Why does nick realize who gatsby is

Nick may be polite and easy to get along with on the outside, but he's not afraid to tell it like it is. Nick still seems to see himself as a good Midwestern boy with high standards for everyone he meets, including himself, and prides himself on maintaining his standards, even in the corrupt, fast-moving world of East coast high society. And that actually brings us to our first "hey, wait a minute" moment.

Check out what Nick says at the beginning. He treats us to a little down-home wisdom that his own father passed along:. He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments […]. Nick has told us that he reserves judgment, and he's also told us that he's honest. So why does it seem that the entire book consists of him judging one character after another?

Gatsby represents everything that makes Nick feel " unaffected scorn " 1. If you ask us, sounds like someone might not be entirely honest about himself. In fact, it's dishonest Jordan who realizes it.

During the course of the novel, Nick gradually gets sucked into the world he's observing, both through his friendships if you can call them that with Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, and through his romantic relationship with Jordan. The deeper he's drawn into these relationships, the less honest he becomes — until at the end, Jordan rebukes him for being just as dishonest and careless as the rest of them:.

Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride. If you wanted to be charitable, you could say that Nick realizes he's being drawn into a dishonest lifestyle, and that's what makes him scurry back West.

The luncheon with Gatsby is not remarkable, save for the character who is introduced: Meyer Wolfshiem, a notorious gambler who is rumored to have rigged the World Series, an unprecedented scandal that degraded America's Game.

Wolfshiem, a business associate of Jay Gatsby, is everything his name suggests: He is a perfect combination of human and animal. He is wolf-like in his ways, and nowhere do we get better evidence of this than by the human molar cufflinks he sports proudly. Although Nick has begun to like Gatsby and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, Gatsby's taste in business connections is not at all what a man who comes from the background Gatsby has just recounted would make.

Wolfshiem is Gatsby's connection or gonnection , as Wolfshiem would say to the world of organized crime. Wolfshiem, as is later made known, has been instrumental in Gatsby's ability to accumulate wealth. Theirs is a partnership in which Gatsby feels some sort of indebtedness to Wolfshiem — although they are partners on some levels, they are not at all equals.

That same afternoon, after hearing Gatsby's story and meeting his business contact, Nick has tea with Jordan Baker wherein he gets a more accurate reading of Gatsby. Jordan recounts the "amazing" story she learned the night of Gatsby's party.

The story recalls Jordan's girlhood in Louisville and one of her memories of Daisy Fay who would later become Daisy Buchanan; notice, too, "Fay" is a synonym for "faerie" — an appropriate name for someone of Daisy's ethereal nature.

On one memorable day, she saw Daisy with a young officer, Jay Gatsby, who looked at Daisy "in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at.

Through Jordan's story of Daisy right before her wedding, Fitzgerald gives a much better sense of Daisy. She loved the young officer as Gatsby tells in Chapter 8 , but was forcibly discouraged from entering into a permanent relationship with the young man — Gatsby's lack of money was his primary character deficit.

After breaking off contact with Gatsby, Daisy began to resume her activities as usual. She meets Tom Buchanan and shortly becomes engaged to him. One the eve of her wedding Daisy has second thoughts, deciding while in a drunken stupor that perhaps marrying for love instead of money is what she should do.

As she sobers up she seems to come to terms with herself and what is expected of her. She puts Gatsby behind her and marries Tom. Before long, however, Tom begins to have affairs. Daisy is aware of this from early on, but fails to do anything about it. One can only speculate why. Clearly Daisy is more dimensional than the initial impression of her suggests. She is aware of Tom's indiscretions, but appears not to care.

It's difficult to say with certainty, but one theory holds that she enjoys Tom's money and the status she has as a Buchanan of East Egg. Challenging her husband's tomcat-like behavior would jeopardize her status and security — the things her entire life has revolved around.

When Jordan finishes telling this story of Daisy, she comes to where Gatsby figures in, and Nick learns a great deal about him through this disclosure. Jordan reveals that it wasn't coincidence that Gatsby's house is across the Sound from Daisy's, as Nick initially believes. Tom finds out about the affair between Gatsby and Daisy in Chapter 7, just before the three of them, along with Nick, take a trip to New York. Although no one explicitly communicates this fact, Tom picks up on suspicious body language.

He was astounded. The mistake occurs because, earlier in the day, Tom suggests that he and Gatsby swap cars for the drive to New York. Myrtle sees Tom from the room where her husband has locked her up. Later that night, Tom and Gatsby drive their own cars back from the city. Although Gatsby himself never explicitly says how he became wealthy, readers could assume his money comes from illegal or nefarious practices, working as either a German spy or a gambler.

Before readers are introduced to the more prominent eyes in the novel—those of Doctor T. Owl Eyes is the only character, perhaps besides Nick, who is curious about Gatsby and wants to see him for who he truly is. Daisy seems unhappy with her marriage to Tom from the outset of the novel. Even the night before their wedding, she got drunk and told Jordan to tell everyone she had changed her mind. Insofar as Nick plays a role inside the narrative, he evidences a strongly mixed reaction to life on the East Coast, one that creates a powerful internal conflict that he does not resolve until the end of the book.

On the one hand, Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York. On the other hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people. Having gained the maturity that this insight demonstrates, he returns to Minnesota in search of a quieter life structured by more traditional moral values.

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