Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, manly known as F. Scott Fitzgerald, is known for his greatest novel The Great. The Great Gatsby could be, however, more complex than the average reader might imagine. The Great Gatsby is often interpreted as the corruption of the American Dream. In this framework, the Buchanans are viewed as the example of irresponsibility and degradation, and Gatsby the embodiment of idealism and sentimentality.
Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was written about a time of gaiety for a certain set of people. One of the major thematic aspects of the book is driving and the automobile.
At the time the book was written the car had begun its establishment as a national institution. This is apparent in one of the central events in the book. Tom's unfaithfulness first comes to light from a car accident in Santa Barbara. He misguides the car and the. It implies that an individual's determination is the deciding factor in the accumulation of wealth, freedom, and total happiness.
It creates an equal ground on which anyone and everyone can attain spiritual and material fulfillment. Nick Carraway and Jordan in F. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Nick and Jordan in The Great Gatsby In pursuing relationships, we come to know people only step by step. Unfortunately, as our knowledge of others' deepens, we often move from enchantment to disenchantment. Initially we overlook flaws or wish them away; only later do we realize peril of this course.
In the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the journey from delight to disappointment may be seen in the narrator, Nick Carraway.
Moving from initial interest to romantic allure to moral repugnance, Nick's relationship with Jordan Baker traces a painfully familiar, all-to-human arc. Nick's initial interest in Jordan is mainly for her looks and charm. How is Jordan's narration different from Nick's? Why rely on her narration at all? What would the novel be like from her point of view? Jordan's narration is definitely distinct from Nick's.
Her diction is a bit sharper and she has more blatantly judgmental asides , calling Daisy "drunk as a monkey" 4.
She also uses more vivid imagery: the red, white, and blue banners on the houses flapping "tut-tut-tut-tut" in a "disapproving way" 4. Her choice of words is a pretty good insight into her character and how sharply observant she is!
So why is there a section narrated by Jordan at all? Perhaps Nick leans on Jordan because he feels unqualified to talk about Daisy's past. After all, aside from their conversation in Chapter 1, Nick doesn't have close conversations with Daisy.
But since Nick gets to know Gatsby through several close conversations, he feels comfortable telling about Gatsby's past. You also get the sense he's washing his hands of whatever Jordan reveals about Daisy. He doesn't fully trust in the details or really care about Daisy's story, using it only as a means of understanding Gatsby. It's also notable that Nick uses Michealis's point of view to talk about the aftermath of Myrtle's death, which in a similar manner suggests he feels less connected to the Wilsons than he does to Gatsby.
The novel from Jordan's point of view would likely be much less sentimental when it comes to Gatsby. Nick obviously idealizes him by the end while Jordan doesn't seem to see him as anything more than a source of fun and intrigue.
We would also likely get a much better sense of Daisy's motivations and thought process throughout the novel, something we barely get access to with Nick's narration. Daisy's motto: if you don't have anything nice to say, come and sit by me. Extra Advice: Want to get into the best college you can? Read our famous guide on how to get into Harvard, the Ivy League, and your top choice college. In this guide, you'll learn:.
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Read our top college admissions guide today. These are questions that many students have about Jordan after reading Gatsby for the first time. These are points that don't come up as often in essay topics or study guides, so give them a look if you're still wondering about Jordan's feelings and motivations! Daisy professes her feelings to not one but two men in Chapter 7, and Myrtle makes her attraction to Tom Buchanan clear.
Jordan, in contrast, is not one to make her feelings so plainly known, so it's not surprising that many students wonder if she even likes Nick at all. Like Gatsby, Jordan seems drawn to Nick because he presents himself as a stable, honest, and grounded personality in the midst of many larger-than-life, overbearing types.
She even says that she's drawn to him because he's cautious. There's also a part in the book where Nick says that Jordan tends to prefer being with people she can dominate or pull one over on, and Nick does seem to rely on her for emotional strength at some points for example in the car when he's thinking about turning Nick and Jordan break up right at the moment when she can't control his actions —can't make him go into the house, can't make him apologize for ignoring her.
By the end of the book, Jordan does admit that she was rather thrown by the break-up, suggesting she came to have somewhat deeper feelings for him. In fact, their break-up scene is worth looking at in full to really answer this question:.
Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride. She didn't answer. Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away. She also criticizes Nick for mischaracterizing himself as honest and straightforward when he dispatched her pretty coldly over the phone. In short, we can tell she has definitely been thinking their short relationship over and was shocked and hurt by how abruptly things ended.
In Chapter 3, Jordan attends one of Gatsby's parties and is called upstairs to speak with him. We can infer that Gatsby has heard she is staying with Daisy Buchanan, and calls her up so he can find out more about Daisy. In that conversation, Gatsby confesses to Jordan that he's in love with Daisy and wants to try and see her again.
Well, for one thing, Jordan's nosy, and likes to be in the middle of things. She tells Nick about Tom's affair in Chapter 1 and also tells him all about Daisy's past in Chapter 4, and seems to love being a source of information and gossip. However, you could also argue that, as someone with knowledge of Gatsby and Daisy's original relationship, Jordan knows how devastated Daisy was when she got a letter from Gatsby, feels compelled to help the pair reunite.
Finally, Jordan might also see it as an opportunity to expose Daisy as much less virtuous as she comes off. Jordan is consistently the only character who recognizes Daisy as less-than-perfect, as evidenced in her remarks about Daisy in Chapter 4 "Daisy was popular in Chicago, as you know. They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but she came out with an absolutely spotless reputation.
Perhaps because she doesn't drink. It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care. Nudging Daisy into an affair with Gatsby could be Jordan's way of working to expose Daisy to the scrutiny that everyone else in their circles seems to face for similar behavior. Jordan, similar to Nick, is adjacent to much of the main action and not directly involved, so many students wonder what exactly she's doing in the book.
Especially since Nick does have a crucial role as narrator, Jordan can seem a bit superfluous at times. So why include her? Well, for one thing, she does have an important role to play in the story. Purely from a plot perspective, she helps connect Nick to Gatsby in Chapter 3, and she also helps connect Gatsby and Daisy.
She helps sets the wheels of the affair in motion, and, of course, the affair drives the main action of the novel. Without Jordan, Gatsby would have relied entirely on Nick to reach Daisy, which would have taken some of the suspense out of Gatsby's motivations even though Jordan learns Gatsby's secret in Chapter 3, we don't learn it until Chapter 4. But Jordan is also important in how she allows us to understand other characters. She helps us understand Daisy by being such a contrast to her, and of course offers some crucial insights about Daisy herself during her brief stint as the narrator in Chapter 4.
Furthermore, Jordan also gives us some insights about Nick since we can see his reactions to her and their relationship. In fact, Jordan's relationship with Nick is one of our main inroads into understanding Nick's personal life and feelings. So while Jordan is not directly involved in the main drama, she is a crucial lynchpin both for the plot and our understanding of the other major characters.
Nick attends Gatsby's funeral along with Gatsby's father and Owl Eyes. Nick, purposely moving slowly, heads to his train.
He doesn't want to leave Gatsby, impulsively declaring "They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together. For Nick, the day drags on; he feels uneasy, preoccupied with the past day's adventures. Jordan phones, but Nick cuts her off. He phones Gatsby and, unable to reach him, decides to head home early. The narrative again shifts time and focus, as Fitzgerald goes back in time, to the evening prior, in the valley of ashes.
George Wilson, despondent at Myrtle's death, appears irrational when Michaelis attempts to engage him in conversation. By morning, Michaelis is exhausted and returns home to sleep. There he finds Gatsby floating on an air mattress in the pool. Wilson, sure that Gatsby is responsible for his wife's death, shoots and kills Gatsby.
Nick finds Gatsby's body floating in the pool and, while starting to the house with the body, the gardener discovers Wilson's lifeless body off in the grass. Chapter 8 displays the tragic side of the American dream as Gatsby is gunned down by George Wilson.
The death is brutal, if not unexpected, and brings to an end the life of the paragon of idealism. The myth of Gatsby will continue, thanks to Nick who relays the story, but Gatsby's death loudly marks the end of an era.
In many senses, Gatsby is the dreamer inside all of everyone. Although the reader cheers him as he pursues his dreams, one also knows that pure idealism cannot survive in the harsh modern world.
This chapter, as well as the one following, also provides astute commentary on the world that, in effect, allowed the death of Gatsby. As the chapter opens, Nick is struggling with the situation at hand. He grapples with what's right and what's wrong, which humanizes him and lifts him above the rigid callousness of the story's other characters. Unable to sleep a premonition of bad things to come he heads to Gatsby's who is returning from his all-night vigil outside Daisy's house.
Nick, always a bit more levelheaded and sensitive to the world around him than the other characters, senses something large is about to happen. Although he can't put his finger on it, his moral sense pulls him to Gatsby's.
Upon his arrival, Gatsby seems genuinely surprised his services were not necessary outside Daisy's house, showing again just how little he really knows her. As the men search Gatsby's house for cigarettes, the reader learns more about both Nick and Gatsby.
Nick moves further and further from the background to emerge as a forceful presence in the novel, showing genuine care and concern for Gatsby, urging him to leave the city for his own protection.
Throughout the chapter, Nick is continually pulled toward his friend, anxious for reasons he can't exactly articulate. Whereas Nick shows his true mettle in a flattering light in this chapter, Gatsby doesn't fare as well. He becomes weaker and more helpless, despondent in the loss of his dream. It is as if he refuses to admit that the story hasn't turned out as he intended. He refuses to acknowledge that the illusion that buoyed him for so many years has vanished, leaving him hollow and essentially empty.
As the men search Gatsby's house for the elusive cigarettes, Gatsby fills Nick in on the real story. For the first time in the novel, Gatsby sets aside his romantic view of life and confronts the past he has been trying to run from, as well as the present he has been trying to avoid.
Daisy, it turns out, captured Gatsby's love largely because "she was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known. Although he doesn't admit it, his love affair with Daisy started early, when he erroneously defined her not merely by who she was, but by what she had and what she represented.
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