The GREAT GATSBY Ch 6 Analysis notes

“Ambitious young reporter” attempts to get a statement from Gatsby “Ambitious young reporter” attempts to get a statement from Gatsby. Fitzgerald chooses for Nick, at this point to flashback, gives detail on Gatsby’s younger years, stories not recounted in the chronological order. Gatsby’s parents were “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” Gatsby never really accepted his mother and his father in North Dakota as his parents.

Gatsby never accepted them as his parents at all but saw himself as a son of god: he sprang from “his Platonic conception of himself.” PLATONIAN concept – I am what I am He created an image, a persona which he wanted to become and set out to accomplish it. (GREAT comes from this)

James Gatz, is more or less a “beach bum,” w/ a bohemian life, at the invitation of Dan Cody. Seeing the trouble created by Cody’s drunkenness while serving in his employ, Gatsby drinks little. As a mentor, Cody was flawed.

A group of three on horseback-“Tom and a man named Sloane and a pretty women in a brown riding habit” –come by Gatsby’s house; casually and insincerely invite Nick and Gatsby to join them for dinner. THEME of social class division here. Idea of aristocratic rich vs. nouveau riche. There exists levels divisions/distinctions within a class.

Nick leaves; Gatsby prepares to join them by car since he has no horse Nick leaves; Gatsby prepares to join them by car since he has no horse. Gatsby does not know he is being insulted. Gatsby has known Tom’s wife before, a comment which creates questions in Tom’s mind.

At Gatsby’s party - Nick notices a different, oppressive atmosphere, simply because Tom is present. Tom is contemptuous of the party. Daisy is “appalled” by the “raw vigor” of West Egg. Again, we see divisions of class within the rich. Two worlds collide in this situation.

Gatsby makes clear to Nick he plans to relive the past; he expects Daisy to renounce her marriage and love for Tom. Nick argues that no one can repeat the past. Of course you can, Gatsby argues. This is the idealism of youth.

in Gatsby’s mind, dreams of returning to days w/ Daisy in Louisville “romp again like the mind of God.” For Gatsby - The intangible becomes tangible; divinity becomes flesh. Though she blossomed for him at the kiss, the limitation imposed by the kiss is irreversible.

New identity, the platonic conception of himself, he envisioned himself achieving the uncorrupted vision toward which he had worked all these years. The means to that end were corrupt, -his financial schemes.

There is some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life There is some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life. His “extraordinary gift for hope,” the likes of which Nick had never found in any other person, convinces him that Gatsby turned out all right in the end. It was the “foul dust” that “floated in the wake of his dreams” that caused his demise.

As heroes in the archetypal mold go, he came from mystical, mysterious beginnings. His enigma, his charisma, his smile, one which he acquired early on: he learned that “people liked him when he smiled.”

Color imagery, Daisy’s voice tag “Gray” resurfaces in association with decadence or decay - a green card, gold pencil, blue nose, an orchid of a woman, white-plum tree.

Gatsby is even closer to his dream and to its fulfillment. Having amassed a fortune, conceivably one greater than Tom’s, he fully believes Daisy will prefer him, will renounce Tom, and will marry him.

He can indeed provide for Daisy in the manner to which she is accustomed. Ever the dreamer, he cannot possibly imagine that she will refuse.

When he kisses her, “the incarnation,” a term associated with epiphany (God in flesh revealed to man), is complete. Bargain with devil, sacrifices divine characteristics for fleshly, sensual desires.

Could be KISS OF DEATH…