Central Passage Chapters 5&6

"'It took me just three years to earn the money that bought it.' 'I thought you inherited your money.' 'I did, old sport,' he said automatically, 'but I lost most of it in a big panic---the panic of the war.' I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered 'That's my affair,' before he realized that it wasn't an appropriate reply"(Fitzgerald 95).

This passage is one of the most central of the fifth and sixth chapters of this novel because it is the first time that the readers get a blatant example of Gatsby's inconsistency. In Nick and Gatsby's conversation, Gatsby is obviously detached from what he and Nick are discussing. His obvious detachment from the conversation mirrors his dishonesty about his past as well as his present life.

Throughout this novel so far Gatsby's past has been discussed only briefly and is often talked about only ambiguously. For example, when Nick first asks Jordan about Gatsby's past, she responds, "Well, --he told me once he was an Oxford man...however, I don't believe it"(53). The fact that Jordan does not believe something that Gatsby told her himself leads the reader to question whether Jordan is the one who's speculation of falseness is wrong, or whether Gatsby has been lying about who he is. It is interesting however that in both instances, Fitzgerald separates the explanation of Gatsby's past with a dash. It is evident that Fitzgerald is trying to illuminate the falseness of the knowledge that the reader has of Gatsby at this point.

When Jordan talks of Gatsby, her statement is separated by a dash in that she says "well,--he told me once.."(53). The fact that her statement is separated by the dash shows the reader that Jordan's statement is in fact speculated to be false, and the fact that she herself does not believe what Gatsby said reassures this claim. In the passage above, Gatsby says, " 'I did, old sport,' he said automatically, 'but I lost most of it in a big panic---the panic of the war' "(95). When Gatsby himself is talking about his past with Nick, his statement is separated by a dash. This separation so evidently shows that Gatsby is unsure of what he is saying. Perhaps he is unsure of what story he told who, and how he should go about recovering the mistakes that he had made in telling Nick something that didn't match the story he was previously told.

This statement is vital in understanding Gatsby because it illuminates Gatsby's inconsistency in the story he tells about his past. He is deliberately changing the story that he tells and this is the first instance that Nick catches him in one of his lies. Despite the fact that Nick does not inquire further information about Gatsby's mistake, it nonetheless proves that Gatsby is an untruthful character.

The Great Gatsby Chapters 1&2

"His voice faded off and Tom glanced impatiently around the garage. Then I heard footsteps on a stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was int he middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no faced or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice"(Fitzgerald 29-30).

I personally think that this passage is one of the most important out of the first two chapters because it really gives the reader an understanding of the true society in which this book takes place. In the first chapter, the reader learns that the narrator is living in a high class society in Long Island and is pressured by living in "West Egg, the--well, the less fashionable of the two"(9). From this point on, the book is centered on the proceedings of such a society and I feel that this passage reveals the complexity of this life.

When the narrator first goes to visit Tom and his wife Daisy, he refers to them as "two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all"(11). It is evident from him saying such a thing that relationships in this society at this time were distorted. He is going to visit two "old friends" who he claims to have not really ever known at all. This is the first time that the concept of relationships has been somewhat distorted in this novel.

In this passage, a further understanding of the distortion between relationships in this society is revealed. Chapter two begins with Tom saying, "I want you to meet my girl"(28), a girl that is not his wife Daisy. The fact that he refers to her as "my girl" shows that there is some sort of hidden relationship between the two. And so Tom and Nick go to see this girl. Once they get to the woman's house, she is described to the readers as full of "vitality"(30). It is said in this passage that "she smiled slowly and walked through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice"(29). It is evident that Tom and this woman, Myrtile, have a relationship that is not one of friends. When she first sees Tom she ignores her husband and then licks her lips while looking Tom straight in the eye. At this point in the novel we as readers learn the true type of society that Nick lives in; a society full of secrets and lies. Both Tom and Myrtile are defying the relationship that they have pledged to have with their spouses, and Nick is witnessing this without thinking anything of it. This distortion of the concept of relationships and how Nick does not question Tom or Myrtile's decision in cheating on their spouses leads me to question the morality of the society as well as the narrator of the novel himself.