I noticed a big coincidence in The Great Gatsby. But I'm not sure how many people agree with me. While reading Gatsby, I realized that Fitzgerald mentions the number four a lot, especially in scenes that are very negative or involve death. I find this interesting because in Asia, the number four is considered an unlucky number because it sounds similar to death.
I am quoting TV Tropes or Wikipedia? Both are nice. TV Tropes has more examples as well as Western examples. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourIsDeath http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia
The death of Wolfsheim's friend: "'It was four o'clock in the morning then, and if we'd raised the blinds we'd seen daylight.'" (page 70) Afterwards, the friend was shot.
Gatsby's plan to take Daisy back. "He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you.' After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken." (page 109)
The room of Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy's fight scene: "The room was large and stifling, and, though it was already four o'clock, opening the windows admit only a gust of hot shrubbery from the Park." (page 126)
The introduction of Michaelis before Mrs. Wilson's death: "Michaelis was astonished; they had been neighbors for four years, and Wilson had never seemed faintly capable of such a statement [to lock Myrtle up and move away]" (page 136)
Gatsby observing Daisy: "'Nothing happened,' he said wanly. 'I waited, and about four o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light.'"
Nick trying to talk to Gatsby before he dies: "I called Gatsby a few minutes later, but the line was busy. I tried four times; finally an exasperated central told me the wire was being kept open for long distance from Detroit." (page 155)
Michaelis after attending to Mr. Wilson: "Wilson was quieter now, and Michaelis went home to sleep; when he awoke four hours later and hurried back to the garage, Wilson was gone." (page 160)
Gatsby's last hours in his mansion: No telephone message arrived, but the butler went without his sleep and waited for it until four o'clock--until long after there was any one to give it to if it came." (page 161)
Wolfsheim reflecting on his first encounter with Gatsby: "'He ate more than four dollars' food in half an hour.'" (page 171)
The funeral procession: "and a little later four or five servants and a postman from West Egg, in Gatsby's station wagon, all wet to the skin." (page 174)
Nick's dream about West Egg: "In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken women in a white evening dress." (page 176)
The number four has malignant connotations in a number of cultures, stretching back to around 1000 BCE. I know that four symbolizes death in at least one type of mysticism from eastern Asia, although I'm not certain which one. The Celts, of what would become Britain, had a saying: "One man is deceit. Two men is a conspiracy. Three men, I may trust. Four men are death." Why this correlation should be so widespread, from one side of a continent to the other, I have no clue, but it stretches back about three thousand years before Gatsby was written.
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