling Gatsby’s story, not with rumors and lies, but the way it truly is. We learn that his real name is James Gatz and it was Dan Cody, who gave him the name Jay Gatsby. He was born in North Dakota and didn’t attend Oxford (Nick and Jordan were right from the beginning) but attended a small Lutheran College of St. Olaf’s in southern Minnesota; and dropped out in two weeks. He worked at Lake Superior and came across Dan Cody, a wealthy copper mogul. When he went out to Cody’s yacht, to warn him of a storm that has been coming up, Cody showed his gratefulness by hiring Gatsby as his assistant.

When Nick was telling this story, he said ‘’I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all’’ which really touched me and showed me that Gatsby really is a lonely man, who doesn’t even have a family.

Jay Gatsby travelled with Cody around the continent for three times. One of his jobs as his assistant was also looking after him, when he got drunk; and this is why Gatsby doesn’t drink, even at his own party (I think that this thing about him is really spectacular since there are a few men that can hold their drink; and it also shows that Daisy and Gatsby are perfect for each other since they both don’t drink). In the previous chapter we learn that Gatsby lied about his fortune, he truly inherited his fortune from Cody but never really managed to get the millions that went to Ella Kaye, who is the ex-wife of Cody.

Cody was right about something, ‘’he found that he was quick and extravagantly ambitious.’’ Gatsby really is an ambitious man, or else he wouldn’t have the life that he has now.

‘’I had reached the point of believing everything and nothing about him’’ Nick says about Gatsby, and I agreed with him. We have heard so many rumors until now, that I too don’t know what to believe and I found that this quote just told what I felt.

Nick doesn’t see Gatsby or Daisy for weeks, and decides to drop at Gatsby’s for one afternoon. He surprisingly runs into Tom there, who came with Mr. Sloane and a woman from riding. I thought that Gatsby was so kind, running around and bringing them drinks, but they didn’t see his good intentions and kindness. When Gatsby tells Tom that he knows his wife, the scene gets a bit tense and awkward.

Gatsby invites everyone for dinner out of politeness and kindness, but they refuse and in return invite Gatsby for dinner as well. Gatsby accepts the offer, and thinks that they are sincere, but in reality they aren’t; they don’t want him. Gatsby is really a lonely man as I began to see for myself. He is surrounded by wealthy people who aren’t sincere, that don’t have the decency to say this but instead take advantage of Gatsby’s genuine kindness. I thought that I would rather be alone than have hundreds of people in my backyard who are secretly spreading rumors about me.

‘’I wonder where in the devil he met Daisy. By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.’’ Tom says to Nick, as they leave Gatsby’s mansion. Tom is really a hypocrite; he goes around meeting all kinds of ‘crazy fish’ and picks one as his mistress, while he criticizes Daisy of meeting sweet Gatsby.

The following Saturday, they all go to Gatsby’s party. But this party is different. Even Nick feels an ‘’unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before’’. Daisy and Gatsby dance at the party, and I was particularly shocked by this. This is the first woman that we see dancing with Gatsby, and it is right under Tom’s nose. I also feel that Tom is getting suspicious, and has been suspicious ever since the day he came to Gatsby’s place; and I think that he just came to this party to take a closer look at Gatsby and understand him, and his intentions.

Gatsby and Daisy then go off to Nick’s house and place Nick as a watchmen. I thought that this was a pretty stupid thing to do, running off like this when Tom is around. There is no reason why Tom shouldn’t get suspicious and start doubting Daisy.

Daisy clearly doesn’t like the party, except for the half an hour that she spends with Gatsby. Tom then comes back to the table and starts telling the rumors about Gatsby. It is very clear that he doesn’t like him. Daisy and Tom leave the party early, which troubles Gatsby, who is aware that Daisy didn’t like the party.

Gatsby says that Daisy used to understand, and now he is going to make her understand. When Nick tells him that he can’t repeat the past, he objects. Gatsby thinks that he can do anything with his money, and his status; and fails to understand that he can’t turn back the time.

‘’He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.’’ I liked this quote and I thought that it described the situation perfectly. Gatsby really wants to go back, and take back the years. The ending of this chapter was confusing for me: ‘’what I had almost remembered was incommunicable forever.’’ I wondered what Nick remembered, and couldn’t say.

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