The Great Gatsby Wealth Quotes Page 4

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Quote #10

A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. As we entered he wheeled excitedly around and examined Jordan from head to foot.

"What do you think?" he demanded impetuously.

"About what?"

He waved his hand toward the book-shelves.

"About that. As a matter of fact you needn't bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They're real."

"The books?"

He nodded.

"Absolutely real - have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they're absolutely real. Pages and - Here! Lemme show you."

Taking our scepticism for granted, he rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the "Stoddard Lectures."

"See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?"

He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on the shelf, muttering if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse. (3.41-51)

Although Gatsby can afford to purchase real books (which is a surprising and impressive feat in itself, according to Mr. Owl-eyes), he doesn’t ever actually open them. This reveals that Gatsby may have only bought the books for show; his library is stocked to impress others. A fully stocked library implies that the owner has had an extensive education, which also implies that he was born into old money. But, since Gatsby’s books are unread, it’s clear that Gatsby’s not educated, therefore not from old money. His uncut books might reveal him to be a phony. For more on Gatsby’s books and the owl-eyed man, see Symbols, Imagery, Allegory."

Quote #11

"Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919."

"Fixed the World’s Series?" I repeated.

The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought if it all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people – with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.

"How did he happen to do that?" I asked after a minute.

"He just saw the opportunity." (4.112-116)

Gatsby’s association with Meyer Wolfsheim shows us that he’s rolling with the bad boys. This is some seriously illegal stuff that Gatsby’s up to. That last line – "he just saw the opportunity" – could go for Gatsby as well as Wolfsheim. When Gatsby jumped aboard Dan Cody’s boat, he was taking advantage of a bit of luck that came his way in order to make as much money as possible. The similarity between these two men is not only that they both saw a certain opportunity in their lives, but also that both were ready and eager to take advantage of that opportunity.

Quote #12

I realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life. But, because the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no choice except to cut him off there.

"I’ve got my hands full," I said. "I’m much obliged but I couldn’t take on any more work." (5.26-27)

Nick doesn’t think about it at the time because, in a practical sense, he can’t take on any more work, but he also admits that making the temptation to partake in illegal business ventures for a huge payoff is a very difficult temptation to resist. We know Nick is an honest guy, so we can deduce that the promise of wealth is capable of corrupting anyone.

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