All three of the major incidents in this chapter—Gatsby’s disclosure in the car, the meeting with Wolfshiem, and Jordan’s story about Daisy’s soldier—all serve one common purpose: they all give a better understanding of Jay Gatsby’s past and, in turn, his present. Gatsby, as if aware of the rumors flying about him, attempts to set the record straight, but doesn’t touch on every aspect of his past, only what he wishes Nick to know. Later chapters will give more and more information, even after his death.
The opening paragraphs of the chapter read much like a Who’s Who of 1922. Nick expands upon an idea brought out in the prior chapter: Gatsby’s party guests. Nick recounts dozens and dozens of names, all of them supposedly recognizable. Clearly, everyone who was anyone wanted to be seen at Gatsby’s lavish gatherings. Some of the people came from East Egg (they are distinguished by their aristocratic-sounding names: the Endives, the Stonewall Jacksons, the Fishguards, and the Ripley Snells), while others came from West Egg (sporting more ethnic-sounding names such as Pole, Mulready, Schoen, Gulick, Cohen, Schwartze, and McCarty. Fitzgerald’s use of names here brings out the notion that East Egg is symbolic of the established social order (the old money) while West Egg is home to the newcomers, people who may have equal wealth, but haven’t had it nearly as long. It is curious that Nick recounts the names off notes he took on a timetable dated July 5, 1922, the day after Independence day, as if to indicate these people have somehow only just arrived and are enjoying the benefits of independence that they didn’t even fight for.
After the conspicuous cataloguing of Gatsby’s guests, Nick recounts another of his adventures—this time one that changes the course of his life forever. Gatsby, arriving at Nick’s house for the first time, informs him that because they will be having lunch together, they may as well ride together. The real reason for Gatsby’s visit, however, is to talk to Nick alone, and so the two men head to the city driving Gatsby’s car—so big and excessive as to border on being gaudy. (How ironic it is that a car, a massive symbol of the American dream and here an outward manifestation of Gatsby’s wealth, will ultimately lead to his undoing.)
When the two men leave for town Nick, by his own disclosure, has little real knowledge of Gatsby, having “talked with him perhaps half a dozen times in the past month.” All that soon changes, however, as Gatsby unfolds his story. The discussion is particularly important because it gives the first strong indication that Gatsby isn’t quite what he presents himself to be. Up to now, there has been mystery and speculation, but Fitzgerald hasn’t revealed enough of Gatsby to allow readers to figure him out. Gatsby tells Nick, “God’s truth,” that he comes from wealthy people in the Middle West and was “educated at Oxford.” Gatsby’s inability to deliver that phrase without difficulty alerts Nick that something may be amiss. When Nick questions him as to where in the Middle West he hails from, readers get their first clear indication that Gatsby is recounting an elaborate lie—“San Francisco” is hardly the Middle West, and Nick knows it. Sadly, Gatsby isn’t even a good liar and he continues to tell his story, as if telling it will make it so. Fitzgerald later reveals that nearly everything (perhaps everything) he tells Nick during this ride, the candid self-disclosures he freely offers so that Nick doesn’t get “a wrong idea” of him from the stories floating around, are themselves fictions created by Gatsby as part of his plan to reinvent himself. In fact, the past that Gatsby describes reads like an adventure tale, a romance in which the hero “lived like a young rajah,” looking for treasures, dabbling in everything from the fine arts to big game hunting. Gatsby’s past is highly unbelievable—a point not lost on Nick. When Gatsby informs Nick that his “family all died and [he] came into a good deal of money,” it is wishful thinking at best, and Chapters 7 and 9 disclose that Gatsby’s money came from a very different place.
As the two men head to the city, they pass through the valley of ashes, moving from a desolate gray world of dead-end dreams to the city, the place where anything at all can happen. When Gatsby is stopped for speeding, Gatsby need merely to wave a card before the officer and he is let go with a polite “Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!” Apparently Gatsby once did a favor for the commissioner and receives his eternal thanks. Although Gatsby has just fed Nick an elaborate series of lies, this is the first piece that may well be true. Gatsby, through a business associate whom they are on their way to see, may likely have done a favor for the commissioner—and it is likely to have been something of a questionable nature.
The luncheon with Gatsby is not remarkable, save for the character who is introduced: Meyer Wolfshiem, a notorious gambler who is rumored to have rigged the 1919 World Series, an unprecedented scandal that degraded America’s Game. Mr. Wolfshiem, a business associate of Jay Gatsby, is everything his name suggests: He is a perfect combination of human and animal. He is wolf-like in his ways, and no where do we get better evidence of this than by the human molar cufflinks he sports proudly. Although Nick has begun to like Gatsby and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, Gatsby’s taste in business connections is not at all what a man who comes from the background Gatsby has just recounted would make. Wolfshiem is Gatsby’s connection (or gonnection, as Wolfshiem would say) to the world of organized crime. Wolfshiem, as is later made known, has been instrumental in Gatsby’s ability to accumulate wealth. Theirs is a partnership in which Gatsby feels some sort of indebtedness to Wolfshiem—although they are partners on some levels, they are not at all equals.
