Chapter 6 Pages 103-118

Summary: A reporter shows up at Gatsby’s door asking for a statement. When Gatsby was younger his name was James Gatz and he met Dan Cody on his yacht. One day Tom, Mr. Sloane, and a pretty woman were all at Gatsby’s house having a drink, so Gatsby invites them all over to his next party. Tom shows up to the next party and brings Daisy along because he thinks that she has too much freedom. Tom does not like Gatsby and wants to find out more about him and how he knows his wife, and Daisy does not like the party, East Egg, or the new money ways.

Character: Dan Cody

            “…a grey, florid man with a hard empty face—the pioneer debauchee who during one phase of American life brought back to the eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon” (Fitzgerald 106).

            Dan Cody is a very rich man because of the silver mines in Nevada. He owns a huge yacht and floats around the Great Lakes. He is soft-minded and has women crawling all over him all the time. He befriends James Gatz quite quickly and brings him onto his yacht and buys him new clothes. Cody is a rich man who does whatever he wants. He tries to help people, but just wants to live his life.

            Dan Cody was brought up in the last chapter. He was in a picture frame in Gatsby’s house. Gatsby had worked on Cody’s yacht for about five years and they had become really good friends. Cody drank a lot, and this is one of the reasons that Gatsby doesn’t drink. One day a reporter names Ella Kaye comes onto the yacht and within the next week Cody ends up dying. Cody left money for Gatsby, but he never got any of it. Ella somehow kept him out of all the money legally, but the legacy of him receiving still goes around.

Quote: “He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…” (Fitzgerald 117) Gatsby lives in the past. He remembers that Daisy used to love him, and that is all he cares about. Now that things have changed he is going to try and make it all the same again. Gatsby thinks if he makes everything the way it used to be back then, then she will love him again. He is madly in love with Daisy and will do anything to win her back.