Some of the people came from East Egg (they are distinguished by their aristocratic-sounding names: the Endives, the Stonewall Jacksons, the Fishguards, and the Ripley Snells), while others came from West Egg (sporting more ethnic-sounding names such as Pole, Mulready, Schoen, Gulick, Cohen, Schwartze, and McCarty.
Clearly, everyone who was anyone wanted to be seen at Gatsby's lavish gatherings. Nick recounts dozens and dozens of names, all of them supposedly recognizable. Nick expands upon an idea brought out in the prior chapter: Gatsby's party guests. The opening paragraphs of the chapter read much like a Who's Who of 1922. Later chapters will give more and more information, even after his death. Gatsby, as if aware of the rumors flying about him, attempts to set the record straight, but doesn't touch on every aspect of his past, only what he wishes Nick to know. She is to know nothing about the intended reunion with her former lover it is all supposed to be a surprise.Īll three of the major incidents in this chapter - Gatsby's disclosure in the car, the meeting with Wolfshiem, and Jordan's story about Daisy's soldier - all serve one common purpose: They all give a better understanding of Jay Gatsby's past and, in turn, his present. Jordan then relays Gatsby's request: that Nick invite Daisy over some afternoon so he can arrange to come by and see her, as if by accident. Apparently, it was not coincidence that brought him to West Egg: He purposely selected his house so that the house of his lost love would be just across the bay. Jordan continues, noting what Gatsby told her on the night of the party. The following April, Daisy gave birth to a daughter. On the day before the wedding, Daisy reconsidered her actions but after a drunken cry, she thought better of her situation and married Tom. Daisy's family didn't approve of the match and so she eventually turned her attentions away from Gatsby and to Tom Buchanan. She recounts how one morning in 1917 she met Daisy and an unknown admirer, a military officer, who watched Daisy "in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at." His name: Jay Gatsby. The second memorable thing which happened to Nick comes through Jordan Baker.
Wolfshiem is Gatsby's link to organized crime and there is an intimation that Gatsby may be able to fix Nick up with Wolfshiem in an undisclosed venture (this hint is again brought out in Chapter 5).
First, at lunch Nick meets Meyer Wolfshiem, a professional gambler and the man rumored to have fixed the 1919 World Series. In New York, two important things happen to Nick. Nick is suspicious, however, when he hears Gatsby reveal that he was born into a wealthy Midwest family (in San Francisco) and educated at Oxford, "a family tradition." After touring Europe, Gatsby served as a major in the military where he "tried very hard to die" but, in his own words, "seemed to bear an enchanted life." As in testament to this disclosure, Gatsby is pulled over for speeding, but is let go after producing a card from the police commissioner for whom Gatsby had once done a favor. During the "disconcerting ride" to the city, Gatsby attempts to clear the record about his past so that Nick wouldn't "get a wrong idea" by listening to the rumors. One late July morning, Gatsby arrives at Nick's and announces they are having lunch that day in New York. One fellow, Klipspringer, in fact, was at Gatsby's house so often and so long that he became known as simply "the boarder." From socialites and debutantes to the famous and the infamous, Gatsby's parties draw only the most fashionable of people. Chapter 4 opens with a cataloguing of Gatsby's party guests: the Chester Beckers, the Leeches, Doctor Webster Civet, the Hornbeams, the Ismays, the Chrysties, and so on.