The photographer, Mr. McKee, has fallen asleep. Nick gently wipes some spit off the man's face because it's been bothering him all afternoon, and I'm completely serious about that. Meanwhile, Tom and Myrtle have begun arguing about whether or not Myrtle can say Daisy's name.
Nick has been trying to leave the apartment but something keeps him there. Finally after the scene with the broken nose, he takes the chance to leave with the drunken Mr. McKee. Apparently, he puts the drunk fellow to bed out of kindness.
This is at the very end of the novel. Of the late Gatsby, Tom says, “That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust in your eyes just like he did in Daisy's….” And that's why it matters that Nick is gay and in love with Gatsby: because Tom's assessment is spot-on, but Nick will never admit it.
McKee is pale and feminine, and Mrs. McKee is shrill. The group proceeds to drink excessively. Nick claims that he got drunk for only the second time in his life at this party.
There is no reason to include this scene if not to show that Nick has had some sort of sexual experience with Mr. McKee. Fitzgerald uses this scene to finalize what the reader should have already begun to suspect about Nick's sexuality: Nick is a closeted homosexual.
But here's what we think is going on: Nick realizes that chasing a future dream just ends up miring us in the past. All of our dreams are based on visions of our past self, like Gatsby who in the past believed that he would end up with Daisy and who believed in the American myth of the self-made man.
Nick is confused and disgusted since he began to see the reality of the delusion and corruption of ethics that they live in (the fact that Tom is openly cheating on his wife and how Jordan is acting like a little girl and gossiping). This suggests that he his high values that reflect honesty and fidelity and integrity.
McKee did not sleep together or even if Fitzgerald did not mean to imply as much, the fact that Mr. McKee and Nick are together in their underwear is not typical for two heterosexual men in the 1920s.
The McKees live downstairs at the apartment complex. What does Mr. McKee tell Nick about Gatsby? Gatsby is the nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm.
Myrtle invites several other characters to the apartment, a Mr. and Mrs. McKee, a new money couple from downstairs, and Myrtle's sister, Catherine.
First, Luhrmann made the curious decision to begin the story with Nick Carraway (our first-person narrator played by Tobey Maguire) writing in a patient's journal after ending up in a mental hospital due to “morbid alcoholism, fits of anger, insomnia.” According to Mike Hogan's (Executive Arts and Entertainment Editor ...
This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick's romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.
He sees both the extraordinary quality of hope that Gatsby possesses and his idealistic dream of loving Daisy in a perfect world. Though Nick recognizes Gatsby's flaws the first time he meets him, he cannot help but admire Gatsby's brilliant smile, his romantic idealization of Daisy, and his yearning for the future.
McKee chats with Nick and when she learns that he lives next to Gatsby, she says of Gatsby, “they say he's a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's.
Nick tries to leave Tom and Myrtle, but they insist he come up to their apartment very far uptown. The apartment is small, gaudily decorated, and uncomfortable. Tom brings out a bottle of whiskey. For the second time in his life (or so he claims), Nick gets drunk, so his memory of what happens next is somewhat hazy.
Nick's selectiveness makes him an unreliable narrator because he is selective with regard to the information that he includes in his account of the events.
The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 Complete Summary. Tom invites Nick on a train ride to New York City. There is a commuter train that takes people from the suburbs in and around Staten Island to the big city of New York. The train makes several short stops, one of which is in a place that Nick calls the Valley of Ashes.
The Great Gatsby
Scott Fitzgerald uses narrator Nick Carraway as a foil to the novel's protagonist, Jay Gatsby, and Jay's antagonist, Tom Buchanan.
Nick suddenly remembers the story he had read about her golfing career: Jordan was accused of cheating by moving her ball to a better lie, but the witnesses later recanted and nothing was proven.
There are witnesses to the incident, including the Wilsons' neighbour, Michaelis. Nick, Tom and Jordan, following in another vehicle, stop at the scene and learn of Myrtle's death.
Nick's relationship with Jordan in The Great Gatsby begins as infatuation on his part, moves into a romantic one, and ultimately falls apart when Nick sees flaws in Jordan that he cannot accept.
Nick and Jordan's relationship is unique in the novel—they're not having an affair, unlike Tom/Myrtle and Daisy/Gatsby, and they're not married, unlike Myrtle/George and Daisy/Tom.
The narrative switches back to Nick. Tom realises that it was Gatsby's car that struck and killed Myrtle. Back at Daisy and Tom's home, Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy was driving the car that killed Myrtle but he will take the blame.
Nick mistakes Gatsby for another guest, telling the stranger that “this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation,” but that he “hasn't even seen the host” yet.