CHAPTER IV

Chapter four opens with Nick attending another of Gatsby's parties. Nick uses this as a starting point and begins recounting some notes he claims to have taken, listing some of the more notable people he encountered that summer. Nick observes some drunken women on Gatsby's lawn discussing Gatsby's mysterious identity, which includes all the usual rumours. Nick then lists a slew (lot/plenty) of the prominent (big/large/superior) guests who attended Gatsby's parties that summer, none of whom knew anything about their host. His point is to prove that Gatsby's party attract the most notable people of the time. He also describes one man, Klipspringer, who never seems to leaves Gatsby's parties and has come to be known as the "boarder," which suggests he is living in the Gatsby's mansion.

Nick then describes accompanying Gatsby on a trip into the city for lunch. One morning Gatsby goes to Nick's house and tells him they are having lunch together in New York. Nick agrees and the two drive into the city in Gatsby's monstrous cream-colored car. While he drives, Gatsby tells Nick about his past. Gatsby claims to be the son of wealthy parents from the "Midwest" town of San Francisco, to have graduated from Oxford, a very prestigious British college, and that after he toured Europe, been a noted jewel collector in Europe and a decorated hero in the war. He says he served in the military during WWI, where he was promoted quickly to a major. He claims to have dealt in jewels and to have had many adventures. Nick considers it almost laughable how far-fetched Gatsby's story is, but Gatsby produces a medal he was awarded for valor (heroism) and picture of himself at Oxford, which, momentarily (momently or instantly) quells (fulfil/meet/satisfy) Nick's doubts. Gatsby pays little attention to the speed limit, and a policeman pulls him over. Gatsby shows the officer a little card. The officer apologizes and lets him go.

For lunch when they get to the city they meet Gatsby's friend and a business partner named Meyer Wolfsheim. Wolfshiem is an unsavoury (offensive/nasty/unpleasent) character whose cufflinks (Jewellery consisting of one of a pair of linked buttons used to fasten the cuffs of a shirt) are real human teeth. Wolfsheim tells Nick that Gatsby is a man of "fine breeding" who would "never so much as look at a friend's wife." Gatsby reveals that it is rumoured that Wolfshiem "fixed" the 1919 World Series, meaning he paid players on one team to lose the game. Woflshiem is also linked to organize crime, which provides Nick with more information about the source of Gatsby's wealth. Gatsby also tells Nick that he has a favour to ask, but that Jordan will tell him about it. Nick begins to think Gatsby's might be involved in organized crime.

On the way out of the restaurant, Nick sees Tom Buchanan and introduces him to Gatsby. Gatsby appears embarrassed and leaves the scene without saying goodbye. After lunch, Nick meets Jordan at the Plaza Hotel. She tells him the "amazing thing" that Gatsby had told her earlier: as a young man, Gatsby had a passionate romance with Daisy Fay, who is now Daisy Buchanan. During the war, when Daisy was not yet twenty, Gatsby met her while he was stationed in Louisville and the two of them fell in love. Her family prevented Daisy from leaving and marrying Gatsby, and one year later she married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man from Chicago who gave her a string of pearls worth thousands of dollars ($350,000) and a three-month honeymoon to the South Seas. On the day Daisy married Tom, she received a letter from Gatsby and almost called the whole thing off. Ultimately, she destroyed the letter, and married Tom, who was never faithful to her.

Jordan finishes the story later in Central Park. She says Gatsby never fell out of love with Daisy and bought his giant mansion in West Egg to be across the bay from her. He had hoped that the magnificent house would impress her and win back her love. Nick realizes that the green light he saw Gatsby gazing at sits at the end of Daisy's dock. Gatsby, Nick discovers, bought his large house to be close to Daisy and threw his lavish parties hoping she'd attend. Seeing that she was not likely to attend, Gatsby asked Jordan to ask Nick to invite Daisy to tea and arrange a meeting. Nick agrees to do so.