56 pages • 1 hour read
F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1925A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
A reporter arrives at Gatsby’s and asks if he has any statement to give. Gatsby has no idea what he means. The reporter seems to be simply following up on vague rumors attached to Gatsby that even the reporter himself does not understand.
After recounting this “fishing expedition” by the reporter, Nick relates a story told to him by Gatsby about his origins. He says that Jay Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz. He took on the name Gatsby upon meeting Dan Cody on a yacht in Lake Superior.
Gatsby is originally from a good but unremarkable family in South Dakota. He always felt out of place there and left as soon as he could to seek a better future for himself. He wandered to Lake Superior and rowed his boat out on the pretense of giving boating advice to the captain of Cody’s magnificent yacht. He managed to ingratiate himself with Cody, even becoming a partial heir to the man’s fortune. As a self-made gold and silver magnate, Cody turned Gatsby into his unofficial assistant. Unfortunately, when Cody died, his mistress Ella Kaye prevents Gatsby from receiving his inheritance.
Several weeks after facilitating the meetings between Gatsby and Daisy, Nick walks to Gatsby’s on a whim. There, he sees Tom Buchanan and two others ride up on horseback. They claim to be using Gatsby’s home as a resting point on their riding expedition. Gatsby cannot help but be peculiarly friendly to Tom. When Tom and his companions mention moving on to another party, Gatsby nearly accompanies them, despite their unwillingness to take him.
At a later party at Gatsby’s, both Tom and Daisy are in attendance. Nick remarks on feeling a certain unpleasantness in the air, perhaps because he experiences the West Egg party through the East Egg eyes of Daisy, who is repulsed by it. During the party, Tom brings up the rumors that Gatsby is a liquor “bootlegger.” He claims that “newly rich” people like Gatsby often are. When Tom derides the party, Daisy vainly protests in Gatsby’s defense. She claims that people invite themselves and that Gatsby is too polite to send them home. Tom pursues other women at the party and Daisy invites Nick to kiss her, which he doesn’t.
After Tom and Daisy leave the party, Nick stays until very late. Gatsby eventually comes to talk with Nick about Daisy. Nick recognizes that Gatsby wants Daisy to leave Tom for him. Gatsby recalls the time five years earlier when he first kissed Daisy, a moment that seemed like the defining achievement of his life.
Chapter 6 Analysis
The inclusion of the story about Dan Cody at this point, prior to the chronological moment when it is told to Nick, is a significant plot feature in the novel. It combines foreshadowing with flashback. This occurs at nearly the exact middle of the novel, just after the turning point of the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy takes place. Nick’s explanation of why he provides this information is that it discounts the other, more salacious rumors about Gatsby. Although his true origin is extraordinary, it is explained simply as a romantic, dreamy desire that led a young man to completely transform his life.
The temporal transition to the third section of the chapter, where Tom and Daisy attend Gatsby’s party, suggests that Daisy and Gatsby have been spending a significant amount of time together. Consequently, they have raised Tom’s suspicion. Tom, of course, behaves as if he has no regard for Daisy by pursuing other women at the party. However, Daisy’s comments to Nick about the possibility of kissing her remind the reader once again that she might not have such different aims from Tom.
The question of class recurs in this chapter, with Tom’s accusations that “newly rich” people are often bootleggers. The fact that Gatsby probably is involved in crime adds dimension to this accusation. While Tom is specifically disparaging “new money,” which reflects his inherent classicism, his remarks also speak to The Illusion of the American Dream. Like the American dream, the line between new and old money is illusory—a matter of framing and perception. Regardless of whether one’s money is “old” or “new,” generating and accumulating wealth to improve one’s personal circumstances often comes at the expense of others.
The meaning of the final paragraph of the chapter, which depicts Gatsby kissing Daisy for the first time, is elusive. It is one of the more lyrical moments of the novel, functioning independently. It suggests that Gatsby’s words and feeling touch something very deep and primal in Nick, as if his desire was a universal passion for something pure and meant only for him and Daisy. Nick’s inability to recollect such passion in his own life reflects an emptiness at the heart of the narrator, highlighting The Role of Love and Relationships in a Culture Defined by Wealth and Hedonism.
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