Gatsby Passage

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It 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. Precisely at that point it vanished - and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care." (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 3, pages 52-53)


This passage, from chapter 3, is when Nick meets Gatsby for the first time. Nick is at Gatsby’s party with Jordan Baker and he strikes up a conversation with a man that he has no clue is Gatsby. This passage is Nick’s first impression of Gatsby. I think this passage sums up Gatsby’s overall character – or his fake personality. This gives you the impression that Gatsby is very charming and one of a kind but there’s something behind him or he is hiding something. Nick explains that Gatsby has a smile that you may only come across four of five times in life, which is a pretty significant quality for a person to have. But as we read on through the book, is this a fake smile that has been practised to the point of perfection? I think that we all realize that this is just a show Gatsby is putting on to eventually impress Daisy. This passage is important because at the end, Nick foreshadows that Gatsby picks his words – and essentially everything else – with care.