Weather and Symbols Chapter 4-6

Valerie Triolo
Ch. 4 (74)
Jordan says that when Daisy was 18, she used to dress in white and had a little
white roadster, but the color white is mentioned many more times in this chapter.
The color white represents purity and innocence in the novel. With this quote Jordan
is able to reveal the significance that age when Daisy was very pure and innocent
compared to what she has turned into. Now, she is lost in her simple life and hollow
like the rest of the rich.
Ch. 5 (83-89)
The day agreed upon was pouring rain. At eleven oclock a man in a raincoat
dragging a lawn-mower tapped at my front door and said that Mr. Gatsby had sent
him over to cut my grass.
The rain before Gatsby sees Daisy again is symbolic of the release of emotions, the
outpour of them, this is what Gatsby feels and expects Daisy to feel, but the
date/reunion is awkward, a bit anticlimactic.
Ch. 5 (93)
You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock-- Gatsby
was staring at the green light and dreaming about their future.
When Gatsby notices the green light with Daisy there in the chapter, it representing
that Gatsbys dream has come true, just as Gatsby said that the colossal
significance of that light had now vanished forever. The green light represented the
wanting of Gatsby he had for Daisy, but now he has her and that symbol no longer
has the same rendition.
Ch. 6 (99)
Come here quick! cried Daisy at the window. The rain was still falling, but the
darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy
clouds above the sea. Look at that, she whispered, and then after a moment: Id
like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.
We see the inclination of hope and reunion of their shining love, showing the bright
future as opposed to their dark, rainy, weary, and emotional pasts each of them had
seen. It also symbolizes the brightness that Daisy brings to the story. Whenever she
is around, the weather always seems to be bright and joyful.

Chapter 6 Study Guide Questions

1. Chapter 6 gives the reader an insight of how Gatsby became wealthy and
more importantly, details of his past.
2. People born into poverty eventually find wealth, like Gatsby claims he did.
3. Gatsby sees himself as a son of God; he holds himself to high self-esteem and
his journey to get Daisy to noble, just as "His Father's business" would be.
Gatsby also throws these extravagant parties, expecting for people to see
him as almighty, like a "song of God."
4. The biblical allusion serves to establish that Gatsbyat least in his own selfperceptionis a deity. Gatsby believes that he is destined for greater things
than being a poor North Dakota farmer.
5. If he is old fashioned and is not interested in free-wheeling women, that must
be the answer of why he's in the background for most of the book and not
one of the active participants in the movement of the plot.
6. Gatsby expects Daisy to fall madly in love with him and confess to Tom that
she never loved him. He expects they can go back in time five years and
erase all that has happened. Although Gatsby thinks these expectations are
realistic, Nick tries to point out to him that they are not. Daisy is a married
woman who enjoys the kind of life that Tom has provided her with and can
continue to provide her with.
7. Earlier in this same chapter, Nick compares the transformation from James
Gatz to Jay Gatsby and says that Gatsby was a Son of God, a selfproclaimed deity. He is, in a sense, the creator and controller of his Self. Once
he kisses Daisy, however, he will pass that control over to her