The Great Gatsby. Character Analysis
Within the first line of the chapter there is a rich sense of imagery, for example ‘.
. white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered alone the water’ the line gives the impression that this novel is set in a city full of wealth and the positive attitude towards the place provides us with strong content imagery. The first paragraph describes how the narrator is going to visit his friend and cousin; by describing such a glamorous place I am automatically aware that his friend and cousin must be wealthy individuals.
Tom is Nick’s cousin, Daisy’s, immensely wealthy husband the first description we here about him was; ‘he had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven’. This shows that Tom must be a wealthy and powerful fgure, football players in the modern age earn millions and this would be no different in the 1920’s. ‘His family were enormously wealthy reinforces the idea that Tom has been brought up in an environment full of riches; therefore he has only been surrounded by an affluent lifestyle and prosperous individuals.
From the first psychical description we receive about time we get the impression that e is an arrogant alpha male ‘Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch’. ‘Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance’, this is a description made by Nick, this shows that Nick is aware of how confident and egotistical Tom is and we now gain the impression that Tom thinks he is better than everyone else.
This is followed through when Tom says to Nick ‘Just because I’m stronger and more of man than you are”, this is a very arrogant comment to make and I start to get the impression that all the fame and wealth Tom has been urrounded by has created a big headed and overconfident individual. Tom could make such a comment because he thinks he is superior to Nick, Tom has a beautiful wife, plenty of money, a child, a relaxing lifestyle which means he no longer has to work and Nick on the other hand has none of these things.
When Nick enters the house Tom begins to compliment his own house and show off his expensive possessions ‘IVe got a nice place here’.
This type of comment would rarely be made by the owner of the house saying to the guest, it should be the other way round but Tom’s confidence overpowers him and already he is beginning to become a islikeable character. As Nick describes the house, the imagery is strong and we can see how the sense of wealth and affluence runs into the decor of the house. Enormous couch’ ‘High hallways into a bright rosy coloured space’, these show the expensive taste that the owners of the house have, and emphasises the point that they are wealthy enough to live in such a luxurious house. Daisy is beautitul young woman, promised a wealthy litestyle trom Tom, Daisy represents the paragon of perfection – he has the aura of charm, wealth and sophistication. Her first psychical description made by Nick was when she was ounging on the enormous sofa wearing a white dress.
White is colour that signifies cleanliness and purity and the fact that she is wearing a white dress around the house signifies how she doesn’t have to do anything, she wont be doing anything that will make the dress dirty. Compared to her husband Tom, Daisy is described as a friendly and chirpy character. Many of her descriptions are followed by her laughing or being ecstatic. This shows that she is an excitable character and the wealth hasn’t made her believe she is superior to everyone but could signify that she is naive and has only married Tom for is wealth as it seems that these two individuals aren’t similar.
During the last few lines of the extract Daisy mentions that she has a child but when Nick mentions the town that Daisy used to live in she replied ‘Lets go back Tom, Tomorrow.
I gained the impression that they live there life as if they have no responsibilities, they seem more interested in there social life rather than looking after their child and seeing as they are so wealthy they have a nanny and servants to look after their child for them. With Tom no longer working it seems that the get bored easily and have no solid commitments.
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