The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8: chapter 4

Chapter four is when the reader finds out about Gatsby's love for Daisy. This explains many of the odd things Gatsby has done previously. For example, Gatsby bought his house to be right across the water from Daisy.  "'I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night.'"( Fitzgerald 79) This suggests that Daisy was the reason Gatsby threw the big parties. He wanted her to come but did not want to directly invite her; therefore, he allowed anyone to come to his parties.

Though I understand Gatsby's reason for not contacting Daisy directly, I think his actions are childish. He was too afraid of rejection and couldn't work up the courage to just invite her over to his house. That is why he ended up asking Nick to invite both Daisy and himself to tea. Gatsby wanted to see her to gage how she felt about him without any risk of her rejecting him. When I read Gatsby's proposal to Nick It made me think of middle school when people would ask their friends to find out if their crush liked them back. This is why the whole thing seemed childish to me.