What contradictions are present in chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby?

In chapter 3, the guests at Gatsby’s party speculate as to who they think Gatsby might be. He is a mysterious character, and nobody really seems to know much about him at all. Everyone seems to have a different story, and the mystery is only compounded when these stories contradict one another. For example, one of his guests asserts that Gatsby “grew up . . . in Germany,” whereas another insists, “it couldn’t be . . . because he was in the American army during the war.”

There are other contradictions in this chapter within Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the guests at the party. He describes, for example, the “happy vacuous bursts of laughter” of the guests. It can’t be that laughter is at once genuinely happy and also vacuous, but this contradiction alludes to the superficial character of Gatsby’s guests. Earlier in the chapter, Nick observes that these guests are “agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity.” They are at Gatsby’s party for the connections they suppose they can make. Their laughter is not genuine,; it is calculated to impress.

Toward the end of the chapter, Nick describes Gatsby as having a “familiar expression [which] held no more familiarity than the hand which reassuringly brushed [his] shoulder.” The contradiction here, between the ostensible familiarity and the implicit distance, highlights an intriguing contradiction in Gatsby’s character. His outward familiarity, friendliness, and charm always seem a rather shallow, unconvincing disguise for something more troubled and distracted beneath.

What contradictions are present in chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby?

Gatsby, though the host of the grand party, does not mingle with his guests.  In fact, his guests don't even know him.  They're strangers: they circulate all kinds of rumors about him.

Owl Eyes, who has been drunk for a week, is impressed that Gatsby's books are not cardboard.  But, we do learn that the pages of all the books have not been cut (which is to say they they've never been opened or read; they are indeed ornamental).  If fact, the entire house is thus; it is pure facade, all for show.

Nick, though he tells us in chapter one that he reserves all moral judgements about people, makes all kinds of moral judgements about people in chapter three.  He says they are all careless.  Gatsby's party is a Roman Carnival.  People are drunk; cars are crashed.  Nick, the most honest person he knows, is curiously attracted to the most dishonest, careless person he knows, Jordan Baker.

"Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she [Jordan] answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." (pg. 63)

Nick is as careless as everyone else.

At the end of the chapter, Gatsby, whom Nick worships as a god, or the son of God (Jesus), is seen throwing his hands in the air toward the green light; though a god, he's obviously worshipping the house across the sound (Daisy's).

This is during Prohibition, but the alcohol is flowing.

And now, to recap, by page number:

(41) people just there, "not invited"

(44) gossip about Gatsby's elusive past, believing in nothing

(46) books in library -- un-cut pages

(57) Nick's double standard in judging people

(58-59) Jordan as dishonest

What are the contradictions within Jay Gatsby's character?

Gatsby is characterized by a strange mixture of lying and honesty. It seems his essential nature yearns towards honesty but that he has learned that if he wants to get ahead, he needs to inflate certain facts about himself and hide others.

Owl Eyes gets to the heart of this essential conflict in Gatsby when he is in Gatsby's library with Nick. Owl Eyes takes a book off the shelf and marvels that it is real and not just a cardboard spine with a book title. However, he also notes that Gatsby never bothered to have the pages cut: in those days, a person would need to take a paper cutter and cut apart the pages and the top and bottom to read a book. The uncut books symbolize the conflict in Gatsby: he wants to be real, he wants to get things right, he goes the extra mile, and yet he can't quite get past a fraudulent edge of imposture.

We see this again when Gatsby insists he is an Oxford man. This seems impossible, as Gatsby doesn't even know the location of San Fransisco, yet it does turn out that Gatsby was sent on a short course at Oxford by the army at the end of the war. Nick applauds him and regains faith in him when he admits this.

Gatsby's fundamentally honest nature hovers underneath the tissue of lies he has created to reinvent himself as something he is not. This makes it difficult for him to fathom the fundamental deep-seated dishonesty of people like Tom and Daisy.

What are the contradictions within Jay Gatsby's character?

The biggest contradiction within Jay Gatsby's character is that he proved himself capable of extraordinary success, but became bogged down in yearning for Daisy, a woman who married another man soon after she promised herself to him.

Nick says Gatsby's overwhelming characteristic is "an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in another person..." This gift for hope, which is prompted by his desire to make himself worthy for Daisy, led him to gain enough money and status that he was able to purchase "a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy" with "more than forty acres of lawn and garden." His house was opposite Daisy's on Long Island Sound and did not lack in grandeur.

This is something quite extraordinary for a man who came from parents who "were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people." As a boy, Gatsby created a brutal schedule for himself in order to make himself successful. Gatsby's father, Mr. Gatz, said, "Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something."

However, this extraordinary success is contradicted by Gatsby's inability to let go of his past with Daisy. Nick says Gatsby "wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy." In addition, Nick says that Gatsby's life was "confused and disordered" since their months together. This desire to return to a time when Gatsby was with Daisy is what prompts Jay to cry, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"

Unfortunately for Gatsby, this desire to repeat the past is what leads to his ultimate demise. His relationship with Daisy causes Tom to look into Gatsby's past. And his desire to protect Daisy is what leads George to believe it was Gatsby who killed Myrtle. 

Therefore, Gatsby's extraordinary gift for hope and ability to strive forward in his life in contradicted by his inability to move away from his past with Daisy.