In this chapter, the reader discovers the motives behind Jay Gatsby's lavish parties and lonely lifestyle. All of those things were for one person, and one person only: Daisy Buchanan. Jay Gatsby, one day, tells Nick to invite Daisy over to Nick's house for a "cup of tea". Nick, now fully aware of the situation at hand does the moral thing and invites her over. She accepts, unbeknownst to her that Jay Gatsby will be waiting for her at the house. Throughout this entire time, Gatsby is nervous and anxious with everything. He redoes Nick's entire yard and brings tens of bouquets of flowers to Nick's house to spice it up a little and to get Daisy's admiration. When Daisy is almost late at the set time, Gatsby tells Nick he wants to end the invitation, but at the last second Daisy Buchanan arrives. While Jay Gatsby hides in the house, Nick let's Daisy in and tells Nick how she loves what he has done to his own place. Nowhere to be found, Jay Gatsby suddenly appears a few feet in front of Daisy, and both just stop in their tracks and look at each other in reminiscence. Funnily enough, this lasts without them talking for many moments. The author probably added this in in order to show that there was a deep, rich connection between the two that the reader could not humanly comprehend. When they actually start talking, both appear to be completely awkward, adding to the weird ambivalence of the matter. Later on, Gatsby brings Daisy and Nick to his own mansion which was right next to Nick's to Daisy's surprise. Oddly enough, everything that Gatsby has done was for Daisy. He seems to have no care in the world for anyone else, and one could possibly say that he was just using Nick since Nick and Daisy were related. Could his actions be self-motivated? Well, that's for me and everyone else to opinionate on.
At the beginning of this chapter, Nick Carraway begins by listing a large amount of people who have/are at Mr. Gatsby's party. A little later the scene shifts from a indirect situation, to a more subtle and direct manner in which Mr. Gatsby and Nick are in a car together driving to a restaurant to have lunch. In this part, Mr. Gatsby tells Nick the apparent "truth" about himself, in which he tells Nick that he was born into a wealthy family from the mid-west United States, and that he inherited their money after his family had passed away. Noticing the dialogue, it seemed to me that Mr. Gatsby was lying. The general tone of his voice seemed to be hiding something, but anyways Gatsby told Nick that he "changed his lifestyle" after the money was given to him. Gatsby also showed Nick a medal from World War II that was given to him from Montenegro for his war contributions, for proof. Now that Nick and Mr. Gatsby had met and were "kind of friends", Mr. Gatsby would later on try to spend more time with Nick, be friendlier, for current unknown reasons. Once met up at lunch, a new character, Mr. Wolfsheim is introduced as they have lunch. Funny to me is, the place where they have lunch is a secret alcoholic bar. (Prohibition). Anyways the three characters talk and Wolfsheim bring sup the notice of a possible business venture with Nick Carraway, but Gatsby interrupts and tells him that "he's not the guy". It's obvious to me that Mr. Gatsby and Wolfsheim are up to some sneaky business operations, how else would Gatsby still have a flow of money coming to him? He doesn't work for a living, besides the fact that he has millions probably hidden away in the bank. And the rest of the chapter is just a bunch of lovey-dovey plotline for relationship development between Jordan Baker and Nick, as well as Gatsby and possibly Daisy.
This chapter is important to the story, as it begins to show Nick as a person of uniqueness in the plot. The author elaborates on the fact that Nick was the only one who received an actual invitation to the party. Nick describes in scrutinizing detail how the parties at Gatsby's house are formed and implemented, and just the sheer size of it all. In the chapter, he meets up with Jordan Baker and together with a woman named Lucille, they share rumors floating around the mysterious Jay Gatsby such as him possibly being raised in Germany, or being in the American army at the time, or once killing a man, or even being an educated "Oxford Man", (Pg. 44-48). But in this chapter, you finally get to actually meet Mr. Gatsby, which gives the reader a sign of relief as the tensions settle down and a large part of the story is put in place. He is revealed after Nick shows the man an invitation and Gatsby telling him about being a "bad host". However, the biggest question needing to be answered here now, is why DOES Mr. Gatsby throw all of these extravagant parties?
With a discussion in class about Chapter 2, a big theme that was surprisingly talked about by the teacher and students in the class included sexuality and undertones that had to be debated about. For example, on (Pg. 1) you had this sentence: "Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight." In words that will not be expressed here, there was a big debate on whether this part of the book talked about sexuality and Nick in general. Honestly to me, we're looking way too into these parts of the novel but I can see where people are getting to this. It's extremely subjective as it could literally be a literal thing, or some "behind-the-lines" situation that some people believe is true. Some things are more visible than others, and this sentence just doesn't clearly show a distinctiveness of anything, at least to me.
Anyways, this chapter introduces Tom Buchanan's mistress: Myrtle Wilson. Tom Buchanan lets Nick off at a stop and tells Nick, "I want you to meet my girl." (Pg. 24). The two of them arrive at George Wilson's auto shop and clearly see how Myrtle and George are different in every way possible. George seems like a lifeless man with no future, while Myrtle seems like a driven person who has some sort of purpose in life. It is also later found out that Tom and Myrtle have their own apartment that is used pretty much as a double life kind of thing. They invite a bunch of people and it is seen that Myrtle removes her dirty clothes and puts on glitzy and rich clothing that changes her persona and lifestyle. During the party at the apartment when Tom mentions the word Daisy, Myrtle begins to say it in an angry way, "Daisy! Daisy Daisy!" until Tom punches her in the nose and breaks it. More discussion was had with the elevator scene with Nick and Mr. McKee (The tenant below the apartment and where they meet at the party) in an elevator and the lever boy says, "Keep your hands off the lever." speaking to Mr. McKee. Earlier he had said "Com to lunch someday." All on (Pg. 37). It is suggested that they have some sort of growing relationship that could expand over the book. This is essentially confirmed at the end of the chapter (Pg. 38) with "I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands." Implying that they slept together. Now this is a better evidence implying that there was some sort of sexuality theme occurring throughout the book rather than the sentence mentioned at the top. The Great Gatsby opens up with the narrator, Nick Carraway, establishing his Ethos in order to give the reader a sense of establishment being present. He does this by talking about his moral compass that was passed onto him by his family, specifically his father. To hold true to the values passed down, the narrator's father tells the audience of a quote that changed his perspective of the world for the better, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” What the narrator also does, is setup the settings for the story (New York City and Long Island). He opens himself up as being a bondsman giving the reader more personal knowledge on himself, and explains how he wants his own life to be more intriguing; the narrator decides to live in a house that sides along the "mysterious Mr. Gatsby or Jay Gatsby" who lives in a ginormous mansion. In a different moment of time, Nick Carraway decides to visit Daisy Buchanan, who is the narrator's cousin. Also met is Tom Buchanan (Daisy's husband) and Jordan Baker (Daisy's childhood friend), both of whom Nick grows closely as the book progresses. Later on, it's opened up that Tom has been having an affair with a mistress when Nick and Jordan find out. Daisy is told of this but disregards it as she does not want the situation to unravel and ruin a great marriage/life. Near the end of the chapter, you see Mr. Gatsby coming outside of his mansion but the narrator is hesitant to call out. I believe that Nick does not want to get in the way of Gatsby and therefore he leaves him be, and as a result Mr. Gatsby simply disappears into the night.
The way I see it, Nick Carraway is essentially intimidated by the people he has met, however he is in awe and fascination with the mysterious Gatsby. There is reason to believe that the narrator wants to be just like Gatsby, but Nick just does not have the money and influence to make it happen. He also feels intimidated because of Tom Buchanan, as he has a lot of money too. The chapter helps to build up the base for the majority of these characters with Tom being a large, provocative person and seemingly mean to others. There is also Jordan Baker who Nick is inferred as being infatuated with, and Daisy who just wants a "perfect" life in some aspect. Actually, to outsiders, Daisy and Tom look like a perfect couple but really they have dark secrets lying inside of them which do not make them perfect. |
AuthorJustin Lavergne Archives
May 2015
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