The Great Gatsby Chapter 4 Analysis

Wolfsheim appeared to be a close friend to Gatsby throughout the course of the novel. Do you think there was a deeper meaning as to why Wolfsheim did not want to go to Gatsby’s funeral besides the fact he did not want to get mixed up in it?

In chapter 4 Jordan Baker narrates the love story of Gatsby and Daisy, but in the end Gatsby didn’t get the girl because he didn’t have the money. Unfortunately, “In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago…and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” (p.76). Within the monologue, Jordan explains how Tom, in a way, bribed Daisy to marry him with “a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” Daisy choose the money instead of the guy because she was told that she changed her mind and that she must return the pearls. The next day Daisy married Tom Buchanan. Finally, for some time after, Gatsby became a rich man and his perpetual love for Daisy empowered

Gatsby introduces him to Nick. Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby is a good friend of Jay Gatsby; he was an older fellow and had human molars for cufflinks. This Meyer Wolsheim is known to be trouble, a notorious gambler and Nick wants nothing to do with him. It is because of Wolfsheim’s friendship with Jay Gatsby that Nick begins to suspect that Gatsby is trouble and is not who he says he is. It is also believed that because of Gatsby’s association with Wolfsheim that they were able to get away from the police who attempted to pull them over for reckless driving on their way to lunch. The officer seemed intimidated and that he was the one who was in the wrong because he pulled them over. This shows how powerful and notorious Meyer Wolsheim

Nick points out a “secret place above the trees” that Gatsby could reach if he “climbed alone”; this secret place is the high-society life Gatsby has wanted all his life, but the only way for him to attain is it by leaving Daisy behind. Gatsby knows this and chooses to kiss Daisy anyway, where he “forever wed[s] his unutterable visions to her perishable breath”. Gatsby’s dreams were so vast and could have been gained had he not signed a death certificate by involving himself with Daisy, and Nick understands this. Gatsby loses a major part of himself to Daisy at this point in the story by devoting literally everything he does to her and remains just steps away from literally worshipping her. Another example of details is when Nick tells Gatsby not to “ask too much of [Daisy]” because “you can’t repeat the past”. This is something Gatsby refuses to accept as the truth and insists that he’s “going to fix everything just the way it was before”. At this point Nick registers that Gatsby’s life has been “confused and disordered” since he met Daisy and that he is actually stuck in the past. Nick is trying his best to deter Gatsby from pursuing Daisy yet Gatsby continues to ignore his one true friend that has only his best interests at

When Tom finds out about this, he is furious, and Daisy is forced to choose between Gatsby or Tom. She ends up picking Tom, which later breaks Gatsby’s heart. Once Gatsby is faced with this rejection, Nick Carraway describes Gatsby’s emotions as, “It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been

For most of Gatsby’s life, Daisy has been his motivation is his success and all goals in general. When Gatsby gets the chance to gather with Daisy after 5 years, he acts out. At fear of not impressing her, Gatsby begins to grow concerned. When he is caught trying to leave he says, “ this is a terrible mistake… [Nick replies] You're just embarrassed, that's all’ and luckily added, ‘Daisy's embarrassed too.” (Fitzgerald 87). Gatsby's care is shown in this scene because he is afraid of not impressing Daisy. He wants to make sure that every moment with Daisy is perfect because he does not want to lose her once again. After all, nothing says perfection like worrying. Another example of this is shown when Daisy goes back home after running over Myrtle. Nick tells Gatsby to go home but Gatsby's reply is, “I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed, Good Night, old sport, (Fitzgerald 145). Gatsby is watching over Daisy from afar to make sure that she is safe. This is the ultimate way to show that Gatsby cares for her. He spent the whole night watching over Daisy just to make sure Tom would not bring any harm to her. Ironically, Nick points out that despite all efforts Gatsby, was not watching over anything. Also, because Daisy made it his life's goal to get Daisy back, he goes to any extent to make her happy. He tells Nick, “Can’t repeat

One of Gatsby's most intriguing qualities is his ability to, in a very Emersonian fashion, transcend reality and adhere to his alternate persona. "The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God – a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty" (99). Fitzgerald demonstrates that while Gatsby is in spirit a lovesick, naïve young man, his reinvented self has caused great harm to others. Especially pertinent is the scene in which Gatsby shamelessly fraternizes with Meyer Wolfsheim, a corrupt gangster who helped fix the 1919 World Series. Nick is naturally shocked by this abhorrent marriage of convenience:

Carraway asks Wolfsheim about Gatsby’s past, to which he responds, “I made the pleasure of his acquaintance just after the war. But I knew I had discovered a man of fine breeding after I talked with him an hour” (Fitzgerald 56). Although Wolfsheim claims Gatsby is a good man, the gangster participates in bootlegging, so one could also assume that Gatsby, too, is involved. Gatsby is involved in criminal life, and one crime after another will not lead to something good; in Gatsby’s case, it leads to

However as we begin to learn about his corruption, and the way by which he came by this money, we begin to loose this image of greatness. Even Nick swings form admiration to resentment. When Gatsby tells Nick about all his great travels and accomplishments around Europe traveling like royalty and studying at oxford. This Makes Gatsby a hero, however Nick doesn’t believe him, until Montenegro is mentioned, and the same applies to us. This is the point when our faith in Gatsby’s greatness, is reaffirmed. As the book progress and we dig deeper into Gatsby’s past. We begin learning more and more about his life built upon deception, we really start to suspect the rumors of his under ground involvement in crime, specially after meeting Meyer Wolfsheim. It is my personal opinion that Wolfsheim, was in fact a Jew, due to his characteristics, “a large nose” “a diminutive stature”. It is an important point to note, due to the fact that during the 1920’s, The Jews were blamed for Americas corruption, due to there infamous greed at that time. So when Gatsby is seen doing business with people like Wolfsheim, it slanders his name and he, is no longer the American dream, on the contrary, he is now, one of the people that corrupted America . We begin to learn his true identity is not Jay Gatsby, but that he is relay a man named James Gatz.

On chapter 5, after Nick hearing a backstory on Gatsby, Nick arrives home and Gatsby waits for him to arrive and waits for Nick to give Gatsby an approval for help on being reunited with Daisy. After Nick agrees to Gatsby plans, Gatsby get excited and then in return for Nicks consideration. Later in the chapter, once Daisy and Gatsby are once reunited they get into their own world and forget about Nick. Once Gatsby get what he wants, he forgets all about Nick. Another example would be on page 120, Gatsby asks Nick a favor once again to come have tea with Daisy upon her request, but for what? When Gatsby needed Nick it usually had to do with something serious. Of course it was the day Daisy planned to confess to Tom that Daisy was planning to leave Tom. Later in the book, Gatsby get excited to tell Tom how Daisy never loved Tom. Although Nick have always been third wheel, Gatsby is seen as a very determined man to be reunited with his only love; Daisy. Gatsby figures out ways to be together with his love no matter what.

When Nick is talking to Gatsby minutes prior to Daisy’s arrival it is clear he is nervous and anxious, for example when he replies, “hollowly” to Nick. He also skims through a magazine with “vacant eyes” showing that he is not actually interested in the magazine but is really thinking about something else, something to with Daisy. He kept on “peering” out the window which indicates that he is shy and didn’t want to be seen. I think that the diction in this paragraph is really descriptive, for the reader to grasp the enormity and get an almost exact sense of how people are

“The Great Gatsby” is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in 1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922. The novel takes place following the First World War. American society enjoyed prosperity during the “roaring” as the economy soared. At the same time, prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely

These characters live in the age of the “Hollow Men,” and are portrayed as empty and absent-minded people. In fact, Nick voices his grievances with this at the end of the story; after Nick meets Tom Buchanan a couple months following Gatsby’s death, he takes time to reflect, pondering, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (179). Shaking Tom’s hand, he states that he feels like he “were talking to a child” (179). Nick feels a personal disdain for the carelessness of the characters in the book. Gatsby, however, acts with real thoughtfulness, as he exhibits his authenticity multiple times in the novel. Reflecting on Gatsby’s life, Nick proclaims that Gatsby’s heart “was in a constant, turbulent riot” (99). He then tells that “the most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted [Gatsby] in his bed at night” (99). These examples help validate that Gatsby, unlike the other characters, was genuine enough to feel passionate and convey emotion. While the readers dislike Tom and Daisy’s emptiness, they favor Gatsby’s compassionate and sincere personality, as they can relate to his

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is portrayed as obsessive, materialistic, and ineffective. Gatsby displays the quality of obsessiveness within the relationship by consuming himself with the desire to bring back the image of Daisy he fell in love with and his romance with her that had existed in the past. The intensity of Gatsby’s obsession is displayed when Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick over to his house. Nick observes that Gatsby “had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock” (Fitzgerald 92). Nick’s examination of Gatsby obsession reveals that Gatsby has had this intense

Nicks first sees Gatsby reaching towards the mysterious green light, which he later realizes is the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He calls himself an Oxford man, and speaks with a visible fake English accent. Gatsby befriends his neighbor Nick with the sole purpose of using him in order to get closer to daisy. With Nick and Jordan’s help, the two are reunited on a rainy afternoon in Nick’s house. Blindly in love, Gatsby acts like a foolish little boy, knocking down Nick’s clock. The long awaited reunion is later moved to Gatsby’s mansion. There he displays his wealth to Daisy. When he exhibits his imported shirts “suddenly with a strained sound Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (98). Daisy’s tears are not because the shirts were beautiful; her tears signify her obsession for wealth and money, which is all she cares about.