preview

Character Analysis Of The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

As Fitzgerald started to build the base of his storyline, one element that stood out to me was his characterization of Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan. Nick followed a motto in life, told by his father, ‘"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had”(1).’ Right off the bat, Fitzgerald portrays Carraway as an objective and nonjudgmental human being. As I read further through the chapter, I noticed Fitzgerald’s quite forward judgment of Tom, “... Rather a hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (11). Fitzgerald's depiction of Buchanan offsets the moderate portrayal of the narrator. This intimidating and bully like ambiance radiating off Tom “appears” later in the chapter when he continuously cuts Daisy off in the middle of her talking. Nick vividly describes the “appearance” of Tom, “Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body. It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body” (11). Fitzgerald was implying that whatever you may look from the outside, it definitely doesn’t portray who you are inside. From the outside, Tom looks well dressed and clean cut, but his personality does not suit him by any means. I believe that Fitzgerald had a meaning behind the way of characterizing and

Get Access