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."

   As this is occuring, Nick is realizing how mesmerizing of a character Gatsby truly is. Gatsby's smile plays as a major factor when it comes to how Nick is slowly being drawn into him. Nick mentions how Gatsby's smile has a "quality of eternal reassurance in it". This is just no ordinary smile to Nick, it is a smile that is seen as a refuge, a sign of never-ending relief. The way how this smile "understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself" proved that people took this smile to heart.
   Gatsby is seen as almost a godly figure to Nick, a man who is just above us normal human beings. There is something so captivating about Gatsby that gives him this dominating aura. As the smile vanishes, Nick is awoken from the frozen moment he shared with Gatsby. His thoughts quickly change about Gatsby and he gets "a strong impression that he was picking his words with care." Nick begins to think that Gatsby's complex way with words was only a desperate attempt to make a good impression on him and his guests. Being in the upperclass, Gatsby is always under extreme pressure to present himself with poise. In the end, Nick understands that Gatsby was trying to do nothing more but preserve the facade he has set up for himself.