Gatsby Journal
Chapters 4 - 5
Chapter 4 - Summary
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Gatsby tells Nick about his past.
Gatsby’s tells lies mixed with truth.
Gatsby gets flagged down by a policeman and waves a
white card which gets him off.
Gatsby and Nick go to lunch; Nick meets Gatsby’s friend,
Meyer Wolfshiem. We learn Mr. Wolfshiem is a gambler /
man who fixed the 1919 world series.
Wolfshiem tells Nick more about Gatsby. He (Wolfshiem)
made Gatsby into the what he is today.
Background information on Daisy and Gatsby – how they
knew each other before Gatsby went to war
Chapter 4 - Vocabulary
punctilious
 labyrinth
 disconcerting
 incredulous
 olfactory
 haughty
 somnambulatory
 denizen
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Chapter 4 – Wolfshiem
 Wolfshiem
 Quote
– pages 77, 78
 Describe him
 What is Wolfshiem’s role in the
novel?
Chapter 4 - Quote
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“Fixed the World’s Series?” …. The idea staggered me. I
remembered fo course that the World’s Series had been
fixed in 1919 but if I had thought of at all I would have
thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of
some inevitable chain. 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.
Chapter 4 - Quote
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About six weeks ago, she heard the name Gatsby for the
first time in years. It was when I asked you – do you
remember? – if you knew Gatsby in West Egg. After you
had gone home she came into my room and woke me up
and said “What Gatsby?” and when I described him – I
was half asleep - she said in the strangest voice that it
must be the man she used to know. It wasn’t until then
that I connected this Gatsby with the officer in her white
car.
Sightings
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Time-table – “This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922” (65)
“At nine o’clock one morning late in July – (68)
Car – It was rich cream color, bright with nickel,
swollen here and there …. Green leather …. (68)
White card (flashes at police) –( 72)
Wolfshiem’s cufflinks – (77)
She was dressed in white … little white roadster (79)
Chapter 5 - Summary
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Nick phones Daisy and invites her to tea. She comes and
Gatsby comes over for a meeting.
Gatsby is incredibly nervous, but excited. He has waited
five years for this encounter.
Daisy and Gatsby reconnect. He shows her his house and
all his possessions. Gatsby is convinced that Daisy will
love him again, just as she had five years before
Chapter 5 - Vocabulary
 Harrowed
 Vestige
 Pompadour
 Nebulous
 Colossal
Chapter 5 - Character
Gatsby
or
Daisy
Chapter 5 - Sightings
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“Two o’clock (86)
Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver, shirt, and gold colored tie
(89)
Clock on mantlepiece (91)
Daisy’s voice - Exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic
in the rain
Overwound clock (97)
Gatsby’s shirts – all colors
Green light that burns at the end of the dock (98)
I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish
warmth because if couldn’t be over-dreamed – that voice was
a deathless song. (101)
Quotes
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Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining
against the mantlepiece in a strained counterfeit of
perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back
so far that it rested against the face of a defunct
mantlepiece clock …… his lips parted with an
abortive attempt at a laugh. Luckily the clock took
this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his
head, whereupon he turned and caught it with
trembling fingers and set it back in place. (91)
Quote
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He had passed visibly through two states and
was entering upon a third. After his
embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was
consumed with wonder at her presence. He
had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it
right through to the end, waited with his teeth
set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of
intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running
down like an overwound clock. (97)
Quote
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Possible it had occurred to him that the
colossal significance of that light had now
vanished forever. Compared to the great
distance that had separated him from Daisy it
had seemed very near to her, almost touching
her. It had seemed as close as a star to the
moon. Now it was again a green light on the
dock. His count of enchanged objects had
diminished one by one. (98)
Last Quote
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… the expression of bewilderment had come
back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt
had occurred to him as to the quality of his
present happiness. Almost five years! There
must have been moments even that afternoon
when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams
– not through her own fault but because of the
colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone
beyond her, beyond everything. (101)