We started The Great Gatsby! So exciting. I probably won’t get to everything that happened in these first four chapters, but I will highlight what stood out to me and what I found interesting. 

The first “event” to happen is that Mr. Nick Carraway goes to dinner at Daisy and Tom Buchanan’s House, where he meets Ms. Jordan Baker for the first time. In these scenes, I couldn’t help but notice how different Nick seems than Daisy and Tom. Tom talks about how he’s a “pessimist” (12) and Nick talks about how he feels “compelled” by Tom, “as though he were moving a checker to another square” (11). In comparison, Nick is described as “[innocent]” (14). Nick may seem to be friends with Tom, but this man seems to be more manipulative and cunning than friendly, and, to me, Nick seems awkwardly out of place with this set of people. 

Nick’s difference from Tom is further revealed as we learn about Tom’s affair with Myrtle, picking her up right in front of her husband’s face and showing her off at the restaurants. Tom seems to be flaunting his dishonesty, which makes me like him even less. He acts above the rules and does not give his crowd of people a good look. Once again, in comparison, later on, Nick remarks that he thinks he himself is “one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (59). 

After the chapter about Myrtle, we start to learn more about Gatsby’s parties. Once again, I get the feeling that Nick is out of place there. He describes fantastic parties, but his descriptions are full of how (at the first one he attends) he feels awkward because he doesn’t know anyone there, and he offers details like “most of the remaining women… now having fights with men said to be their husbands'' (51). Upon giving a list of people who attend the parties, he tells the reader about a man who drowns, a man who strangles his wife, and a man who commits suicide by jumping in front of a train. It seems that the reader is being warned…these people, with their parties and fun, maybe aren’t having nearly as much fun as they seem. There is something amiss. 

I am glad that Nick realizes that something’s a bit off. It seems that he’s still holding out from this whole society he’s slowly becoming a part of. Do you think he’ll be able to keep his own sort of “independence”?

I didn’t even get to talking about Jordan or how many times I saw stuff about “roses” throughout the chapters. We’ll just have to talk about it in class. :)