Ch1+Discussion

In the first chapter Fitzgerald makes reference to many important people throughout history and literature. “I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew.” Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas were all wealthy men. Midas was a King who granted a wish that made everything he touched turn to gold while, J.P. Morgan was a famous New York financer and finally Maecenas was a counselor/adviser to the legendary Roman ruler who is commonly known as Octavian. All three of these characters represent The Great Gatsby because they all have a level of wealth but at the same time have greed. Midas wanted everything he touched to be gold, Morgan attempted to monopolize the financial business, and Maceanes wanted to rule the world. Tom seems to resemble Midas. He represents Midas because he comes from a wealthy family, but he still wants more. He is full of greed. Gatsby represents Morgan. He represents Morgan because of the rags to riches story. He started with nothing and became a wealthy man. All of their ambitions ultimately destroyed them, much like the crazy ambitions the characters in The Great Gatsby had!

In addition to describing the people of the past F. Scott Fitzgerald also uses the first chapter to introduce the main characters of the novel.

Nick Carraway is the stories narrator. He is the average American man looking for the American dream. He moved from the Midwest to join the booming bonds sale business. As the story progresses Nick becomes a loyal friend to all the characters in the novel. Not only does Nick becomes friends with all the characters he becomes the moderator of the bunch, he is the one the restrains order between the group. "I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth." All the characters in the novel can trust Nick because of his ability not to judge people. He looks at their problems or situations from their prospective rather than that of an outsider. "And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit." Even though everyone enjoys Nick's company he feels as if this is a burden and will get tired of his ability. Nick has just moved to a new area and his optimistic about what is yet to come.

“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.“ Gatsby seems to be everything that Nick stands against yet he finds himself interested. He may interest because of pure mystery or maybe it is the fact that Gatsby (huge parties, drinks plenty, girls) represents the bad guy while Nick represents the good guy (doesn't drink, doesn't have intimate affairs, saves the day). The good guy always seems to draw himself to the bad.

Tom Buchanan comes from a family with a great deal of wealth, although he seems to be settled down with his wife Daisy, but it is quite the opposite. Throughout the marriage Tom has had many love affairs with other women. In addition the couple moves around a lot. It seems as if Tom reached the climax of his life in climax and is now on the descent. “Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.” He is no longer the star he was in college and is looking for something to do with his life. "He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner." He is one big child. When something is wrong instead of fixing it he just moves. "I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game." When he is bored he finds a new women to make his life exciting and rather than working he plays games like polo. “Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.” He does whatever keeps him away from trouble and boredom. He has many athletic features. Tom is a very stern person and is known for his boisterous opinions. He is not known for his loyalty since he has had numerous love affairs.

Opposite of her husband, Daisy is a petite, soft-spoken, upper class woman. She appears as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. "The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room." She thinks everything is one big joke rarely taking anything seriously. “I’ve heard it said that Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.” Daisy plays dumb with her husband in order to achieve the freedoms she wants. She does this because she knows that is she was a sophisticated woman Tom wouldn't allow her to explore new things and eventually have a love affair with Gatsby.

The final character introduced in the chapter is Jordan Baker, who is a lot like Daisy. Jordan however is a professional golfer. “She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.” Both Jordan and Daisy are able to attract the men. "Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire. They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained." Jordan is the women who relys on lies to get her way through life. This can be seen when she plays because she often will move her ball inconspiquiesly. Fitzgerald’s purpose in describing them this way is because he wants to introduce and describe the characteristics of the main characters in the story.

The first chapter introduces everything needed in developing the plot the characters and themes. Chapter one establishes the plot because all the major problems begin to occur. The affair between Myrtle and Tom is unveiled. We do not learn her name or the extent of the relationship but we find out it is there. “Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?” Daisy hears this and her obsessions with Gatsby returns. This forshawdows the events to come in the novel. The theme of the American dream is also revealed in chapter one. It is revealed because all the characters moved from the central area of the United States to the eastern region. Nick especially, has moved from the Midwest to find luck in the booming bond business. Another theme generated in chapter one is materialism. The characters of the book rely heavily on the materials in life instead of morals.

"But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock."

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