Gatsby's Request

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chapter 4 pages 69-80

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired" (Fitzgerald, page 79).

As I met Wolfstein, I became even more confused with Gatsby's purpose in his life mystery. Gatsby mentions him to be an old friend yet I looked back on the list of the people who visited Gatsby's house the previous summer, and he was not listed at all. I figured friends of Gatsby would come to his parties. Furthermore, I could not decide if Wolfstein would be there for the purpose of having an excuse to run into Tom Buchanan or not and whether Wolfstein has a deeper connection to Gatsby's past than he lets show or no connection at all. 

The main focus of this section was in Gatsby's big request to Nick. The request as expected, came with more revelation of Gatsby's past. As Jordan explains the situation, I feel that Gatsby has given up his life to find Daisy again. Through this, I am able to feel that past in his life that he wanted to get rid of was losing Daisy and he used his parties as a distraction to the pain he felt from his lost love. I am pleased that Nick seems to feel that he should allow Daisy and Gatsby to feel the love that many of the time do not see openly. I find it quite ironic the love web that is going on currently. There is almost a lost idea of the marriage as all of the people seem to have some other person they would rather spend their time with other than their spouse. Gatsby is in love with Daisy who is married to Tom who has another woman, Mrs. Wilson who is married to Mr. Wilson. This almost makes me think of the love web from the movie She's the Man which says: Duke wants Olivia who likes Sebastian who is really Viola whose brother is dating Monique so she hates Olivia who's with Duke to make Sebastian jealous who is really Viola who's crushing on Duke who thinks she's a guy...