The Great Gatsby Chapter Six

Summary Nick reveals more about Gatsby’s, his humble origins and his time with Dan Cody. The Buchanans attend one of Gatsby’s parties. The growing tension between Tom and Gatsby is evident.

Gatsby’s Past Original name was James Gatz (changed to Jay Gatsby when 17) Came fro North Dakota (midway between the East and West coasts of America) As Dan Cody’s assistant, Gatsby sailed around America three times.

Gatsby as Magician Transforms himself form a humble Midwestern boy to an East Coast celebrity. Transforms Daisy, within his own imagination, from a Southern girl to an ideal of radiant life and beauty. The phrase ‘The Great Gatsby’ suggests the showmanship of stage magicians, who practise an art of illusion and use such names to advertise their performances.

Dan Cody Gatsby’s mentor Transformed himself into a millionaire Used by Fitzgerald to deflate idealised version of pioneer life.

Gatsby “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” This illuminate Gatsby’s creation of his own identity. Plato’s philosophy stresses the illusory nature of the world we know through our senses. Gatsby, caught up in property and money, is still driven by desire for something beyond physical possessions.

Wonder In Gatsby’s eyes the city streets become trees, transformed into a green world by means of imagination and intense feeling: “he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.’ (p96) The image of the nurturing breast is important: it is echoed in the ‘fresh green breast of the new world’, but in-between there is the mutilated breast of Myrtle Wilson. Through metaphor, Fitzgerald contrasts a visionary reality with a brutal, material reality.