Throughout the novel, Gatsby’s dialogue and actions contribute to the overall impression of greatness in Gatsby. Most of these attributes are made visible to the reader by Gatsby’s obsession to being reunited with Daisy, his long lost love. Gatsby’s actions towards Nick also give the impression to the reader of the greatness in Gatsby.
The first impressions of Gatsby come at the beginning of the book through Nick, a newcomer to West Egg and his meeting with Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby welcomes him with open arms, showing that his personality is not consistent with the stereotype of rich people being uncaring toward people who are less wealthy. Gatsby’s parties were second to none anywhere. The novel describes the parties as being huge affairs with thousands of lights and hundreds of people, most of which were not invited to attend. Gatsby did not mind and let them stay anyway, and stayed inside his house the entire time by himself, not wanting to attract attention to himself. These parties and the attitude of Gatsby towards the parties shows how much Gatsby was committed for Daisy to come to his house, and how he feels towards guests each contribute greatly to the readers’ overall idea of Gatsby’s greatness towards others in the story. Gatsby makes several advances to help Nick, by inviting him to his party, cutting his grass for free, and to offer Nick a business proposition that probably would have been very lucrative for Nick. These offers to help Nick show the reader Gatsby’s greatness in respect in trying to help people that are less fortunate compared to him. In the dinner meeting between Gatsby and Nick, Nick meets a business associate of Gatsby, who describes himself as knowing Gatsby for many years. Nick learns, with the reader, that this associate rigged the World Series. This shows the greatness of Gatsby in the people he knows, and the people he associates with. When Nick finds Gatsby staring at the green light, the reader is displayed a different greatness of Gatsby, a greatness of despair and of a void in his life, a void that can only be filled with the love of Daisy.
