In this passage, Jordan has finished telling Gatsby and Daisy’s story to Nick. Nick narrates, “When Jordan Baker had finished telling all this we had left the Plaza for half an hour and were driving in a victoria through Central Park. The sun had gone down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars in the West Fifties, and the clear voices of girls, already gathered like crickets on the grass, rose through the hot twilight:
‘I’m the Sheik of Araby.
Your love belongs to me.
At night when you’re are asleep
Into your tent I’ll creep —'
Nick is currently in upper west Manhattan, home of the rich and famous. With the sun sunsetting and the victoria, he and Jordan seem like they are on a romantic date. They would blend into the wealthy setting. When Nick asserts that the voices of the girls are “gathered like crickets on the grass,” he means that their voices
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‘But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.’ Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” Jordan is trying to prove to Nick that Gatsby did not just happened to be living across from Daisy. He purposely moved there to be near her and have her see the accomplishments and wealth he has gained. Daisy is the green light (“the stars to which he had aspired on that June night”) Gatsby was reaching for at the end of chapter one. The word “merely” makes Daisy seem more valuable than the stars. The problem is that Gatsby can keep aiming for her but will never get her. Moreover, Nick is starting to understand Gatsby. To Nick, the man is no longer an idealistic God who achieved the American Dream but a human being (“delivered suddenly from the womb”) who has a weakness and deeper purpose behind the parties and large house (“purposeless splendor”). Gatsby wants more than money; he wants