The Great Gatsby Chapter 5 (my opinion and review/summary)

In chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, Nick comes home to a fire. He thinks it is his home burning but it really is just Gatsby's house burning. Nick think's it is just a party but he hears no sound of partying. He gets out of his taxi and Gatsby walks toward him. Gatsby asks' Nick to go to Coney Island with him "Let's go to Coney Island, old sport. In my car."(86) but Nick refuses to go because "It's too late." (86) Gatsby offers "we take a plunge in the swimming pool-" (86) but Nick turns him down again saying "I've got to go to bed" (87) Nick then realizes that Gatsby's really bored and wants to know if Nick has invited Daisy over for tea so he can meet her and impress her with his huge home "He waited, looking at me with suppressed eagerness" (87) They then make sure a certain is good for the both of them. Then Gatsby offers Nick a job. "Well, this would interest you. it wouldn't take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money" (88) But Nick refuses because he knows whatever business Gatsby is in, is not so good. "I realized now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life. But, because the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no choice to except to cut him off there. 'I've got my hands full,' I said. 'I'm obliged but I couldn't take on any more work." (88) After that day Nick invited Daisy over for tea. He asks' Daisy not to bring Tom. "I called Daisy from the office next morning and invited her to come to tea. 'Don't bring Tom." (88) Nick went to buy several things to get his home ready "-I drove into West Egg Village to search for her among soggy white-washed alleys and to buy some cups and lemons and flowers" (88-89) Gatsby was pretty nervous and he didn't know what to expect. He then started to think Daisy was not going to show up. "Finally he got up and informed me in an uncertain voice that he was going home." (89-90) Basically Daisy came and he was completely embarrassed and so was she. "You're just embarrassed, that's all, and luckily I added: Daisy's embarrassed too." (93) Nick left then alone for about half and hour and went back in to tell them that it stopped raining. He came into the room with Gatsby as he hadn't seen him in years and Daisy's throat full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy. "Oh, hello, old sport, he said, as if he hadn't seen me for years. I thought for a moment he was going to shake my hands." (94) "Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her expected joy." (94) Gatsby invited Daisy and Nick over to his home. "I want you and Daisy to come over to my house, he said. I'd like to show her around." (95) There Gatsby shows Daisy and Nick his home. Basically Daisy and Nick end up sitting on the couch with Klipspringer playing the piano. Nick leaves them so they can continue being alone. He got tired of being a third wheel.

The Great Gatsby (chapter 4 my opinion & review/summary)

In beginning of chapter four, it lists several names of the people who attended the party (pages 65-68). To be honest I skimmed through the names. But the significance of the names listed show the status of how rich they are and who is who and who is related or engaged to who. Which is pretty surprising to hear Nick care about the status of people with his "judge free" ways. But maybe it was put into the book to explain how corrupt the "rich" are. The time changes and it goes back to the summer, Gatsby goes to Nick's home and then invites/tells him to go to lunch with him. "Good morning, old sport. You're having lunch with me today and I thought we'd ride up together" (page 68) and during this trip to lunch, this is where you start to learn a lot more about Gatsby. He opens up to Nick telling him, where he's from, how'd he get money, how his life was, and where he went to school. "I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west--all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition." (page 69) "My family all died and I came into a good deal of money." (page 70) "After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe--Paris, Venice, Rome--collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself only, and trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago." (page 70) "Then came the war, old sport. It was great relief and I tried very hard to die but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. I accepted a commission at first lieutenant when it began." (page 70) "I was promoted to be a major and every Allied government gave me a decoration-- even Montenegro, little Montenegro down on the Adriatic Sea!" (page 70) These are all the things he he did or happened before where he is today. Next in the book, a cop tries to pull over Mr. Gatsby but Mr. Gatsby just shows the cop a "card" and the cops let them go. "I heard the familiar "jug-jug-spat! of a motorcycle, and a frantic policeman rode alongside, 'All right, old sport,' called Gatsby. We slowed down. Take a white card from him wallet he waved it before the man's eyes. 'Right you are,' agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. 'Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!" After that Nick asked Gatsby what he had shown the officer "What was that?" (page 73) Gatsby tells him "I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year." because of this you can tell that "rich" people are careless and think money can solve everything. When they go to lunch, Gatsby introduced Wolfsheim to Nick. Gatsby starts to tell Nick about Wolfshiem "he's a gambler" (page78) "He's the man who fixed the World's serious back in 1919" Later on in the chapter Jordan starts to tell Nick about Daisy. And Nick finds out Daisy and Gatsby had a thing for each other in the past and she did not want to marry Tom. "It wasn't until then that I connected this Gatsby with the officer in her white care." (page 83) "Say Daisy's change' her mine!" (page 81) at the end of this chapter, you also find out "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (page 85) and Nick kisses Jordan! "Her wan scornful mouth smiled and so I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face" (page 85)

The Great Gatsby (chapter 3 my opinion, review/summary)

In chapter 3, you begin to learn more about the way "rich" people act during the 1920s. You also get to finally meet the mysterious Jay Gatsby. In chapter three, Nick Carraway is invited to a party at his mysterious neighbors house. As Nick enters the party, he acknowledges every piece of the party. He describes the party as "At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby's enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening horsd'oeurves, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guest were too young to know one from another. (page 44) The significance of this is that during this time, alcohol was banned and because he was so rich, he had enough to set up a bar and stock it up with alcohol. He then tries to find Jay Gatsby by asking several other people at the party, he then realizes none of them or more than half never even met Jay Gatsby "-the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movement that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table-" (page 46) I was one of the few guest that who had actually been invited." (page 45) Later that evening he happens to spot Jordan and she invites him to stay with her party (group of people she came with to the party) They then begin to discuss Jay Gatsby, they quote rumors they have heard because they do not know the truth and are too scared to even find out the truth about Jay Gatsby "Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once" "it's more he was a German spy during the war" "I head that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany" "it couldn't be that, he was in the American army during the war" (all on page 48) Jordan and Nick both leave to find this mysterious Jay Gatsby. When they get to a door,  they opened it to find "a stout, middle-aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books." (page 49) He was drunk and talked nonsense "Did I tell you about the books? They're real" "I've been dunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library." (page 50)  The significance of this man they found is that he has been drunk for the past week. He is a "rich" fellow who does not have a care in the world. Stating, rich people, like him, are people who do not care about what the consequences and just live their life without worries because "money can solve everything" After Jordan and Nick experience the weird encounter, they go to sit and "We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age and a rowdy little girl...'Your face is familiar" (page 51) This how Nick meets Jay Gatsby. Mr. Gatsby often leaves Nick and Jordan to take business calls and then later on ask to speak to Jordan in private. Because of this discussion in private, Nick is left alone to examine the "rich" people who are so selfish and worry free. As he was leaving he was saying his remarks to Jay Gatsby, until a car accident occurred in the driveway of the Gatsby home. "Surprisingly" it was the man who Jordan and Nick had met in the library that evening. He was still drunk, so drunk he did not even know he was in an accident. The significance of this again shows how careless rich people can be. He did not even apologize to Gatsby and did not care to know if someone else was in the other vehicle or if his car was even okay because he would probably just go buy a new one with all his "valuable" money.

Saying Goodbye

I am very fortunate that I have not lost someone close to my heart. I have lost my grandpa, but I did not know him well enough to actually miss him. I only got to see him once in a blue moon. He never really was there for my aunts and uncles. I was still sad and heart broken because he is gone now and that my parents and aunts and uncles were so sadden to have lost their father. I was still not completely sadden because I never got the chance to sincerely meet and get to know each other. I do not think he even knew my name. I am glad that I have not experienced any loss of anyone. I do not like saying goodbye, even when I know I will see them soon or years later. I just know that I will see them again. I should appreciate every person I meet and I should adore all the people dear to my heart. I know I will loose someone eventually but I am so lucky to have not experienced anything so devastating. After so many stories being told to me about how people have lost loved ones it breaks me heart just to hear it. I do not know if I could take the pain of loosing someone I treasured. I've only been to two funerals and I am so lucky that it has only been two. My first was my great grandpa, I also did not know him. He probably did not even know who I am. But I still had to pay my respects. My second was my grandpa, he probably did not know my name as well and I did not know him very well either, but my respects were still payed. Loosing someone and never seeing them again is hard. I know that death is a part of life but death shows you the point of life. Death shows you how precious and how lucky it is. It makes you adore life more. I am so thankful I have not felt the pain of loosing someone I love so dearly.

The Great Gatsby (my opinion so far)

So far in the book The Great Gatsby, I have only read chapters one and two and it has a lot of details. This book contains thorough details of everything. In the first chapters, he describes himself and and he explains why he is the way he is. He describes himself to have "inclined to reserve all judgments" on others, His father taught him these ways when he was younger. That is why he is who he is in the book as he is older. What I love that Fitzgerald did in this book was described everything with an image that you could see for yourself. When you read the book you can catch yourself imagining how each house looks or how each character dressed acted. In the book he describes each character with great value. He also describes the area he lived in with great depth. Fitzgerald describes each home with an imagine you could build it yourself. Here are some main characters that are mentioned so far in only chapters one and two, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson. He describes Tom Buchanan as "sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shinning, arrogant eyes had established and dominance over his face, and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward ... you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body"with this much description you can imagine this figure and you can build the presence of him in your mind. He described Daisy Buchanan at first when he met her again was "sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes, and a bright passionate mouth" He does not clearly write a descriptive view of her. But when I read of this description, I immediately thought of someone I knew with that description I would describe her with. Not her physical traits but her personality traits made me think of her as a perfect "Daisy". Nick describes Jordan Baker as "a slender, small-breasted girl with an erect carriage" this gives you an image of a very petite girl. Nick describes Myrtle Wilson when he first sees her as "thickish figure of a woman...middle thirties, faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some woman can...contained no facet or glean of beauty" this gave me an idea of the newer version of "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" the mother of Augustus Gloop. George Wilson was described as "was blonde, spiritless man, anaemic and faintly handsome.. light blue eyes" This kind of reminded me of an average Ken doll, just less smiley. So far the book has been quiet interesting. Im excited to read more of the book and I am planning up update my blog with the chapters I'm required to read. So, until then.