“He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
O Jayovi Gatsbym kolujú rôzne chýry- je to nemecký vojnový špión a podľa toho, že možno veriť klebetám, má na rukách krv vraždy. Nikomu to však zjavne nevadí, kým Gatsby vedie bohatý spoločenský život- presnejšie povedané, on sa ho zúčastňuje ako nezištný pozorovateľ. Jeho sídlo je známe ako dokonalé miesto pre večierky s hudbou a zábavou pre bohatých ľudí, kde ani nepotrebujete pozvanie od pána domu, stačí jednoducho prísť.