The Great Gatsby: Chapter III / pages 39-59

Summary:

              

               The chapter starts at Gatsby’s house, where Gatsby is hosting a “little party”. The party is extravagant and wild; people are already getting drunk at the bar. On his way to the cocktail table, Nick stumbles upon Jordan Baker. As they talk with two girls in yellow and three men all named Mr. Mumble, rumors about Gatsby emerged such as that he killed a man once or was a Germany spy during the war. Both curious to find the host of the party, Jordan and Nick wander around the house and run into a drunken middle-aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles in the library. Afterwards, Jordan and Nick were sitting at a table with a rowdy little girl and a man, who turns out to be Gatsby. When Gatsby leaves, Nick and Jordan talk a while and then are disturbed by Gatsby’s butler who tells Jordan that Gatsby would like to talk to her. After Jordan leaves, Nick realizes that it’s already 2 AM and that the large room was full of people. However, people began to leave as fights emerged between women and men who say they are their husbands. After saying good night to Gatsby, Nick leaves the house and approaches a car in a ditch. The drunken middle aged man with owl spectacles and another man climb out of the car and struggle to get it out of the ditch. Nick then explains his everyday life, which involves work. He then talks about Jordan Baker and their relationship thus far.

Jordan Baker:

• “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body” (58).

• Jordan is athletic, dishonest, curious, and authentic. She is athletic because she is a professional golf player. Nick describes Jordan as dishonest because of how she denies leaving a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down and also moving a ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round of a golf tournament. He adds that she probably is that way because since she was young she has had to escape consequences or hide things in order to satisfy others. Her curiousness can be seen through her curiosity in Gatsby. In addition, she was also described by Nick in Chapter II with eyes that “looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face” (11). Her authenticity can be seen through her straightforwardness when she tells Nick, “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you” (58).

• Jordan is Nick’s love interest ;) or at least it is seen that Jordan is interested in Nick. She is also seen as the binary opposition of Daisy. Daisy relies on Tom for money and support, while Jordan is a professional golf player and is able to support herself through her career. Nick is falling for Jordan and although his interior rules are obstructing him from admitting to it, I believe that something will happen between the two. Jordan is different from most of the women in the novel; she is independent and speaks her mind. She does not rely on men for support and does not have the same preferences as her party who had “preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside” (44); she states that it is too polite for her.

Quote:

“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48).

               This quote refers to Gatsby’s smile as portrayed by Nick. As we discussed before, we know that Nick is a trustworthy narrator and so when he describes Gatsby’s smile in such detail the reader cannot help but see Gatsby in this incredible light. The way Nick describes Gatsby makes the reader want to learn more Gatsby and just like Gatsby a lot. The kind of smile Gatsby has is rare in the novel and is probably rare in real life too. His smile just seemed to know you instantly; it did not judge you but rather understood you. I am actually not sure how a smile like that exists, but I know that because of this passage I can automatically tell that Gatsby is a good person and I am curious to learn more about him.