Gatsby & parties, Nick & his past, Nick & Jordan In chapter two of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Tom’s esoteric background and his infidelity with Myrtle Wilson is essentially introduced in the novel. Chapter 3 juxtaposes with chapter 2 as Fitzgerald introduces Gatsby’s background, which is quite different from Tom’s. Gatsby is courteous, generous, and hospitable in his parties unlike Tom and his wealth is evident throughout the chapter. Chapter three also provides information about Nick and his perspective of Jordan Baker. In chapter three, Fitzgerald displays Gatsby’s background and his wealth evidently displayed in his parties and Nick’s thoughts about Jordan Baker. Nick was evident of Gatsby’s parties during the summer. From …show more content…
Nick and Jordan are intrigued to discover who Gatsby was. Unexpectedly, Nick discovers a man who remembered him from WWI was Gatsby. Nick illustrates the idiosyncratic Gatsby’s exquisite appearance, his solitude since he is a non-alcoholic, and his reputation. Nick crafts Gatsby’s description, “His tanned skin was drawn attractively tight on his face and his short hair looked as though it were trimmed every day...the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests...no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby’s shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby’s head for one link” (Fitzgerald 50). Nick’s fascination for Gatsby is clearly evident during the chapter. Since Nick’s fascination for Gatsby is insatiable and he is neighbors with Gatsby, a bond may be established between each other. Also, Gatsby’s solitude is caused by the misinterpretation of his guests of his true persona and there oblivious of his existence. This solitude is displayed in the gratitude he received from the opportunistic, unloyal women. From the information asserted, Tom and Gatsby’s personalities are clearly …show more content…
Nick enjoyed going out in public with Jordan since she was a famous athlete. Yet Nick finally realizes she is not in love with her due to her dishonesty. Jordan is egocentric of her reputation as seen in her cheating scandal when she used her superiority to display her win as a fait accompli, even though she evidently cheated. Thus, Jordan lies to get away from her problems and keep her reputation spotless. Fitzgerald juxtaposes Nick with Jordan, “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and...in order to keep that cool smile, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body...Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply--I was casually sorry, and then I forgot...I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (Fitzgerald 58-59). Even if Nick is fastidious about Jordan and her imperfections, he is still fond of her due to her physical attributes. Nick was intrigued about her physical appearance, being with her due to her reputation, and hedonistically attracted towards her. On the other hand, Nick has evidently proven he has moral values such as honesty. Nick has been honest throughout the novel and evidently he has a sense of self-worth since he has never doubted himself for his opinions or his actions. Throughout the novel, Nick has evidently displayed personal integrity and a sense of right or wrong unlike the
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Show MoreThrough this character, Fitzgerald conveys a skeptical and logical, yet romantic and hopeful tone. This is shown by Nick’s cynical, but tender personality. “‘You can’t repeat the past.’ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (110; Ch. 6).This quote shows Nick’s logical look on life and how he believes these hopeless romantic ways of Gatsby’s will not always work . “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” (154; Ch. 8). Contrary to the previous quote, this quote shows Nicks admiration for Gatsby. This quote also may suggest that Nick wishes for something better; he longs for a love like Gatsby’s.This possible romantic side of Nick is also shown by his relationship with Jordan, “.... I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner.”(79;Ch. 4). Nick’s assessment and criticism toward Jordan, Tom, and Daisy also show his skeptical and logical outlook on others around him.This tone shows Nick’s struggle between being like the emotionless and careless people around him (like Tom) or to be his own hopeful and romantic man (following
In chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the change of Nick’s emotions. During the early 1920s a new dawn buds out with Nick, and Tom traveling to New York. On their way they stop to visit Tom’s lover Myrtle Wilson at the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle Wilson invites Tom, Nick, the Mckee family, and her sister Catherine to her apartment for a party in New York. During the end of the party Nick expresses a variety of emotions, as he is “enchanted” and “repelled” by the arguments, and the careless gibberish of the drunken souls . Nick is enchanted by the amount of secrecy humans can disclose to a “casual watcher” when they are careless. He is “repelled” by the arguments and the derogatory comments Myrtle, and Tom makes about other people as they start to drink more.
One of the traits of Gatsby that makes him truly great is his remarkable capacity for hope. He has faith that what he desires will come to him if he works hard enough. He does not comprehend the cruelty and danger that is the rest of the world. Gatsby, while a man of questionable morals, is as wide-eyed and innocent as a small child in his views of the world. These ideals are evident in Nick’s narration and in the words spoken by the other characters, including Gatsby himself.
Nick’s naïveté and innocence leads to continual judgement of the deceiving upper class community he surrounds himself with; however, he realises Gatsby is the most genuine and optimistic man he has ever met. Gatsby’s never ending confidence in his dream of a future with Daisy represents blind faith of an unattainable dream, yet Gatsby never ceases to reach for his goals. Gatsby even believes that he can fix every mistake he has made in the past (Fitzgerald 128). His naive and ignorant outlook on his future influences many vindictive decisions he has made in his past. Nick’s admiration of Gatsby’s ambitions compels him to recognize Gatsby’s efforts. Nick exclaims that Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 126). Nick idolizes Gatsby because his questionable actions were driven by his immense passion for Daisy. Believing that the elite, upper class society is corrupt, Nick found that Gatsby was the only wealthy individual he had met who is pure of
They begin to know more from each other and their characteristics. “And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” (49) Jordan talked to Nick individually, saying that large parties have more freedom and choose which to talk to, while small parties were forced to talk to everyone and aware of what other people is saying. Nick found this sentence paradoxical, he later concluded that she “instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men”, her lies might be unlikely to exposed. (57) He also thinks “she was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness”. (58) She needs to keep everything under her control, so her dishonesty would not too obvious. Nick protested Jordan’s driving skill need to be more “careful” and she is “careless” when she drives. (58) Although Nick dislikes her dishonesty and being a careless person, he stills attracted to Jordan’s unique altitude. At this point, Nick and Jordan began dating one another.
To begin with, after the party from the city returns to Tom’s home, Jordan invites him inside, but he responds, “‘No, thanks…’ I’d be damned if I’s go in; I’d had enough of all of them for one day, and suddenly that included Jordan too” (142). By refusing to enter Tom’s house, he symbolically declines the acceptance of the upper class; something he, Gatsby, and Myrtle all avidly desired and worked towards up to this point. Rather than value those material characteristics that had appealed to him before, he chooses his moral principles instead. His relationship with Jordan perfectly symbolizes his primary choice . Later on, after Gatsby’s death, Nick “found himself on Gatsby’s side, and alone…it grew upon me that I was responsible [for Gatsby’s funeral], because… [Gatsby deserved] that intense personal interest to which every one has some vague right at the end” (164). Once again, Nick favors his personal beliefs over following societal expectations. He stands by the mysterious figure of Gatsby, who possessed “an extraordinary gift for hope”(2) that Nick admired, while everyone else keeps a safe distance and watches, as onlookers in a zoo does to the animals. By admitting his part in the events that took place, primarily Gatsby’s downfall, Nick shows he is not the same careless person as Tom and Daisy who leave their mistakes for others to fix . Whether Nick’s belief that everyone should have a living person stand by h im/her after death is a universal truth or not, he follows his heart rather than the crowd. Finally, before he leaves to the Midwest, Nick “wanted to leave things in order and not just trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away” (177). Particularly, Nick wanted to end his relationship with Jordan, supporting his original belief that a person should only have one
At the end of the book, it is revealed that all of Tom, Daisy, and Nick are extremely careless. Nick’s carelessness detriments his reliability as a narrator. Because of Nick’s deep and familiar connection with Gatsby, Gatsby is “the exception” and Nick cannot be a reliable narrator towards him. Nick really admires and appreciates Gatsby as a friend, although it seems that Gatsby may not feel nth same way ads Nick. Gatsby may have befriended Nick solely because of his connection with Daisy. Nicks obsession with Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession with
The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel. This novel is an American classic and a facsinating evocative work that offers insightful views of the America during the 1920s. Fitzgerald, himself, seems to have had a brilliant understanding of lives that are corrupted by sadness and greed. The events in the novel are filtered through its narrator, Nick Carraway who is a young Yale university graduate, who is and is not part of the world he describes. After moving to New York, he rents a bungalow next door to the glorius mansion of a multi-millionare, Jay Gatsby.
After moving from the Midwest, Nick learns about Gatsby’s enigmatic character through rumors, forging a mysterious initial impression. However, during Nick’s first encounter with Gatsby, Gatsby greets Nick with “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance”. From the beginning, Nick sees through Gatsby’s enigma, encountering a genuine quality. Moreover, Nick admires Gatsby’s “extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness”(2), seeing Gatsby idealize Daisy, fully committed to rekindle their lost love. As a result, Nick admires Gatsby for his ideals- being hopeful and pursuing his dreams- representing the American ideals of the twentieth century. More importantly, through Gatsby, Nick conveys a romantic aspect to the evolving nature of American
He claims that “she left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about it” (61) and connects it to an earlier scandal in which she was accused of cheating at a golf tournament. Jordan, as opposed to Gatsby who is developed more as a character, is one-dimensional. She is defined only by her lying and cheating, and therefore is representative of unobscured moral decay. Jordan’s immorality is never justified by an excusable reason. Nick speculates that the lies stem from her inability “to endure being at a disadvantage” (62). For Jordan, her deception acts as a defence mechanism, a method of self-preservation that allows her to keep her status and reputation. When Nick informs Jordan that he is moving back to the East, she immediately tells him “without comment that she [is] engaged to another man.” (188). Nick doubts the authenticity of her announcement, and instead views it as another example of Jordan trying to protect her reputation. It is the selfish, almost meaningless, logic behind her sins that depict Jordan as a symbol of moral decay. Jordan, herself, admits to being dishonest when she tells Nick that he is not any better than she
The final passage of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald speaks to Nick’s disappointment over loss of a kind of romantic vision which he believed. Gatsby embodies that vision, which Nick described as his “romantic readiness”, and that Gatsby’s death, and subsequently the failure of Nick’s belief in that romantic vision, is what causes Nick to desire a world at “moral attention” at the beginning of the novel (2). The fading of Nick’s romantic vision is brought on by both the death of Gatsby and Myrtle, and Daisy’s refusal of Gatsby’s love. Nick sees people not taking responsibility for their actions, as Daisy does, and where people don’t fulfill their dreams for love in a moral manner, shown through Tom’s affair with Myrtle. Nick’s
Nick’s evolving relationship with Gatsby gives the reader a clear understanding of how aggressive and misguided pursuit of the American dream at the expense of morality can lead to tragedy. Nick does not actually get to meet his mysterious neighbor, Gatsby, until he was invited to one of his infamous parties. There, Gatsby explains to Nick that he inherited money from wealthy people in the Mid West, and that he went to Oxford College. Nick is later introduced to Mr. Wolfshiem, one of Gatsby’s friends, and it becomes evident that Gatsby is involved in criminal activity. Gatsby eventually sets up tea between Jordan, Daisy’s friend, and Nick. At the tea, Jordan explains to Nick how Gatsby brought the house just across the bay in order to be close
Born from a wealthy family, educated, and having established a long distance relationship with a women, Nick goes to West Egg, New York to learn the trade of finance and live on his own. An important part of his character is that he withholds judgement from those he meets, until he has a greater understanding of who they are, and why they do the actions they do. He is the intermediary bond that allows Gatsby, his mysterious neighbor, and Daisy, Tom’s beautiful wife and cousin of Nick. The author develops a sense of responsibility that is placed on Nick’s shoulders, which the reader uses to monitor his every action. However, while in New York he begins to develop feelings for Jordan Baker, a famed golf athlete. In the novel it states, “...she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But...I knew first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home”. In this segment, Nick is halting the developing chemistry between Jordan and him, because of his relationship with a long distance girl. This aspect of Nick suggests that he is careful in his actions and feelings. Although his affections are growing for Jordan, he has the respect and honesty to first end a relationship before professing his love. Furthermore, as time advances, Nick reaches the conclusion that he never fully loved Jordan, and thus decides to part ways. This is seen in the last few chapters when it states,
“I'd been writing letters once a week and signing them: ‘Love, Nick,’ and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis…” (58). Nick talks about his girlfriend he left in Chicago, yet here he is falling for another woman, Jordan Baker. Throughout the next couple chapters he talks about his intrigue and relationship with Jordan. Every once in a while, mentioning how he still needs to break up with his girlfriend from Chicago. The character’s behavior shows that even though Nick claims he is a moral person, does not mean he truly is moral. Actions speak louder than words, and here Fitzgerald is, stating that Nick is not what he says he
In the Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald the novel does not reflect an autobiography, but several of Fitzgerald’s personal experiences are reflected in it. Similarities can be drawn between the novel and Scott Fitzgeralds own life. Similarities include Gatsby and Fitzgerald 's want for success through continuous failure, dreams of success, strong feelings towards alcohol, and their love life. Nick’s qualities that relate to Fitzgerald include his honesty as a man in relation to the liars surrounding him. Also his mid western values to not be judgemental makes him a perfect observer, but also makes him the perfect outsider, which is how Fitzgerald always felt in the company of rich people. The relation between Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby