Once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby's gardener, abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except gatsby's enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the "period" craze, a decade before, and there was a story the he'd agree to pay five years' taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatches with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family-he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willng to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry. Pg. 93, paragraph 2.

This passage shows Nick's fascination with the American Dream through Gatsby's house and also foreshadows bad luck coming to Gatsby. Nick's property seems il-legitimate to Gatsby's because the lawn is irregular, muddy, and prehistoric. The only thing Nick is focused on is Gatsby's house. Nick has some desire to be part of Gatsby's life, the American Dream of the roaring 20's. The Allusion of Kant and the church steeple makes the reader feel as if he is analyzing the house, just as Kant would analyze church steeples. Attention to detail is important in accomplishing this American Dream, and analyzation is key, much like Ben Franklin's analyzation of his flaws. Next, the story of the brewer foreshadows what will happen to Gatsby. The single reason the brewer wanted the other houses to be thatched with straw, was so his house could stick out. Even though a person appears to be very succesful, their are alterior motives of selfishness to make oneself appear more prominent. Once the people refused, the heart was taken out of his plan to Found a Family and he went into an immediate decline, saying that because the brewer was not noticed, he did a poor job with his family relations, and eventually died. The black wreath was also still on the door, symbolizing bad luck to come to Gatsby. The last quote about Americans willing to be serfs and not peasants, solitifies this distorted American Dream because humans always want to have some superiority in the class system no matter how low they really are.