Digging Into Chapter 3, Passage 5

"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 so 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. Precisely at that point it vanished—and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."

   In this passage from the novel, Nick is describing his meeting of Gatsby. Right from the first sentnce of the passage, it seems as though Nick is suspicious of Gatsby, and that he might be pretending to be too welcoming and kind. "Much more than understandingly" can mean that Gatsby is trying to seem overwhelmingly understanding. Also, as mentioned in class, this could mean that Nick believes his smile suggests that he is attracted to or that there are other emotions in Gatsby's smile. In describing the gesture, Nick expresses that Gatsby's smile seems too over-the-top; overly reassuring. Nick explains how he saw through his facade, and noticed that Gatsby was picking his words wisely instead of being his normal self.