The Reunion of the Great Gatsby and Beautiful Buchanan free essay sample

During this time, Nick meets the great, but mysterious Jay Gatsby, and as the story unfolds, the readers get to learn more and more about Gatsby and discover his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, past life, and the question as to what makes him so great. It is during Chapter Five though, a chapter focusing on the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy, that is the most pivotal due to the use of the Fitzgerald’s effective descriptions that show Gatsby’s affection and determination to impress Daisy and help gain sympathy for the story’s intriguing character. When the chapter begins, Nick returns from a date with Jordan Baker, but when he arrives home he, â€Å"was afraid for a moment that [his] house was on fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light† (Fitzgerald 81). To his relief his house is not ablaze, but is surprised to find that the very bright house belongs to Gatsby, in which he tells him that, â€Å"Your place looks like the World’s Fair† (81). Nick’s description of Gatsby’s house not only shows how much wealth Gatsby has, but additionally foreshadows that he is secretly preparing for Daisy in the hopes that when she arrives to Nick’s house, she’ll be curious as to who lives next door to him. In preparation for Daisy, Gatsby begins to worry about the status of Nick’s grass since, â€Å"there was a sharp line where [Nick’s] ragged lawn ended and the darker, well-kept expanse of [Gatsby’s] began† (82) he sends a servant over to Nick’s house to have it cut. Between his over the top house decorations and sending a servant to cut Nick’s grass, readers are not able to feel much sympathy for Gatsby because it seems like he’s being a little selfish and only using Nick to get to Daisy. On the day of the meeting, Gatsby arrives to Nick Gatsby is so nervous that when Nick tells him about the grass, Gatsby seems to have forgotten he even sent a servant and asks Nick if, â€Å"[he’s] got everything [he] needs in the shape of-of tea† (84). Nick’s depiction of Gatsby shows the love, devotion, and nervousness he has towards seeing Daisy in making sure everything is perfect for when she arrives to Nick’s house, and cause readers to have a change of mind about Gatsby, becoming more sympathetic now that it’s clear that he set up a perfect reunion and just wants things to run smoothly. When Daisy finally arrives, the encounter is awkward. Upon seeing Gatsby for the first time, â€Å"[he’s] as pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, standing in a puddle of water† (86) and when she tells him that she is happy to see him, being so nervous accidently knocks over Nick’s clock, â€Å"[but catches] it with trembling fingers and [sets] it back in place† (86). To Daisy’s surprise, he even remembers how long it’s been since they’ve seen each other, telling her that, â€Å"[It’s been] five years next November† (87). As the meeting goes on though, it stops raining, the awkwardness fades and Gatsby and Daisy, â€Å"were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question has been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone† (89). Throughout the first half of the chapter, the setting plays an important role by representing Gatsby’s mood before and during the encounter. Before, and even after Daisy arrives, Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby’s nervousness through the cloudy and rainy weather, but once things start to smooth out and not be so awkward, Gatsby’s smile and happiness illuminate the room just as the sun starts to shine. The reader is also able to feel more affection and sympathy towards Gatsby during this chapter due to the way the author chose to portray him. In the previous chapters, Gatsby has a very well-educated confident attitude, but upon seeing Daisy, all of that falls away and he becomes nervous, clumsy, sweet but unsure, making his character seem very pure and genuine. After the awkward encounter, Gatsby tells Daisy that he’d like to show her his house, secretly in the hopes of impressing her. To his excitement, Daisy, â€Å"admired [the] aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate† 90). Nick finds it strange though, â€Å"to reach the marble steps and find no stir of bright dresses in and out the door, and hear no sound but bird voices in the trees [and] felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders to be breathlessly silent† (90-91) since he was used to Gatsby’s lavish parties every night and not the quiet, calm peaceful house he was in. Once in the house, Gatsby shows Daisy everything from his, â€Å"Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons [to] period bedrooms swathed in rise and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms, with sunken baths† (91). After the tour, Nick notices that Gatsby himself, â€Å"evaluated everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from [Daisy’s] well-loved eyes† (91) showing how much she mattered to him, in which if she liked it, he would keep whatever it was she liked but if she didn’t, he would get rid of it because she didn’t like it. The most sentimental moment between Daisy and Gatsby though , is when Gatsby goes up to his cabinets, â€Å"which held his massed suits and dressing gowns and ties and his shirts, piled like bricks a dozen high† (92) takes out shirts from a man in England who buys them for him, and â€Å"[begins] throwing them, one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray, [as Daisy] bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily† (92). This beautiful moment causes the readers to gain a lot of sympathy for Gatsby due to him acting like a little kid, in wanting to show Daisy his wealth and all he’s accomplished over the years similar to how a young child would act if they did something they felt accomplished about and wanted to tell a parent. Daisy’s tears also show that while time has passed, she still loves Gatsby and the shirts are just a reminder of the love they used to have, and the life she could have had with him. Once the moment is over, Gatsby takes Daisy outside to his grounds, where he tells her, â€Å"If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your house across the bay. You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock† (92). Daisy responds by putting her arm through his, but when she did this, Gatsby, ‘seemed absorbed in what he just said. Possibly 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 start to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one† (93). The green light was always a welcoming beacon to Gatsby because he knew he could come into her life and she’d be waiting for him and it stood as a symbol of hope; in which Daisy and Gatsby could live together . After Daisy so carelessly put her arm around him though, the green light lost some of the deeper meaning, his hope of being together seemed to diminish and the green light just became a light that other homeowners owned and once again it began to rain, symbolizing Gatsby’s sadness. During this moment, readers either lose or gain more sympathy for Gatsby due to some readers feeling that if Gatsby didn’t have such high hopes and expectations of Daisy, he wouldn’t of been disappointed while other readers can see that he just wants to fulfill his dream of living a life with her. At the end of the chapter, Gatsby has a man named Klipspringer come and play the piano, a song called â€Å"Ain’t We Got Fun† and as Nick goes to say goodbye, he realizes Daisy and Gatsby, â€Å"possessed by intense life† (96), have forgotten he was there and quietly, he leaves with Gatsby and Daisy alone together. Chapter Five is a very important chapter in the book, due to it being the reconciling of Gatsby and Daisy, because of the way it is presented though, whether it be the dialogue Gatsby and Daisy share or the setting around them, Gatsby’s lovesick teenage boy characteristics is what helps readers get a better understanding of him. Even though he presents himself as a wealthy, idealist type of man, his shell is broken upon seeing Daisy and he becomes a hopeless romantic. As the story goes on, Gatsby pursues his dream to have a life with Daisy by continuing to have lavish parties to impress her, proving himself to her with his wealth, abandoning others for her own favor and even taking the blame for the death of Myrtle Wilson, Daisy’s husband’s mistress. But in the end, Myrtle’s husband murders Gatsby and he dies never truly being rewarded with the same unconditional love that he gives to her. His death, infatuation and devotedness to Daisy is not only what kills Gatsby in the end, but causes readers to have the most sympathetic feelings for him, because they see he never got to fully achieve his dream. Even though everything Gatsby did for Daisy was out pure love, when looking back it poses a question to the reader : Was it really worth it all? Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. Print. Moulin Rouge. Screenplay by Baz Lurhmann, Craig Pearce. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor. Twentieth Century Fox, 2001. Film.