Great Gatsby, Journal #5

1.      Chapter 5, Pages 81-96

2.      At the beginning of this chapter, Nick is arriving home late at night when Gatsby approaches him. Nick tells Gatsby that he will ask Daisy over for tea and Gatsby then offers him a business deal that Nick refuses. On the morning of the tea, Gatsby helps Nick prepare his house and makes sure everything is perfect for her. During the first half of Daisy’s visit, it is extremely awkward for everyone and Gatsby thinks that it was a mistake. However, when Nick leaves them alone, Gatsby and Daisy are able to revitalize their relationship. Gatsby then invites the two to take a tour around his house, which looks like an attempt to impress Daisy. After a while, Nick feels uncomfortable with the two of them so he leaves them alone in Gatsby’s mansion.

3.      Jay Gatsby

a.       “Yes…Well, I can’t talk now…I can’t talk now, old sport…”

b.      In this chapter, Gatsby is extremely nervous about seeing Daisy because even though she is married, he has a deep love for her. Gatsby is rich, mysterious, secretive, lonely, and stylish.

c.       In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a rich lonely man who lives next door to Nick Carraway, the narrator. Gatsby throws wild weekly parties and most of the people that come don’t even know him. He throws these parties hoping that the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan will come, even though he knows she is married to Tom Buchanan. He then asks Nick, who is Daisy’s second cousin, to invite Daisy over to have tea at Nick’s house so he can see her again.

4.      “Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes. With his hands still in his coat pockets he stalked by me into the hall, turned sharply as if he were on a wire, and disappeared into the living room.”

a.       This exemplifies how nervous Gatsby was right before he was meeting Daisy for the first time in almost five years. This stood out to me because it suggests how he feels about Daisy. At this time men saw woman as their property or their objects. Here, however, Gatsby is so nervous about seeing her that his face is pale and his eyes are glaring tragically. That does not sound like a man who sees Daisy as an object.