The Great Gatsby-Chapter Six-Greg Davis

Chapter 6 Pages 97-111

Chapter six begins in the form of a flashback from Nick. He describes James Gatz, a man from North Dakota. Gatz met a man named Dan Cody, who gave Gatz a job as an assistant on Dan's yacht. Cody and Gatz are like a master and an apprentice, this is when Gatz becomes Gatsby. Once Cody dies, Gatsby becomes liek Cody. Nick stops by Jay's house and sees Tom there. Tom had been riding with the Sloanes, and in Gatsby's conversation he is invited to dine with them-Tom does not know about Daisy and Gatsby. Later, Gatsby has a party, where Tom and Daisy do not have a good time, and Tom criticizes Daisy for liking Gatsby. Tom believes Gatsby is a phony, and they leave. Gatsby is upset, and explains to Nick that he wants things like they were. He wants his money to solve his problems, mainly the problem with Daisy.

Dan Cody

"....a gray, florid man with a hard, empty face-the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon." (Pg 100 Fitzgerald)

-Rich
-A drinker
-Gatsby's good friend and employer
-50, a product of the Nevada silver fields

Dan Cody is Gatsby's master. Cody created Gatsby, and Gatsby followed Cody's example. It is weird since this reminds me of Star Wars. Palpatine (Cody) takes Anakin (James), and creates him into a new dark person, -Darth Vader-Jay Gatsby. Also keep in mind, they both turn to a "dark side", but in Jame's case it is money, it is the money that is creating him into an "evil" person, it is what drives him, and he does not realize what it will do to his life. And to continue with this analogy, Darth Vader then tries to take an apprentice too, Luke, much like how Gatsby has Klipspringer. Maybe Gatsby wants to be like a Cody to Klipspringer. Dan is a character who sets up Gatsby for his future, Dan thinks he is helping, but is he really? Cody shows him the power of money, and maybe that's the wrong message.

"For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing." (Pg 99 Fitzgerald)

The metaphor of this quote can explain a majority of the novel: Gatsby does every action for the purpose to attain Daisy. "a rock of the world....on a fairy's wing" Fitzgerald is trying to let us imagine that image of Gatsby's whole life dedicated to pleasing Daisy. Fitzgerald is saying that Gatsby lives in a fantasy world, he needs to get in the present, and start working for the future.

gregdavisgreatgatsby.blogspot.com/