The Great Gatsby, Chapter 3 quotes and explanations

Gatsby's house was open to all... "ticket of admission" leaves us to infer the events were carnival like and entertaining.

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited—they went there. . . . Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.

The mystery of Gatsby inspired gossip and exaggeration.

“There’s something funny about a fellow that’ll do a thing like that,” said the other girl eagerly. “He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.”
“Who doesn’t?” I inquired.
“Gatsby. Somebody told me ——”
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.”

The difference between presumption and reality.

I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years.

no