Chapter
4
summary
We learn…pg 23
• Time has passed and Nick has been spending
some of it with Gatsby (mostly on his beach
and at 2 of his parties).
• Gatsby comes to give Nick a ride to New York
where they will have lunch.
• Nick tells us that Gatsby has a habit of always
tapping his feet or moving his hands.
– You have to ask yourself: Is Gatsby nervous about
something?
• Nick tells us that Gatsby doesn’t usually have a
lot to say and this disappoints Nick.
Gatsby’s car
We learn…pg 24
• Gatsby tells Nick about his past:
– He is the son of wealthy people in the middle west
who are now all dead.
– He was educated at Oxford.
– He lived in Europe (doing exciting things).
– He was a 1st lieutenant in the army during the war and
was given many decorations (awards) for his work.
– He carries around one of the medals with him.
– He also carries around a picture from Oxford with him.
• Gatsby says that he wants Nick to know about his
past because he is going to ask Nick a big favor.
We learn…pg 25
• Gatsby says that when Nick meets Jordan later
for tea, Jordan will discuss the favor (Nick later
asks Gatsby why he doesn’t just tell Nick himself
and Gatsby’s only answer is that Jordan is a good
person and can do it).
• Nick gets a little upset because he wanted to have
a date with Jordan – not talk about Gatsby with
her: “I hadn’t asked Jordan to tea in order to
discuss Mr. Jay Gatsby”.
• A police officer tries to pull Gatsby over for
speeding but once he realizes it is Gatsby, the
officer lets him go (Gatsby explains that he does
favors for the Mayor and thus gets special
treatment).
We learn…pg 25
• Nick has some interesting lines about the city:
– “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always
the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise
of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”
– “ ‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this
bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all…’ Even Gatsby could
happen, without any particular wonder.
• The city is seen as both mysterious and beautiful – a place
where wild things can happen (maybe both good and bad) -- this is a common idea in stories (and in life), that ‘the city’
is an amazing place where anything is possible
– After all, Myrtle becomes a ‘rich’ hostess who can have
‘glamorous’ parties in the city…
We learn…pg 26
• Gatsby and Nick meet Mr. Wolfshiem for lunch at
a restaurant. Wolfsheim is a blatantly
stereotypical Jewish man.
• While there, W reminisces (remembers the past)
and says that he prefers another restaurant
because it holds lots of memories.
– W wishes he could relive the past --- anyone else in
the story feel that way???
• He tells a story about a friend of his that got shot
at dinner one night.
– Obviously W has connections to organized crime or
the mob (most ‘normal’ people don’t have friends
that get shot over dinner).
We learn…pg 26
• W mistakenly thinks that Nick is also involved
in Gatsby’s (illegal?) business but Gatsby tells
W that Nick is not.
– Did you notice?? – the oxymoron “ferocious
delicacy”
• When Gatsby goes off to make a phone call
(what are these calls he is always making??),
W tells Nick that he thinks Gatsby is a “perfect
gentleman” and that Gatsby went to Oxford
(he pronounces it with a ‘g’ sound).
Mr. Meyer Wolfshiem
1974 film
Molar cufflinks
2013 film
We learn…pg 27
• W has cufflinks made out of human molars
(teeth)!!!
• After W leaves, Gatsby tells Nick that W was
responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series (see
entry in the history notes we did) .
– You have to ask yourself: Is Gatsby bragging about
what amazing friends he has?
• After lunch, Nick notices Tom is in the
restaurant and introduces Tom to Gatsby.
Gatsby seems very uncomfortable and then
just disappears.
We learn…pg 27
• At tea, later that day, Jordan tells Nick the
story of how she met Daisy and how Daisy met
Gatsby.
• This is done through the use of a
FLASHBACK.
– A flashback is a scene that takes place BEFORE the
actual story but that is put into the book at a later
time --- like a window to the past.
We learn…pg 28
• Daisy’s family was extremely rich and Daisy had
many boys chasing after her (especially soldiers).
• Jordan sees Daisy one day with a solider in her
car and Jordan tells Nick, “The officer looked at
Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every
young girl wants to be looked at sometime” – so
Jordan thought they were in love. Jordan is
introduced to this soldier: Jay Gatsby.
• Jordan heard that Daisy’s family had stopped her
from leaving one night to say goodbye to a
soldier who was going off to war.
– You have to ask yourself: Is the soldier Gatsby and if
so, is Daisy’s family to blame for them not being
together? Or is it another soldier – someone else?
We learn…pg 28
• Jordan then says, “By the next autumn she
was gay again” – back then, ‘gay’ meant
happy/carefree.
• Daisy then married Tom – who spent an
enormous amount of money on the wedding.
• Tom bought Daisy a pearl necklace that cost
$350,000 dollars!
– You might be confused by the line, “He came down with a hundred
people in four private cars…” – in this case, ‘car’ means a train car, not
an automobile!
We learn…pg 28
• On the day before Daisy’s wedding, Jordan
found Daisy completely drunk in her hotel
room. Daisy told Jordan that she ‘had
changed her mind’ and didn’t want to marry
Tom. Daisy was holding a letter in her hand
and had thrown the pearls into the bin.
• Jordan helped Daisy to get sober by putting
her in the bath but Daisy never let go of the
letter (it got wet and disintegrated).
• The next day Daisy married Tom.
Daisy and Tom’s wedding (2013 film)
We learn…pg 28
• Jordan says that she never saw “a girl so mad
about [so in love with] her husband”.
• Then Jordan tells us that there was a story in
the newspapers after Tom crashed his car – it
was news because there was a woman in the
car with him (a maid from a hotel who broke
her arm in the accident) – obviously Tom has
had affairs before Myrtle!!
– Isn’t it interesting that there is another reference
to a car accident/bad driving??
We learn…pg 28
• Jordan says that after the accident, Daisy and
Tom moved to France and then to Chicago (then
to NY).
• Jordan says that Daisy has always been a popular
person and always around the popular crowd but
interestingly, Daisy doesn’t drink.
– Jordan speculates that Daisy doesn’t drink because
that is an advantage – when others are drinking but
you are not, you can do strange things and the drunk
people won’t remember it.
– Remember: Gatsby also doesn’t drink at his parties
We learn…pg 29
• Jordan then says that Daisy had never heard of
Gatsby again until Jordan mentioned his name at
that dinner with Nick in Chapter 1.
• Nick says it is a big coincidence that Gatsby
should be here.
• Jordan confesses that it is not a coincidence –
that Gatsby bought his house specifically so he
could be near Daisy.
• This answer makes everything clear to Nick – he
now understands why Gatsby has done all those
things, why he stares out across the water
towards ‘the green light’ (the light at Daisy’s
house)…Nick says “He came alive to me” after
that – he could understand him.
We learn…pg 29
• Jordan says, “I think he half expected her to
wander into one of his parties, some night”.
– This is why the parties are so lavish (loud and amazing)
– he was hoping Daisy would either ‘hear’ rumors
about them or perhaps really ‘hear’ them (the music,
etc) and then come over.
• She also says that Gatsby had been reading the
newspapers from Chicago for any information on
Daisy (it was common practice for newspapers to
report what rich people were doing – like they do
for celebrities today).
• Jordan thinks that it is good that Gatsby wants
Daisy because “Daisy ought to have something in
her life”.
We learn…pg 29
• We see Nick perhaps falling a bit in love with
Jordan in this scene and talks about her
personality/physical appearance a lot and
holds her close to him in the car and then
kisses her at the end of the chapter.
Symbolism
• White: remember colors can be symbols and in this chapter
we see the repeated mention of how Daisy likes ‘white’
(white dresses, white car). Traditionally, white is the color
of purity, virginity, divinity.
• You have to ask yourself: Why does Daisy like white?
– Is it because she is so pure and virginal? Probably not because
she has so many boyfriends but maybe it is referring to her
purity of love – only loves Gatsby??
– Is it because she is divine (godly)? Maybe, she is nothing too
special to us readers but to Gatsby she is everything – she is the
DREAM.
– I tend to think it is because Daisy is so particular about
appearances and is rather superficial…as if she likes white
because it is clean and if it is clean then it means that the
person or thing is clean (clean being a symbol for good/better).
– What do you think?