Chapter III Study Guide

  1. Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—and every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.

Explain the historical/social significance of this description. Why is the era in which the novel was written important here? Is there any evidence in the chapter that Gatsby’s benefits from the bursting “modern” technology of the Twenties or that he is breaking one of the platform policies successfully implemented by the Progressives?

  1. Explain the line: “Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word.”
  1. Why is the cocktail table the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone?
  1. Is Jordan Baker glad to see Nick Carraway at the party? Compare her reaction to seeing Nick to her reaction to seeing the two girls in twin yellow dresses. What conclusions do you draw from the comparison?
  1. Give an example of some of the successful gestures of Gatsby in Chapter III that would lead Carraway to conclude that Gatsby possessed a gorgeous personality (which he said in Chapter 1).
  1. Explain the words uttered during the speculation about Gatsby’s past: “We all turned around and looked around for Gatsby. It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.” What does this tell us about the partygoers and about Gatsby?
  1. Explain: “Instead of rambling this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside—East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.” What are the characteristics of each Egg?
  1. What was the “violent innuendo of the persistent undergraduate who had accompanied Jordan Baker to the party? Why did he nod in a “cynical, melancholy way” when Jordan Baker left with Nick Carraway “to find the host”?
  1. Discuss Carraway’s comment after taking two finger bowls of champagne (each the size of large water goblets) that “the scene had changed before [his] eyes into something significant, elemental and profound.” Haven’t we heard this type of description before in Chapter II? Where? What does Carraway mean in this particular instance?
  1. Explain the paradoxical description of Nick’s first meeting with Gatsby. Why is it significant that he didn’t know who he was, then that he thought he possessed “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life,” then that he appeared to be “an elegant, young rough-neck”?
  1. The car accident as the partygoers are leaving, involving Owl Eyes, foreshadows a car accident that occurs later in the novel. What, if anything, is remarkable about the accident and/or its description?
  1. What is significant about the reason why Nick stops seeing the girl who lived in Jersey City? What are some of the similarities between his breaking off this affair and ones he has had in the past? What does this reveal about him? What does his fantasy about romantic relationships with women whom he sees walking on Fifth Avenue further reveal?
  1. Is Nick complacent with his bachelor status? Is he lonely? Is there anything missing from his life such as “gayety and sharing intimate excitement”? Explain. Does Nick seem like the other character in this chapter whom he says appears lonely?
  1. What does Jordan Baker’s “bored haughtiness” conceal? Why does she avoid clever, shrewd men? What does Nick mean when he says that “she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her jaunty body”? Why then does she go places with Nick? What does he mean when he says that “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply?” Does Jordan Baker think Nick is careless?
  1. Has Nick been dishonest at all thus far? He says that “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” What is ironic about this statement? And do you feel it is true?