The Great Gatsby Chapter 3

1. The Great Gatsby: Chapter 3 (pg 39-59)

2. Chapter 3 starts with Nick describing how extravagant the parties of Mr. Gatsby and later mentions how Mr. Gatsby's chauffeurs came to visit him and give him an invitation to Mr. Gatsby's party. Nick arrives at the party and was planning to go to the cocktail table to get drunk until he meets with Jordan Baker who later decides to look for Mr. Gatsby. They enter a library where a man is sitting who shouts to them how real the books are in amazement. Later, Nick meets Mr. Gatsby and both realize they served in the same military division during World War 1. Mr. Gatsby later asks if he could speak with Jordan Baker alone and near the end of the party Nick says goodbye to Mr. Gatsby and witnesses the scene of a car problem in front of Mr. Gatsby house. Nick describes his everyday life and mentions his times with Jordan Baker and shows he is attracted to Jordan if though he knows she tends to be dishonest. He says," I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." (Gatsby 59)

3. Jordan Baker

"At first I was flattered to go places with her, because she was a golf champion, and everyone knew her name." (Gatsby 57)

Qualities:

"Let's get out,' whispered Jordan, after a somehow wasteful and inappropriate half-hou;    'this is much too polite for me." (Gatsby 45)

"Something in her tone reminded me of the other girl's 'I think he killed a man,' and had the effect of stimulating my curiosity." (Gatsby 49)

"The bored haughty face that she turned to the world concealed something" (Gatsby 57)

"At her first big golf tournament there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers-a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round." (Gatsby 57)

"She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body." (Gatsby 58)

Jordan Baker shows herself as a possible love interest for Nick because in Chapter 1 he says," I enjoyed looking at her." (Gatsby 11) and later in Chapter 3 Nick admits saying," and for a moment I thought I loved her." ( Gatsby 58) He writes letters once a week and signing them with," Love, Nick." She shower herself to be trustworthy in Chapter 1 especially since she is the reason Nick learned of Tom's affair but we learn at the end of Chapter 3 that she tends to be a liar but she likes Nick because he is not careless and is trusting.

4. "There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach." (Gatsby 39)

This quote stuck out to me because this seemed like Fitzgerald portraying the rich of the 1920's after World War 1 through the parties of Mr. Gatsby. His parties are extravagant with large musical bands, buffet tents, caterers, and large amounts of alcohol. The parties are filled with people from West Egg the new rich and East of the old rich. Both groups join together in loud merriment and joy in contrast with the Englishmen at the party, as the book described them being," all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans." (Gatsby 42)