Great Gatsby Reading Journal - Chapter 1

The Great Gatsby Chapter 1, Pages 1-21.

The audience immediately is introduced to a man named Nick Carraway, who works in a bonds company, and takes credit for the story. Nick tells of a man named Gatsby, whose personality he describes as gorgeous. Tom goes to a distant cousin's, Daisy, house for dinner, who happens to be married to Tom Buchanan, a former acquaintance of Nick's. Later that evening, the phone rings and a woman at the party named Jordan tells Nick the caller is likely Tom's lover in New York. After their company leaves, Tom and Daisy discuss a possibility of Jordan and Nick going out.

Tom: “Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body-he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage – a cruel body” (7).

  While Nick comes off as a respectable person, showing kindness to everyone, and an interest in Daisy's well being, Tom displays selfishness, shown through his affair with another woman and view of whites as a dominant race. Tom also shows off his wealth through his purchase of multiple horses and large home in an upper-class neighborhood. However, through all this negativity the one positive quality seen is he ability to provide for Daisy and their child's future.

  In my opinion, Tom's role in the book is to be a villain and rival character to the protagonist Nick, who is his total opposite. It is likely that future chapters in the book will display this hinted rivalry between Nick and Tom. As the antagonist, Tom's description gives off the impression of having a threatening physical appearance, including his eyes, which Fitzgerald describes as "Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward" (7).

“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17): This quote stood out to me because when I originally read it, I did not understand what Daisy meant by saying it. Looking back to the notes we took in class on the time period in which Fitzgerald wrote the novel, I began to understand what Daisy meant. Although my generation and society values both men and women equally, the 1920s saw men as the leaders of society, while women and children were to be seen and not heard. Daisy expresses her hopes that a daughter will not have to worry about anything except getting married and taking care of children, which women did during this time.