The Great Gatsby Chapter 4 p61-80

The Great Gatsby

Chapter 4 p61-80

Summary

As Nick attends more of Gatsby’s parties, he records down names of any person who attended the party. One day, Gatsby takes Nick out to lunch, driving in his famous car, and while driving to West Egg, Gatsby tells him about his own life, but Nick notices some fibs in his story. Gatsby gets pulled over by a cop for speeding, but by waving a white card, he is exempt from a ticket. Around noon, Gatsby with a man named Mr. Wolfsheim meets Nick for lunch, and we learn that Mr. Wolfsheim seems to know a lot about Gatsby since they knew each other right after the war. Gatsby knows a lot about Wolfsheim as well, like how he fixed the World Series in 1919 and how he’s a gambler. After Nick pays for lunch, he sees Tom in another room. Tom gets introduced to Mr. Gatsby, but after that, Gatsby disappears. Jordan takes the narrator role for a while, explaining a little about her life. After her story, Jordan and Nick figure out the reason for Gatsby’s parties: to attract Daisy. The chapter ends with what seems to be a kiss from Nick to Jordan.

Meyer Wolfsheim

“It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.”

            Wolfsheim is a flat-nosed Jew who has tiny eyes. He is a gambler and is the one who fixed the World’s Series in 1919. Wolfsheim also seems to be sneaky and intelligent as he has not been caught by the police yet. He also knows Gatsby really well due to meeting him after the war.

            Since Nick knows Gatsby’s lying about some parts of his life, Wolfsheim could be the truth to Gatsby’s lies. Wolfsheim knows his real college, and he’s known Gatsby since the war. He could know about Gatsby as much as Gatsby knows himself. If I see Wolfsheim in more chapters, I could see him revealing more about Gatsby’s life that Gatsby wouldn’t want to confess.

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.” (79)

            This quote is a description of the many characters seen in the novel. The pursued is obviously Gatsby. The pursuing people are Jordan and Nick. The busy people are Tom and Myrtle because they deal with two relationships, and the tired could be Daisy and Mr. Wilson who don’t want to deal with their spouses cheating.