The Great Gatsby

Gatsby: pages 61-72

Carraway spends some quality time with Gatsby in this section of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  I think Gatsby is getting so nervous as they keep driving because he knows he's getting closer to Daisy.  Gatsby seems like such a helpless romantic.  If anything, he is just plain helpless!  For a man of such power and wealth, he seems really miserable with his life.  When telling Carraway of his personal experience in the war, he said "'It was a great relief, and I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life'" (Fitzgerald, 66).  At this point in the book, Gatsby reminds me of Noah in The Notebook.  They both went off to war partially to forget about or distract themselves from the painful thoughts of the woman they love back home.  How can you TRY to die in a world war and FAIL? 

I don't understand why everyone seems to automatically doubt everything about Gatsby.  Everything people know of his past, they question: his role in the army, his education, how he came upon his wealth.  Although if I came across someone so guarded as Gatsby, I might question him too.  What favor does he want of Carraway, and why can't he talk to him about it himself?  Does it have to do with Daisy?