Great Gatsby Ch 6

1.       Chapter 6

Pages 97-111

2.       A reporter shows up at Gatsby’s house asking him if he had anything to say.  Gatsby gives him a brief summary of his life and how his name came to be Gatsby from James Gats from North Dakota, not San Francisco as he earlier claimed. He also talks about how he met Dan Cody, the man in the huge picture in his room. Cody took Gatsby under his wing and employed him on his ship while they went on journeys around the world together, he was with Cody for 5 years until Dan inhospitably died and Gatsby received none of his money.  Later on, Tom Buchanan, a man named Mr. Sloane, and a pretty woman show up at Gatsby’s house.  Gatsby informs Tom that he knows Daisy and Tom is startled by that so they invite him to dinner, but leave before he is ready.  Tom and Daisy show up at Gatsby’s party the next weekend but they did not have the best time.  Gatsby Talks to Nick about how his quest to get Daisy is because he wants to recapture that feeling he had with her 5 years ago and he is willing to do anything to get that back. 

3.       A) Dan Cody

B) “Cody was fifty years old then, a product of the Nevada silver fields, of the Yukon, of every rush for metal since seventy-five. The transactions in Montana copper that made him many times a millionaire found him physically robust but on the verge of soft-mindedness, and, suspecting this, an infinite number of women tried to separate him from his money.”

C) Cody seems like a man with a very good work ethic but once he got his money, he just kicked his feet up on his ship and traveled around. He was well liked by the ladies for his money but he didn’t let them get between him and his prized possession, the green paper.  He was very kind to Gatsby and tried hard to make him as successful as possible but he was an alcoholic and he was not always at the top of his game. 

D) Cody seems to be a very important character in the novel, even though he is dead. He is the one that inspired Gatsby to be who he is today and he is the one that encouraged Gatsby to always go for it to make his dreams of being rich and like Dan Cody come true.  Gatsby learned a lot from Cody, how to be hardworking and driven towards his goals and Gatsby does not drink probably because he saw firsthand of the affects it had on Cody. 

4.       “You can’t repeat the past”

Nick is talking to Gatsby about capturing that feeling he had with Daisy 5 years ago and he is telling Gatsby that you cannot change something that has already been done.  Gatsby thinks that he can easily buy his way back into Daisy’s heart but he has to do better than that and think of a new way to win her back because she already has money, she needs a man she can love and trust.