The Great Gatsby — Study Guide (Chapter 6)
Quick Summary (What happens)
- A young reporter comes to Gatsby’s door, showing that Gatsby’s public legend has grown all summer. - Nick reveals Gatsby’s real origin story: James Gatz, poor farm background, reinvents himself after meeting Dan Cody. - Tom Buchanan drops by Gatsby’s house with wealthy friends; their condescension highlights class boundaries. - Tom and Daisy attend Gatsby’s party; Daisy is unsettled and disappointed by West Egg’s atmosphere. - Gatsby confides in Nick: he wants Daisy to renounce Tom completely and believes he can repeat the past.
Themes / Big Ideas (connected to the novel’s central concerns)
1) Self-Invention and Identity as Performance
- Gatsby literally creates “Jay Gatsby” from “James Gatz,” treating identity like a project. - The chapter frames Gatsby’s life as a deliberate myth-making—and hints at its cost: the invented self must be maintained “to the end.” - Connection to the novel: the tension between who someone is vs. who they claim to be (Gatsby, Daisy, even Nick as narrator).
Guiding question: Is Gatsby’s reinvention admirable (ambition) or tragic (self-erasure)?
2) The American Dream: Aspiration vs. Corruption
- Gatsby’s longing is tied to beauty and wealth, but the language suggests that the dream is also “vulgar” and “meretricious” (attractive but false/sold). - Dan Cody represents an earlier “frontier” version of getting rich—still tied to vice, exploitation, and instability. - Connection to the novel: the dream promises upward mobility, but the social system (old money, inheritance, “devices” of law) blocks true arrival.
Guiding question: What parts of Gatsby’s dream are “American,” and what parts are illusions?
3) Old Money vs. New Money (Class Exclusion)
- Tom’s visit and the riding party show a closed social world: Gatsby is treated as useful entertainment, not a peer. - Daisy’s reaction to the party reveals that taste and social codes function like barriers—she is “appalled” by West Egg’s rawness. - Connection to the novel: East Egg’s inherited power vs. West Egg’s flashy striving.
Guiding question: Why can Gatsby buy spectacle but not belonging?
4) The Power (and Danger) of Romantic Idealization
- Gatsby’s love isn’t just for Daisy as she is; it’s for what she represents in his inner “visions.” - The kiss scene emphasizes a turning point: Gatsby “weds” his dreams to Daisy’s “perishable breath”—suggesting the dream will always outgrow reality. - Connection to the novel: Gatsby’s love becomes a kind of religion—absolute, demanding, and impossible.
Guiding question: What happens when a real person is asked to carry an impossible dream?
5) Time, Memory, and the Desire to “Repeat the Past”
- Gatsby insists the past can be restored perfectly; Nick pushes back. - The chapter positions Gatsby’s project as time travel through wealth—trying to recreate an earlier emotional reality with material means. - Connection to the novel: nostalgia vs. reality; the past as both motivation and trap.
Guiding question: What does Gatsby really want back—Daisy, or the version of himself that existed when he first loved her?
Vocabulary (Key words from the chapter)
| Word | Part of Speech | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| ambitious | adjective | strongly desiring success or achievement |
| notoriety | noun | fame for something negative or scandalous; being widely known |
| initiative | noun | the ability to act and make decisions independently |
| laudable | adjective | deserving praise |
| insidious | adjective | harmful in a gradual, subtle way |
| shiftless | adjective | lacking effort, ambition, or reliability |
| Platonic | adjective | idealized; existing in the realm of ideas rather than reality |
| meretricious | adjective | attractive in a flashy way but shallow or false; showy |
| contemptuous | adjective | showing scorn; feeling someone/something is beneath respect |
| grotesque | adjective | oddly distorted or unnatural; bizarre |
| ineffable | adjective | too great or extreme to be expressed in words |
| gaudiness | noun | overly showy brightness; tasteless flashy appearance |
| reveries | noun | daydreams; dreamy thoughts |
| dismayed | adjective | distressed; disappointed and worried |
| robust | adjective | strong and healthy; vigorous |
| ramifications | noun | complex consequences or results |
| turgid | adjective | swollen; also (of writing/journalism) pompous or overwrought |
| contingencies | noun | possible future events (often unwanted) that must be planned for |
| debauchee | noun | a person given to excessive indulgence (often alcohol/sex) |
| ingratiate | verb | to try to gain favor by pleasing behavior |
| condescension | noun | patronizing attitude; behaving as if others are inferior |
| oppressiveness | noun | a heavy, stifling, uncomfortable feeling oratmosphere |
| oblivion | noun | a state of being unaware or forgotten |
| inarguably | adverb | undeniably; in a way that cannot be disputed |
| dilatory | adjective | slow; causing delay |
| incredulously | adverb | with disbelief; unwilling to accept as true |
Quotes to Look For (and why they matter)
“Just why these inventions were a source of satisfaction to James Gatz of North Dakota, isn’t easy to say.”
Gatsby’s pleasure in rumors shows the allure of myth and reputation—even false ones.“James Gatz—that was really, or at least legally, his name.”
Identity vs. record; who Gatsby “is” depends on who is speaking and what counts as real.“Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.”
A thesis statement for Gatsby: selfhood as an idealized invention.“He was a son of God… about His Father’s business…”
The narration turns Gatsby’s ambition into something religious—suggesting grandeur and delusion.“A promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.”
A poetic description of Gatsby’s belief that imagination can remake reality.“The pioneer debauchee…” (about Dan Cody)
Connects wealth to moral decay and American history; “success” comes with damage.“She was appalled by West Egg…”
Daisy’s class lens: the party isn’t just loud; it violates her inherited standards.“‘Who is this Gatsby anyhow?’ demanded Tom suddenly. ‘Some big bootlegger?’”
Suspicion and class policing—Tom treats Gatsby’s wealth as illegitimate by default.“She didn’t like it… She didn’t have a good time.”
The dream collides with reality: Gatsby cannot control Daisy’s response.“‘You can’t repeat the past.’” / “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”
Central conflict of the novel: time, memory, and Gatsby’s impossible project.“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”
Shows Gatsby’s absolutism—he demands emotional erasure, not just a new choice.“...forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath...”
Daisy is mortal/limited; Gatsby’s visions are infinite—this mismatch drives tragedy.
Study/Discussion Prompts
- What does Gatsby gain—and lose—by rejecting “James Gatz”?
- How do Tom and Daisy function as “judges” of Gatsby’s world?
- Is Daisy’s discomfort at the party moral (she sees ugliness) or social (she sees vulgarity)?
- What does “repeat the past” mean to Gatsby: love, status, innocence, or identity?