The Great Gatsby, Chapter 6, Pages 97 - 111

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The first half of chapter six confused me.  Fitzgerald spent several pages introducing and developing reporter James Gatz, but then moved abruptly to discussin Gatsby's time with Dan Cody in his younger years.  Gatz must play a prominent role later in the novel; otherwise, Fitzgerald wasted a lot of time creating and penning a meaningless character.  Moving past my confusion with Gatz, I found Gatsby's story aboard the Tuolomee to be a clever characterization tool.  Fitzgerald employs Dan Cody captaining the Tuolomee to depict Gatsby as a sober guardian and friend to Cody.  As the novel progresses, Fitzgerald constantly adds to Gatsby's image as a virtuous, caring, lovestruck jack of all trades.  Furthermore, I found Fitzgerald's transition out of the Tuolomee anecdote quite clever as well.  He implied that a certain Ella Kaye may have been responsible for the death of Dan Cody when he wrote, "Ella Kaye came on board one night in Boston and a week later Dan Cody inhospitably died" (Fitzgerald 100).  This implication did not strike me as ingenious, but rather Ella's name.  In fabricating her name, Fitzgerald utilized pig latin and then distorted it subtly to mask his device.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but Ella Kaye seems to bear close resemblance to Iller Kaye, which in pig latin means killer.  Coincidence or not, I enjoyed Fitzgerald's wit in making a flat, static character a little more interesting.