The Great Gatsby: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Nick observes some drunken women on Gatsby's lawn discussing Gatsby's mysterious identity, which includes all the usual rumors. Nick then lists a slew of the prominent guests who attended Gatsby's parties that summer, none of whom knew anything about their host.

Nick then describes accompanying Gatsby on a trip into the city for lunch. They ride to 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, been a noted jewel collector in Europe and a decorated hero in the war. He even shows Nick a war medal, and then tells Nick to expect to hear a very sad story about him later in the afternoon.

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 they meet a business partner of Gatsby's named Meyer Wolfsheim. Wolfsheim tells Nick that Gatsby is a man of "fine breeding" who would "never so much as look at a friend's wife." As for Wolfsheim, Gatsby tells Nick he's the man behind the fixing of the 1919 World Series. 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 $350,000 and a three-month honeymoon to the South Seas.

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. Finally, Jordan adds that Gatsby has requested that Nick invite Daisy over to his house for tea. Then Gatsby will show up so that Daisy will have to see him, even if, as Gatsby fears, she doesn't want to.