Close Passage Analysis Chapter 5 and 6

The passage that I analyzed was:

"But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" (105).

This passage is about who Gatsby really was before he became Jay Gatsby. This is what he dreamed his life would be like; one of "grotesque and fantastic conceits" (105). He wants to become rich and live in this society that is supposedly so great. He is against time and nature; "A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor" (105). The clock represents time and the moon light represents nature. The "universe of ineffable gaudiness" is society, so while Gatsby is thinking and dreaming of society he is against time and nature because society is a "turbulent riot" (105). Once he becomes part of this society though he no longer feels part of it. "He looked out the window at it, but judging from his expression I don't believe he saw a thing" (89). he is completely detached from the man he used to be. Society has "provided an outlet for his imagination" but it is not reality.

'The unreality of reality" is how Gatsby is living his life. He is not true to himself or the people around him. The possessions he owns are just things of substance; they do not actually mean anything to him. Daisy is the only person who wakes him up from this unreality, yet she too puts him into a haze. "Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs" (97). Gatsby has been living in this "unreality of reality" for so long that nothing can bring him to an actual reality. Daisy makes him re-evaluate his belongings and see that they are not actually real or important, but he is "dazed" when she is around. Therefore he is in so deep, that nothing can bring him out of the "universe of ineffable gaudiness"

Finally "a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" is very important. A fairy's wing is very thin and not strong, so why is the rock of the world founded on a fairy's wing? This shows the fragility of society and its members. The members live in constant fear of their worlds falling apart, because in reality nothing is real. As Nick says, "I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards  and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so" (110). They are all fooling themselves from the truth of what their lives are really like. Gatsby denies who he really is and West Egg denies that is a part of a whole. Because of this, "the rock of the world" is very fragile because nobody is in actual agreement and therefore it is on a fairy's wing.