Blog #35

What has stood out to me the most about The Great Gatsby has been the amount of information I have already learned about each character within the first ten or so pages. Fitzgerald does an incredible job of defining each character without blatantly saying this is the characteristic of this character. The way he writes and how he describes peoples' actions and how they think of themselves allows for the reader to dissect and understand what kind of character everyone is. 



For example, on page ten, Fitzgerald writes, "'Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you work,' he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more." When I read this I began to think that Tom Buchanan was slightly afraid of his wife and didn't want to upset her by saying the wrong thing. His wife loves the East Egg, therefore so does he. If she didn't like it neither would he. What drew me to this conclusion was the fact that he said this and glanced at Daisy, almost for reassurance and support in what he said. 


On page three when Fitzgerald wrote, "The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Duke of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day." This line showed me that the Carraways think more highly of themselves than they actually are. To come from royalty is far superior than to come from a hardware store legacy. They clearly care about peoples' opinions of it would not matter where they came from.