NICK

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. (1)

I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth (1).
When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever (2)
Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that that
temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. (2)
Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man. (3)
All my aunts and uncles talked it over with very grave, hesitant faces. (3)
I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer (4)
You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy, I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. Cant you talk about crops
or something? (13)
To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing--my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police
(16)
We heard you were engaged to a girl out West. Its a libel. Im too poor. (20)
I was alone again in the unquiet darkness (22)
I have been drunk just twice in my life (29)
I took dinner usually at the Yale Club--for some reason it was the gloomiest event of my day (57)
I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others wasting the most poignant moments of night and life (57)
Id been writing letters once a week and signing them: Love, Nick (59)
I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known (60)
Her wan, scornful mouth smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face (81)
I realize now that under difference circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life (83)
I wouldnt ask too much of her, I ventured. You cant repeat the past (111)
Thats my Middle West--... I am part of that, a little solemn a little complacent (177)

JAY talking
Jays first line in the book: Your face is familiar. Werent you in the Third Division during the war? (47)
Im Gatsby Im afraid Im not a very good host (48)
whats your opinion of me, anyhow? (65)
I dont want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear (65)
Then came the war I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life. (66)

Im didnt want you to think I was just some nobody. You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there
trying to forget the sad thing that happened to me (67)
I thought that if you dont make very much this would interest you (83)
Five years next November (88)
This is a terrible mistake, ...a terrible, terrible mistake (88)
I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But Im not in either one now (91)
Cant repeat the past? he cried incredulously. Why of course you can! (111)
She stood it pretty well. He spoke as if Daisys reaction was the only thing that mattered. (144)

OTHERS talking ABOUT JAY

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to
the promises of life (2) (Nick)
it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I
shall ever find again (2) (Nick)
he stretched his arms toward the dark water in a curious way I could have sworn he was trembling (21) (Nick)
Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once (44) (party guest)
It (Jays smile) understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and
assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey (48) (Nick)
He looked at me sideways--and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. (65) (Nick)
Fine fellow, isnt he? Handsome to look at and a perfect gentleman (72) (Wolfsheim)
He knew women early, and since they spoiled him he became contemptuous of them, of young virgins because they were ignorant, of
the others because they were hysterical about things which in his overwhelming self-absorption he took for granted (99)
Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger? (109) (Tom)
Well, he certainly must have strained himself to get this menagerie together (109) (Tom)
An Oxford man! Like hell he is! (122) (Tom)
He had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man, but he had a lot of brain power here. (169) (Henry)
If hed of lived, hed of been a great man. ...Hed of helped build up the country (169) (Henry)
Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what hes got about improving his
mind? He was always great for that. (175) (Henry)
That poor son-of-a-bitch (176) (Owl Eyes)
That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisys, but he was a tough one (180)

DAISY
Ive heard it said that Daisys murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming
(9)
I hate that word hulking, objected Tom crossly, even in kidding. Hulking, insisted Daisy. (12)
Weve got to beat them down, whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent sun. (13)
Tom and Daisy were back at the table. It couldnt be helped! cried Daisy with tense gayety (16)
You didnt come to my wedding. (17)
I hope shell be a fool--thats the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool (17)
You see I think everythings terrible anyhow I
know
. Sophisticated--God, Im sophisticated! (18)
in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished
secret society to which she and Tom belonged (18)
It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms--but apparently there were no such intentions
in her head (20-1)
She was effectually prevented, but she wasnt on speaking terms with her family for several weeks (76)
Never had a drink before, but oh how I do enjoy it (77)
We gave her spirits of ammonia and put ice on her forehead and hooked her back in her dress, and half an hour later, when we walked
out of the room, the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over. Next day at five oclock she married Tom Buchanan (78)
Its a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people (78)
Theyre such beautiful shirts, she sobbed (93)
Then he (Gatsby) kissed her. At his lips touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete (112)
she got up and went over to Gatsby and pulled his face down, kissing him on the mouth. I dont care! cried Daisy (116)
Her voice is full of money (120)
Youre revolting, said Daisy. She turned to me Do you know why we left Chicago? (132)
I cant say I never loved Tom, she admitted in a pitiful voice. It wouldnt be true (133)
He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didnt realize just how extraordinary a nice girl could be. She vanished into her rich
house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby--nothing. He felt married to her, that was all. (149)
Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and
of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor (150)

TOM

His family were enormously wealthy--even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach--but now hed left Chicago
and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away (6)
Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively
forward (7)
You did it, Tom, she said accusingly. I know you didnt mean to, but you
did
do it. (12)
I hate that word hulking, objected Tom crossly, even in kidding. Hulking, insisted Daisy. (12)
Its up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things (13)
Toms got some woman in New York (15)
Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart
(21)
Its a bitch, said Tom decisively. Heres your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it (28)
Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand (37)
A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night, and ripped the front wheel off his car (78)
Id rather not be the polo player, said Tom pleasantly, Id rather look at all these famous people in--in oblivion (106)
I read somewhere that the suns getting hotter every year (118)
There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic (125)
I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife (130)
Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time (132)
Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry? There was a husky tenderness in his tone. Daisy?
(133)
That yellow car I was driving this afternoon wasnt mine (141)
The God damned coward! he whimpered. He didnt even stop his car (142)
Whats the matter, Nick? Do you object to shaking hands with me? (179)
I told him the truth, he said. He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave His hand was on a revolver (180)
I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and
Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was thatt
kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (180-1)

JORDAN
She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing
something on it which was quite likely to fall (8)
Miss Baker leaned forward unashamed, trying to hear. Dont talk. I want to hear what happens (15)
Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old (19)

Lets get out, whispered Jordan. this is much too polite for me (45)
Anyhow, he gives large parties, said Jordan, changing the subject with an urban distaste for the concrete (49)
She had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round (58)
Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plan where any
divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasnt able to endure being at a disadvantage
and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young (58-9)
It takes two to make an accident (59)
What? Confused, he (Tom) stared at us as we laughed. (122)
Jordan unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age (136)
Its only half past nine, she said. (143)
You werent so nice to me last night (155)
I saw Jordan Baker and talked over and around what had happened to us together, and what had happened afterward to me, and she lay
perfectly still, listening, in a big chair. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man
(178)
Nevertheless, you did throw me over I dont give a damn about you now, but it was a new experience for me, and I felt a little dizzy
for a while (179)
I met another bad driver, didnt 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. (179)

CATHERINE
She came in with such a proprietary haste, and looked around so possessively at the furniture that I wondered if she lived here (30)
Im scared of him (Gatsby). Id hate to have him get anything on me (33)
You see Its really his wife thats keeping them apart. Shes a Catholic, and they dont believe in divorce (34)
Toms the first sweetie she ever had (35)

MYRTLE
She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time, Dont you think? (16)
She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye (25)
Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew
smaller around her (31)
Its just a crazy old thing I just slip it on sometimes when I dont care what I look like (31)

I told that boy about the ice. Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. These people! You have to
keep after them all the time. (32)
The only
crazy
I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake (35)
I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didnt hardly know I wasnt getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking
about, over and over, was You cant live forever; you cant live forever. (36)
Her expression was curiously familiar--it was an expression I had often seen on womens faces I realized that her eyes, were fixed
on whom she took to be his wife (125)
Beat me! ...Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward! (138)
I found it yesterday afternoon. ...She had it wrapped in tissue paper (158)

GEORGE
Oh sure, agreed Wilson hurriedly, and went toward the office walls, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls (26)
He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. Hes so dumb he doesnt know hes alive (26)
I married him because I thought he was a gentleman, she said finally. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasnt fit
to lick my shoe (35)
I just got wised up to something funny the last two days Thats why I want to get away (124)
Ive got my wife locked in up there, explained Wilson calmly. Shes going to stay up there till the day after to-morrow, and then
were going to move away (137)
Wilson had never seemed faintly capable of such a statement (137)
Ever have any children? ...Have you got a church you go to sometimes, George? Maybe you got a friend that I could telephone for,
George? (157-9)
He murdered her (159)
I said, God knows what youve been doing, everything that youve been doing. You may fool me, but you cant fool God! God
sees everything, repeated Wilson. Thats an advertisement, Michaelis assured him. (160)
the gardener saw Wilsons body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete (163)

WOLFSHEIM
Finest specimens of human molars, he informed me. (73)
Who is he, anyhow, an actor? Wolfsheim? No hes a gambler. Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly, Hes the man who fixed the
Worlds Series back in 1919. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people--with the
single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe (74)
Why isnt he in jail? They cant get him, old sport. Hes a smart man (74)

Walter could have you up on the betting laws too, but Wolfsheim scared him into shutting his mouth (135)
The chauffeur--he was one of Wolfsheims proteges--heard the shots--afterward he could only say that he hadnt thought anything
much about them (162)
neither a wire nor Mr. Wolfsheim arrived (166)
Start him! I made him. ...I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter. ...I knew I could use him good. (172)
I cant get mixed up in it (173)
Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead, he suggested. After that my own rule is to let
everything alone (173)