Great Gatsby: Chapter 3 (Pages 39-59)

Chapter 3

In this chapter after 39 pages of anticipation we finally meet the famous Jay Gatsby. Nick, not knowing that he is talking to Gatsby tries to show off on how he was personally invited to the same man who invited him. Nick thinks of Gatsby as a generous man who enjoys his wealth with everyone, even with people who do not know Gatsby at all. Even the people at the party tell rumors about who Gatsby is at his parties. These parties that Gatsby have every week are what make him very well known.

Jay Gatsby

"He smiled understandingly- much more understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five time in life."

Gatsby is a generous man who does not need to be the center of attention in order to have a good time. When he holds parties he is on the side alone watching the rest have the time of their life. Even when he has a conversation with Nick he invited him to ride in his hydroplane with him. He barely knows Nick and still Gatsby has his arms open to his next door neighbor.

Gatsby is still a man where there is a need for more analysis. He is not a character like Tom Buchanan where you can already tell how much of jerk he is not only to Nick but to his own wife. But by using binary opposition we can see how Gatsby is the complete opposite of what Nick would think of a man with the wealth that Gatsby has. Every week he holds a party and half of the people that are there don't even know a single thing about the man of the hour. At that time period I do not think that many people would let complete strangers into such a lavish party.

"It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood of you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, hoped to convey"

This quote stood out because it showed just how Gatsby thought of people. Gatsby, as said before, is not like the rest of the wealthy that Nick portrays as selfish and controlling. To Gatsby everyone has a feature that emits the positivity in their personality.