Chapter 5 sheds light upon many possible events that might occur during the novel. As Daisy and Gatsby have a day from the past all to themselves, this might take the story line in many different ways and routes. This is why this chapter is the chapter that spices up the story, making the reader want to reader further ahead in order to figure out what’s going to happen next, especially with Daisy and Gatsby, the old lovers.
In this chapter we also see another side of Jay Gatsby, we haven’t seen before. Each chapter in the book is organized to show the reader the different aspects to Gatsby’s personality and how he manages to fool us every time we think we know him. One of the things that took me off guard in this chapter was how embarrassed and a timid person Gatsby was. I always imagined him to be a confident person with all that money coming to him by heritance. The chapter also shows Daisy, Nick and the reader the romantic and lover side of Gatsby. I never thought that he would even consider giving Nick a job so he can earn more many in return for his favour of calling Daisy to tea.
Another thing I found surprising was Daisy asking Nick who Tom is on the phone when Nick invites her over for tea but tells her specifically not to bring Tom with her. I think this might be cause by Tom’s attitude towards her and because he leaves to New York very often just to see Myrtle. This shows her fed up side with Tom’s freedom and her giving up on trying to have him all to herself.
One more thing that I found to be interesting in this chapter was the repetition of the “green light” example, which I think, has become a persistent motif of hope in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the examples of green light also in the first chapter of the book in which Nick hopes to talk to Gatsby from the distance but can’t. During this chapter Gatsby tells Daisy how he sees a green light from her house from his bedroom window and this symbolizes the hope Gatsby has in Daisy to pursue their life together in his great mansion where he lives alone in misery with the lack of love.
After tea in Nick’s house, Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick over to his house so Daisy can see his house. I thought that this was also another trick for Daisy, thought of by Gatsby in to fooling her with his substance and materialistic world. Of course in tricking I don’t mean in a bad and evil way but more like a strategic way to get Daisy in his life again. It also surprised me that Gatsby even remember how long they haven’t seen each other so precisely.
This was a rather shocking chapter for me and I’m eager to see what happens in the next chapter. The books makes me learn even more interesting new things about the characters in every chapter, thus giving a brief insight on fashion, business, transportation, history and basically the lifestyles of the era.
No comments:
Post a Comment