Chapter 3

Q1: "He smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.It faced-- or seemed to face-- the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice  in your favor.It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey"(48).

Nick has his first impression on Gatsby. Nick only knows Gatsby briefly and by this first impression, he learns a lot from his smile. Nick describes his smile as "a quality of eternal reassurance" meaning that it is sort of comforting in a way. He understands or tries to understand as to what is going on in life and didn't focus on outward appearance; he focused on what was more important and believed in one just as one believed in itself. From this description, Gatsby seems as if he is a great man.

Q2: "It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply-- I was casually sorry, and then I forgot"(58).

This quote is, maybe, describing to us what has happened to Nick in the past and throughout the book. Is this the first time that someone has lied to him? Nick describes it as something that one shouldn't take to heart rather than just let it go but maybe he is being taken advantage of. Before he says this, he explains that he might have some feelings for this girl. If this girl is constantly lying and he realizes it but looks past it every single time... That's very nice of him to forgive but at the same time... their relationship could possibly be built on lies which is not good.

Syntax

Throughout this chapter, syntax is used to describe the valley and violence towards the end of the chapter. "This is a valley of ashes-- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take their forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling though powdery air"(23). The dashes used in this sentence are used to describe what one is thinking further beyond as to what he is thinking. The semi colon is used to link the two sentences and to explain the ashes. The repetition of "and" is to elaborate on how the ashes take over.
On page 38, exclamations and repetition of one name is used to describe the violence or up rising as to what could become violent. "'Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!"' "shouted Mrs. Wilson." "'I'll say it whenever i want to! Daisy! Dai---"(38)These exclamations almost hint as to what is going to happen next (Tom punching her and breaking her nose)

Diction

"He didn't say anymore but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understoood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought-- frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon;for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions."
6 words: Reserved, abnormal, privy, unsought, feigned, and plagiaristic.
These words reveal or represent the characteristics of the present narrator. The word "reserved" is used to show how he has to act in order to succeed. The words "abnormal", "feigned", and "plagiaristic" express how the character has to act in order to be sneaky and/or succeed in the game he is playing. It conveys the author's assertion or impacts the audience by the author explaining or repeating this some sort of "unsought" or sneakiness. The author creates this image that the main character will be a sneaky man.