My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month. the Great Gatsby, Chapter 1
It is ironically true that your study guide--and studies all across the Internet--does misquote the reference in The Great Gatsby, which is correctly quoted above. When you bear in mind that our hero narrator is in the bond business, "...so I decided to go East and learn the bond business"--as in stocks and bonds, as in Wall Street, as in very large investments of very large sums of money by very wealthy people who pay very large commissions to their bond brokers--then the consolation, or comfort, derived from the nearness (proximity: nearness) of wealthy people, or "millionaires," becomes clearer.
Our narrator obviously wants a career that will not only give him a little excitement (the adrenaline of investing on Wall Street) following his experience in the "Great War" but a lot of wealth as well. So, on two levels he may be consoled. First, he is consoled to be near millionaires whom he can envision as potential clients. Second, he is consoled by the reality of those who have partaken of his dream, which gives encouragement to the future realization of his dream.
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