The Great Gatsby, Chapter 6:

1. When does James Gatz change his name? Why?

The name change from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby occurred in the seventeenth year of his

life, when he first met Dan Cody, a millionaire copper magnate. In his mind, Gatsby felt

that the purposeful re-creation of the self was a means to escape from the clutches of

poverty and amount to the excesses of wealth and worth. He thought it was time to put on

this show for the sake of a consumption-oriented lifestyle. With this identity, he could

distance himself from his poor upbringing and thus live within the realm of the American

Dream. The name change announced the beginning of the life he was trying to make for

himself.

2. What is Daisy’s real response to the party, according to Nick?

Nick asserts that Daisy does not really enjoy the extravagant party thrown by Gatsby. At

first entertained, she grows increasingly overwhelmed and sickened by the experience.

The very opulence, riotous gaiety, and absence of refinement are repugnant to a girl of

her sophisticated, aristocratic breeding. Gatsby hopes that Daisy will appreciate his

wealth and standing, but Daisy, instead, finds the party crass, tawdry, and perhaps vulgar.

This disillusionment represents a fracture in Gatsby's dream to recapture their former

affair because Daisy is not truly enamored of his world.

3. What does Gatsby tell Nick he wants Daisy to do?

Gatsby tells Nick to tell Daisy to say to Tom that she has never loved him. He believes

that if Daisy can erase the past with Tom, they can revive the love which was theirs

before she married. They would somehow pick up the pieces of the perfect future in

which she leaves Tom, rekindles their romance, and lives with him as if the years in
 between had not happened. His wish, however, is more an illustration of his latent

obsession with recapturing the past than it is with any realization of the unwelcome

changes that time and circumstance have imposed on their relationship.

4. Plato held that reality was an imperfect reflection of an ideal, permanent realm.

With this in mind, what would you say Nick means when he says that “Jay Gatsby

sprang from his Platonic conception of himself”?

Nick’s remark refers to Gatsby’s construction of an idealized version of himself, removed

from the real story of his origins. Just as Plato would have asserted that the world of

appearances is a mere reflection of a greater reality, Gatsby considers his past to be only

an imperfect imitation of what he truly aspires to. His remodeling as Jay Gatsby aims to

make his existence conform with this imagined, untainted self. The work of the novel

makes it abundantly clear that this is a dream that cannot be realized, that the identity he

constructed for himself is an identity built on illusion rather than reality.

5. How is the comparison of Gatsby with Christ (“he was a son of G-d... and he must

be about His Father’s Business”) ironic? If the comparison with Christ were to

continue through the book, what would happen to Gatsby?

There is a certain irony present because Gatsby's mission is not for spiritual salvation,

whereas, in fact, Christ's salvage mission identifies spiritual salvation. While Christ's

mission is altruistic, Gatsby's mission pertains to personal gratification, especially in

winning Daisy. If we were to extend the comparison with Christ, Gatsby would be an

existential martyr. Ultimately, this man dies for his ideals, to the point of being

considered a tragic character unable to flee his doom.

to dinner with them. What does Gatsby’s response tell us about his social

sensitivity? What connection, if any, do you think this scene might have with

Gatsby’s love of Daisy?

Gatsby's willingness to accept was the surest sign of his lack of social awareness. He does

not see that the invitation was not meant to be taken seriously and that Tom and his rich

guests regard him as an outsider. This further showcases Gatsby's more general lack of

comprehension concerning the ways of the old-money class: He thinks money can buy

acceptance, but his social class and lineage keep him from merit in their eyes. It relates to

Daisy, for his thinking is that once he has made enough money, he could be worthy of

her; he completely fails to see that she is tied to an aristocratic world he could never truly

enter.

7. What is Gatsby’s view of the past? When Nick says that Gatsby “wanted to recover

something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy,” what do

you think he means?

Gatsby sees the past as something that can be recreated. By reuniting with Daisy, he

thinks, he can not only recreate their momentary love but also recreate the identity he

possessed when they first met. Nick's narration implies that longing for Daisy is really a

longing for the lost selfhood-filled with hope, ambition, and innocence-that is somehow

tied up with Daisy. Thus, for Gatsby, the pursuit of Daisy goes beyond love and becomes

a quest for his golden memory-time that he ever refuses to accept as permanently lost.

8. At the end of the chapter, Nick describes Gatsby kissing Daisy in Louisville five

years before. What is Gatsby giving up when he kisses her? Why?

Until that moment, his vision of Daisy has remained that of an ideal, an unattainable

presence of perfection that had egged him on. By kissing Daisy, Gatsby commits himself

to a reality forever less than that of his dream. In this moment, Gatsby ties himself to the

past, forever conditioning his future upon a moment that has slipped by and a memory

that is all but romanticized. For, in the end, his kiss is both a moment of victory and loss,

a moment when his dream becomes notably real but is doomed ever after to

disappointment.