The Jelley Bean is what they called Jim Powell. How did he get that name you wonder? F. Scott Fitzerald tells us early in the story:
“Jelly-bean is the name throughout the undissolved Confederacy for one who spends his life conjugating the verb to idle in the first person singular – I am idling, I have idled, I will idle.
Despite the prohibition, Clark smuggled in a bottle of Corn moonshine. They sneaked outside to have some and then Jim got left hiding the bottle on him. That’s when Nancy Lamar showed up with gum on her shoe. Jim siphoned gas out of a car to get the gum off. He was entranced by her beauty and also knew that she got herself in trouble when she drank the corn. However, he shared it with her, non the less.
After the dance, a group stayed and played craps including Jim and Nancy. Read the story, here to see what happend next.
It took me a couple of pages to get into The Jelly Bean. Mostly that is because it took until then for Fitzerald to explain why Jim was a Jelly Bean. Then the story really took off. This story reminded me why I adored The Great Gatsby so much back in high school. I really hope to read it again someday.
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