Journal Entry #5

Chapter 5: Pages 81-96


Chapter Summary:
After his date with Jordan, Nick returns home to find Gatsby’s mansion extremely lit up with no one inside. Gatsby approaches him eagerly and offers to take Nick out to Coney Island or to go swimming in his pool, hoping that Nick will invite Daisy over for tea. When Nick tells Gatsby that he will ask her, Gatsby offers him a job in one of his side businesses, not including Wolfsheim. On the day that Daisy is expected at Nick’s, Gatsby shows up in the rain extremely nervous and when Daisy arrives, Nick finds that Gatsby has left and gone for a walk around the house in the rain. At first, Daisy and Gatsby are awkward around each other, but after a while of being left alone, Nick returns to find Daisy in turns and Gatsby glowing. Gatsby takes Nick and Daisy to his house for a tour and Gatsby calls in Klipspringer, the boarder, to play the piano for them. As he watches Gatsby and Daisy talk to each other, Nick feels as if their relationship is back to the way it was in Louisville, and then he decides to leave them alone because it seems as if they have forgotten he was in the same room.


Character:
Mr. Klipspringer


Most Defining Quote:
“I was asleep. That is, I’d been asleep. Then I got up…” (Klipspringer 94)


Characteristics:
Mr. Klipspringer, the boarder, is a disheveled lazy man who lives at Gatsby’s house. He has nowhere to go and spends his time doing liver stretches on Gatsby’s bathroom floor.


Role in the Book:
As seen in Chapter 4, Klipspringer only comes up when the reader is meant to see Gatsby darker qualities. When Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick over for a tour of his house, Gatsby commands Klipspringer to play to piano for Gatsby’s company despite Klipspringer’s pleas that he is no good at playing. (94)


Quote:
“Don’t talk so much, old sport, play!”


This quote is significant because I feel like it shook up my view of Gatsby as I read it. Throughout chapters 1-4, Gatsby seems to be a quiet man in love, with too much money and free time. In chapter 5, the reader sees that he is quite bossy, ostentatious, and more like the other unpleasant characters than previously thought. This quote, in which he is ordering Klipspringer to play the piano for his guests, really rounded out my opinion on the kind of man Gatsby is.