The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Chapter 6

2. Learning Objectives • Know more about Gatsby’s past and how he gained his wealth. • Understand how transformations in the novel represent perception and artifice.

3. What happens? • A reporter calls at Gatsby's home in attempt to learn more abut him. This visit was fuelled by Gatsby’s status as a sort of celebrity. He asks questions about many of the myths surrounding Gatsby, but Nick gives us the truest account of Gatsby's life. • He was born James Gatz in North Dakota. His parents were poor farm people and to escape the blandness of his existence, Gatsby created a fantasy world. Part of this fantasy included the name Jay Gatsby. As a young man he worked along the shore of Lake Superior doing odd jobs. He tried a small college for a couple of weeks but quickly grew restless and went back to the shore. While walking the shoreline he spots a yacht owned by the wealthy Dan Cody. He warns Cody that he might have sailing troubles. Cody takes Gatsby under his wing. When Cody died Gatsby was supposed to receive a large portion of his fortune but was tricked out of it. However, Gatsby had created a persona and found something that he wanted to achieve at all costs.

4. After an absence of several weeks due to work, Nick goes over to see Gatsby one Sunday afternoon. While there, Tom Buchanan and two others arrive on horseback. Gatsby tries his hardest to be hospitable to the trio. They make an attempt to invite Gatsby with them somewhere but when he goes to get ready, they leave without him. • Tom and Daisy attend Gatsby’s next party. Tom immediately dislikes the party and begins to question how Gatsby came into so much money. Daisy also seems to be unhappy at the party - which concerns Gatsby. He tells Nick that he will make things right with her and they will be able to go back to how they once were. • After hearing this, Nick tells the reader of an evening Gatsby and Daisy spent together in their youth. The moment was so perfect and beautiful to Gatsby that he has spent all of his time trying to recreate that moment. It is this recreation that he believes will make him happy.

5. Social Class • Like so many who sought and achieved the American Dream during the Roaring Twenties, Gatsby is a self-made man. He literally created himself, even changing his name in order to become a “success.” Gatsby’s story is not as unique as all the rumors about him suggest. Instead, he represents a typical member of the rags-to-riches “new money” class

6. Old Money, New Money • The conflict between Gatsby and Tom, new money and old money, continues to build. Here, Gatsby fails to understand the “old money” behavior of insincere politeness; he mistakes it for actual politeness. “Old Money” hides its cruelty, and calls it good manners. • Nick has clearly come to sympathize with Gatsby against Tom. Tom’s disdain for the party is to be expected. But that Daisy has a bad time suggests that Gatsby might not so easily be able to recreate their love. There may be too many obstacles

7. Nick recalls a memory that Gatsby once shared with him about the first time Gatsby kissed Daisy. Nick calls Gatsby’s sentimentality about history “appalling” and reflects that in that kiss Gatsby’s dreams of success focused solely on Daisy. She became an idealized dream for Gatsby and the center of his life. • Nick calls Gatsby’s sentimentality appalling because it has made Daisy into a symbol of perfection, an idealized vision to which Gatsby has sacrificed his identity

8. Transformations • Gatsby has transformed himself from humble mid-western boy to an East Coast celebrity • Also transformed Daisy, within his own imagination, from a Southern girl to an ideal of radiant life and beauty. • Look for references towards magic and enchantment and how ‘The Great Gatsby’ is an accomplished magician

9. Perception and artifice • Dan Cody, Gatsby’s mentor, transformed himself into a millionaire, but underneath the veneer of material success he remained ‘the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon.’ • Deflating idealised version of pioneer life, characterised by heroism and high-mindedness