How do rumors about Gatsby in chapter 2 affect his image in The Great Gatsby?

The rumors about Jay Gatsby are unflattering to an extreme. Though people come to his parties to participate in the scenes of opulence and wealth that they offer, the guests do not respect Gatsby. 

They do fear him, to some extent, but not enough to stop them from spreading rumors about his past, his means of acquiring his wealth, and his character. The rumor of bootlegging is persistently attached to Gatsby, labelling him as a criminal and racketeer, deserving only of the respect such a career demands. 

In the novel's second chapter, Myrtle and her sister discuss Nick's neighbor. 

Catherine repeats the rumor she heard that “he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s,” and “that’s where his money comes from.”

These rumors are rather insidious and cast Gatsby as alien to American culture, suspicious, powerful and potentially dangerous.

Gatsby is not German, but his tendencies toward secrecy and his choice of maintaining a state of isolation serve to create an air of menacing mystery around him.

While his glamour is intact, a negative aura is attached to it. Gatsby is characterized in this chapter as someone who is not universally respected but is rather universally suspected. No one really knows him, yet they judge him harshly. 

The idea that Gatsby is hiding something sinister adds to a sense of danger associated with Gatsby. Considering these rumors and ideas around Gatsby, people are not especially surprised to find out that he is shot and killed in his mansion.

What are the rumors about Gatsby mentioned in chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby?

Chapter 4 occurs after Nick first attends one of Gatsby's large, flamboyant parties. Nick continues to talk about the rumors flying about Gatsby at the parties as the chapter opens. First, we learn that

"he's a bootlegger," said the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers.

Another rumor is that

one time he killed a man who had found out

that he was nephew to von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.

As we can tell by the phrase "second cousin to the devil," even the people spreading the rumors seem to know they are exaggerated.

However, the themes of the rumors in chapter 4 are the same as those in chapter 3 in which people speculate Gatsby is a criminal or a spy. And while it is difficult to separate fact from fiction this early on, we will later find out that he most likely is a bootlegger, amid other criminal activities.

Gatsby himself contributes to the false rumors about himself in this chapter. He tells palpable lies, such as that he grew up in San Francisco. We know this is a lie: Gatsby locates the city in the Midwest when it is on the Pacific Ocean in California, something any resident would know. Gatsby also says he went big game hunting in the capital cities of Europe, a preposterous lie, as there is no "big game" wandering around the streets or parks of the cities Gatsby mentions, such as Paris. Nick, who knows better, laughingly imagines him in Paris chasing "a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne." Gatsby also states:

I am the son of some wealthy people in the

middle-west—all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years.

Gatsby also says he was decorated for valor in World War I and promoted to major, a story that seems to be true. As with the stories others tell about him, Gatsby's own tales are a mixture of fiction and truth.

What are the rumors about Gatsby mentioned in chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby?

I heard he killed a guy.

I heard he's a German spy.

No, he's not.  He's a relative of the Kaiser.

Everyone knows he's a bootlegger.

He's an Oggsford man.

He's a great war hero.

_________________________________________________

These, of course, are not the actual quotes, but they are the rumors that float throughout the novel, like the "rumors" of America itself:

It's the land of opportunity.

Land of the brave.

Land where my fathers died

Land of the pilgrims' pride.

All these conceptions and misconceptions show the promise and false promise of Gatsby and the America Dream.  In the end, they're all true--and false.  They're both enigmatic, paradoxes.

Nick even asks Gatsby about his past: What midwestern city are you from?  Gatsby answers, "San Francisco." Then, Gatsby:

"claims to have studied at Oxford and lived in all of the capitals of Europe; then he enlisted in the war effort, where he was rapidly promoted to major and decorated by every Allied government, including Montenegro. He pulls out a photograph of himself in Oxford cricket whites, as well as a medal awarded by the government of Montenegro, in order to corroborate his story."

One thing is for sure, Gatsby loves to wear white.

What rumors have circulated about Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby"?

The first rumor that Nick Carraway hears regarding his enigmatic, affluent neighbor, Jay Gatsby, takes place in chapter two when he visits Tom Buchanan's apartment in the city. During the party, Catherine tells Nick that she heard Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm. In chapter three, Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's magnificent parties and attends the party alone. After meeting up with Jordan Baker, the couple sits down at a table and Nick hears more rumors about Jay Gatsby. One of the women at the table says that somebody told her that Gatsby killed a man. A woman named Lucille responds by saying that she heard Gatsby was a German spy during the war. After Nick meets Jay Gatsby for the first time, Jordan Baker tells him another rumor by saying that she doubts Gatsby went to Oxford. At the beginning of chapter four, Nick recalls hearing rumors that Gatsby was a bootlegger and that one time he killed a man who discovered that he was the nephew of von Hindenburg.

What rumors have circulated about Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby"?

• "He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter." Gatsby was repeatedly rumored to be a bootlegger (someone who smuggles alcohol), and this seems to be true, since Gatsby doesn't deny Tom's accusation. There was a lot of money to be made by smuggling alcohol during Prohibition, but becoming a millionaire is a bit of a stretch; it seems to imply that Gatsby had some connections with the Mafia.
• "-he was a German spy during the war." There doesn't seem to be any legitimate source or support for this rumor, other than other rumors such as Gatsby being related to German aristocracy.
• “Well, they say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s. That’s where all his money comes from.” This is related to the German spy rumor - Kaiser Wilhelm was the political leader of Germany during World War 1.
• "Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once." This is probably the most frequently repeated rumor, after Gatsby being a bootlegger. In truth, Gatsby probably did kill someone once, since he served in the war. However, in terms of rumors, this seems only to be a sort of common ground; everyone can agree that a murder makes someone's past more unusual and interesting to the thrillseeking consumer, and this makes Gatsby's enigmatism exciting.
• “One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg-" An interesting combination of some of the other rumors, and an indication that they aren't very reputable.

List all of the rumors told about Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

To list all of the rumors about Gatsby we need to differentiate the ones spread by the freeloading visitors who came to his house to enjoy lavish parties and the ones that are caused by things Gatsby says at some point in the novel which are then found to be untrue.

The rumors begin in chapter 2, where Myrtle and her sister discuss the rumors about who Gatsby is:

a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's ... that's where his money comes from.

Chapter 3 is where we find an even bigger list of rumors. This is the chapter in which Nick Caraway finally gets an invitation from Jay to attend one of his fabulous parties. Nick, as a naturally curious young man, has to ask around who is Gatsby and, most importantly, where in the world is he while everyone else is partying around in his house.

Here is when Nick hears another batch of rumors which include that Gatsby was a murderer escaping from his crime and that he was a German spy during the war.

When Nick and Jordan finally make it inside Gatsby's house, they are told by a very impressed "stout, middle-aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles" that Gatsby is a real "Belasco" because he kept "real" books in his library and not fake covers. David Belasco was a famous playwright. This is an interesting comparison because of the irony that Gatsby has been setting up everything about his life as he were orchestrating some sort of show, or play.

The man figured someone like Gatsby would have put fake books in his studio, but they're all real—just uncut (meaning unused).

In that chapter, Gatsby identifies himself as "an Oxford man." This does not sit well with Jordan, who is used to a high class life that would expose her to people coming from European colleges. She doesn't think that Gatsby went to Oxford.

Gatsby also said that he was a decorated war hero in Montenegro. In this chapter, Gatsby tells a whole fake story about himself:

I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west—all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.

Chapter 4 tells us about the rumor that he was a bootlegger, but that supposedly everyone knows about it, and they just do not ask or say anything.

All those rumors are addressed later on when Tom starts investigating Gatsby and, eventually, confronts him about most of them.

List all of the rumors told about Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

In Chapter III, while attending his first Gatsby party, Nick hears that "'[Gatsby] doesn't want any trouble with anybody.'"  By this, the girl who says it means that he doesn't seem to want anyone to have anything to reproach him with or to hold against him, nothing that might tarnish his name or lessen his parties in the eyes of the world.

He also hears, more shockingly, that Gatsby has killed a man.  Further, someone else says that, during the war, Gatsby was a German spy, and one man even seconded this rumor, stating that he'd heard it from a man who knew Gatsby in Germany because he grew up with Gatsby there.  The woman, however, who believed that Gatsby had killed a man, said that this can't be true because Gatsby was in the United States' army during the war. 

Nick hears later that Gatsby is a bootlegger as well.

Discuss at length all of the rumors about Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

Oh, I just LOVE discussing rumors about Gatsby.  That chapter that focuses on Gatsby's party ends up being a nice melting pot of rumor and Roaring Twenties recklessness, doesn't it?  Gotta love that!

Here's the set of rumors that makes me chuckle the most:

The two girls and Jordan leaned together confidentially.

"Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once."

A thrill passed over all of us.   The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly.

"I don't think it's so much that," argued Lucille sceptically; "it's more that he was a German spy during the war."

One of the men nodded in confirmation.

Hahaha!  The first of these two rumors set together makes me laugh the hardest.  Note the actual wording here, ... Jordan (a girl of questionable morals anyway) says that "somebody" said that they "thought" Gatsby killed a man "once."  This is total hearsay!  Jordan doesn't even know who the person was who said this.  That person, whoever it was, only "thought" that the Gatsby committed a murder.  And the word "once" indicates that the timing can't even be confirmed.   Anybody who believes this nonsense is an idiot.  The irony is, considering Gatsby's involvement in the war, it's possible and even probably that he killed some folks on the other side!  Ha!

Discuss at length all of the rumors about Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

The first post does a good job of listing rumors.  But let's think about why Fitzgerald includes the rumors.  I think that is part of what you mean by discussing the rumors at length.

I believe that the rumors that other people spread about Gatsby are included to show how concerned the society was with status and with "bloodlines."  Fitzgerald is pointing out to us that the people who come to Gatsby's parties are very interested in his background.  This is important because it is Gatsby's background that dooms him; it is this background that makes him unacceptable to Daisy.

Discuss at length all of the rumors about Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

I'm not sure I can list ALL the rumors about Gatsby in the novel, but I will help you with the ones I am familiar with.

It is rumored that Gatsby was a German spy. Some said that he once killed a man, that he was a bootlegger, and that he owned a string of Drug Stores. He supposedly also had ties to organized crime, and was the nephew of  German Kaiser Wilhelm.

Gatsby himself started a few "rumors" about himself to increase the intrigue surrounding him. Among those included the rumor that he was given a medal for heroism by the country of Montenegro, and that he went to college at Oxford.

How do rumors affect Gatsby's image and reputation?

When Nick finally attends his first party at Gatsby's palatial home, he finds that rumors about his neighbor abound.

Two of the girls at the party who know Jordan Baker say that Gatsby killed a man, after which news Nick records that

A thrill passed over all of us.

Another person at the party states that Gatsby was a German spy during World War I, while someone else insists he was in the American army. Jordan later offers a rumor, which she says she doesn't believe, that Gatsby attended Oxford.

In chapter four, Nick hears that Gatsby is a bootlegger and a nephew of von Hindenburg. Because the rumors are so varied and so wild, we really have no reliable way of knowing how Gatsby got his fortune and how he is able to throw his lavish, wild parties.

The rumors about Gatsby therefore add a sense of mystery to him and make him seem a figure larger than life.

As Nick notes of Gatsby:

It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him . . .

Not knowing the facts about him adds to his mystique and aura. He seems to have walked off the pages of a romance novel.

What were all the rumors told about Gatsby?

Some of the answer to your question depends upon who you define as being the tellers of the rumors. Gatsby himself constructed a life history for himself that was based on rumor. He insisted his parents were "some wealthy people in the Middle West," which Nick believes up until he receives the telegram announcing that Henry Gatz is on his way east after learning of his son's death. As Gatsby becomes involved in questionable activities with partners of debatable reputation, he builds and encourages the image that allows him to come closer to realizing his dream of winning Daisy for himself. The tales of incredible adventures and fabulous wealth that all his party-attending friends share among themselves are, in the final analysis, nothing but rumors and wishful thinking.

What effect is created by the rumours surrounding Gatsby?

I think the effect created is the arousal of suspicion. What I think is one of the coolest aspects of The Great Gatsby is the ability of Fitzgerald to leave so many clues throughout the text that might lead a reader to an assumption or conclusion. This is exactly what we do when we hear that he might have murdered or was a spy.

A great effect to the reader is these abilities to practice guessing, jumping to conclusions and inferring what could be his identity based on what's heard about him. We are also forced as readers to consider what could be truth or what could be lies.

We can know (because he regularly tells us) that Nick tells the truth. So watch what Nick discovers and then reports. He will tell you the truth. He lives in this suspicion with the reader as the story progresses past that chapter 3 moment of rumor. 

What effect is created by the rumours surrounding Gatsby?

To me, the effect of these rumors is to make Gatsby more of a mysterious figure.

In the story, there are all these rumors about Gatsby and his past.  Most of these are seen early in the story.  As we read these rumors, we start to wonder about what kind of a person Gatsby really is.

By making Gatsby seem mysterious, the author is also showing us that the people who are around him do not really know him at all.  This has the effect of showing us that he lives very much apart from his surroundings.