The quote in question can be found on page two of the novel. It's in the first chapter, in paragraph four. This placement is significant because it is our first introduction to Gatsby. He enters the novel very early through Nick's ruminations about him. Long before we get to meet Gatsby for ourselves and see him with our own eyes, so to speak, Nick is telling us what to think about him. This naturally colors our perception of him: Nick's view tends to become our view.
Nick's perspective on Gatsby is highly positive. Gatsby is set apart from and exalted over other people. He is described as a type of person that Nick expects to meet only once in a lifetime. Further, he is carefully separated from the rest of the "foul dust" of those who crossed his path.
We can imagine that were someone else telling the...
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story, we might not start out with such a positive and poetic portrait of our hero.
In my edition, the Scribner's, this quotation is in chapter 1, on page 2. Nick says that Jay Gatsby possessed "an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again." He seems, here, to be describing Gatsby's incredible optimism, his fervent belief that it is absolutely possible to relive the past, to return to who we once were, and to make things right. He never doubts for a moment that Daisy can and will love him again, that she never could have stopped really, and that it is not too late for them to be together despite Tom, their daughter, and her new life. In an era of so much cynicism, everything Gatsby does is so that he can be reunited with Daisy, a woman who—frankly—doesn't deserve such loyalty, because he ardently loves her and has loved her for so many years (despite her lack of patience, personal weakness, and selfishness). Nick believes that he will never come across another person who feels similarly.