ABSTRACT
While conversing privately with Nick in chapter four of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby makes an offer to clear up some of the stories which, as Nick has already discovered, were being spread concerning Gatsby’s rise to fortune. “I don’t want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear,” he tells Nick. Gatsby then, in an effort to provide tangible evidence of his history, proceeds to empty his pockets with “souvenirs” that he conveniently has on hand. One of these objects is “a photograph of half a dozen young men in blazers loafing in an archway through which were visible a host of spires” (53). As Nick studies the photograph, he discerns that standing among the gentlemen is “Gatsby, looking a little, not much, younger-with a cricket bat in his hand” (53). This photograph, following on the heels of Gatsby’s stories and shining medals, opens Nick’s eyes and is that which convinces him, at least according to our knowledge as reader, that he believes that Gatsby’s story of himself “was all true.”
