Thursday, December 19, 2013

In Chapter 1 of "The Great Gatsby," what did Miss Baker tell Nick about Tom?

In this scene, Nick is reunited with his cousin, Daisy, and her husband and is introduced to Jordan. The colors associated with the fashionable East Egg are white and gold, suggesting wealth and beauty; however, all is not well in paradice.   Dinner is interupted when the telephone rings, and Tom is called from the room to answer it. When Daisy follows him out, Jordan Baker confides to Nick that the call is from Tom's 'woman' in New York.

The rest of the evening is awkward and painful as Tom and Daisy try unsuccessfully to forget the intrusion.  Nick's words from earlier on in the chapter echo in our ears, "... what foul dust floated in the wake of his [Gatsby's]dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men."  The reader starts to get the sense that under the thin veneer of the white world, there is hollowness. Even in this opening chapter, we are getting hints that Tom and Daisy are part of this 'foul dust'.

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