Comparing the Women in Fifth Business and The Great Gatsby
Behind every great man lies a great women. In some cases the women herself may not always be good or ideal according to society. Nevertheless it seems to add character to the man, and also influences his actions and maybe even his morals. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway's realization of the equality of man altered through his origin sets him up as a morally sound standard, until confronted by Jordan Baker. The "American Dream" will never be a failure if Jordan does not develop Nick into his final character. In the novel Fifth Business, Jung's theory suggests that the conscious part of Dunny's personality is brought out by Liesl. It is Liesl that allows Dunny to
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Jordan has had such low moral values for quite some time, which is evident in chapter four. "Daisy said to Jordan Baker...While she was drunk as a monkey, she told Jordan, Here dearis. Take'em back downstairs and give'en to whoever they belong. Tell'em Daisy's changed he mind!" (pg. 79 ln 5) "But the next day she married Tom Buchanan without as so much as a shiver..." (pg. 79 ln 19) It was evident that Daisy and Jordan were both filled with immoral value before Daisy even got married. This later begins to affect Nick as well when Nick later found out from Jordan that Gatsby was once in love with Tom's wife Daisy. This shows how Nick begins to slip because he is now part of the development of the plot. It comes down to the point where a self-respected-man like himself begins to gossip. Nick inevitably stoops to a lower level. This may be bad in regards to his character but is vital in the role of the novel. It is later that Nick realizes that he becomes twisted and that he finds no desire to associate himself with careless people like Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, thus siding with Mr. Gatsby. He comes to an understanding at the end that he could not have come forth if it were not for Jordan Baker. Nick has finally reached the final stage of his character development.
The conscious part of Dunny's personality is brought out by Liesl. Jung states that,"Ones self is composed of a group of
However, the truth begins to shine through Nick’s own idealism when he begins to learn of the reality of the lives of the wealthy, and of the troubles even they must face. The first moment that Nick realizes the truth of the troubles that even the rich have their their troubles is when he first meets Tom’s mistress and Tom breaks her nose for repeatedly saying “Daisy”.This reveals to Nick that Tom, who
As a main character we may get a different impression of Nick since we are now analysing his personality and how he interacts with the other characters in the story. We read numerous pronouns in the first chapter, ‘I’, suggesting that he is self-indulgent and pompous. For instance, once at Gatsby’s party, Nick only kisses Jordan Baker because he ‘had no girl’, conveying he only kissed her because there was no one else there. This makes Nick seem selfish and arrogant as he is only thinking of himself. To the reader, we
This matter of the "girl back home" warrants further study. This is the girl whom Daisy and Tom ask about, and the subject of whom Nick clearly (and
Nick and Gatsby can both relate to wanting the girl that they can't have. For Gatsby, his dream girl is Daisy. They had a relationship but then Gatsby had to go into war and they hadn't seen each other for five years. All Gatsby thought about was seeing daisy again, he even bought a house across a lake from her. Daisy obviously moved on because she married Tom, a rich socialite but their relationship is toxic. A quote to support this statement is “Look!” she complained. “I hurt it.” We all looked- knuckle was black and blue. “You did it, Tom, she said accusingly. I know you didn't mean to but you did do it. That's what I get got marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a-”( ). This shows that Tom is abusive and he is a very ignorant and disrespectful human being. Gatsby's has always had an undying love for Daisy and he states that they should be together. A quote that shows is “I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.” ( )That shows that Gatsby has never stopped loving Daisy and he wants to fix his relationship with her. Nick on the other hand has his eyes on Jordan. Things are not easy because Jordan is focused on her golfing career and her Aunt is very controlling. Gatsby obsesses over Daisy and is in love with her but with Nick he is just attracted to Jordan, nothing close to love. Nick says, “ I wasn't actually in love but, I
As Nick moves into West Egg, his life begins to change from what it used to be. Following his appearance in New York, his cousin Daisy invites him over her house in the East Egg, where he meets Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker. Nick never judges someone, rather, he gets to know them and their story before making any assumptions, and this is shown many separate times. He knew Tom because they were friends in college, but Jordan was a new face for him and he was interested to find out what she was like. Nick and Jordan form a sort of relationship, propelled by Daisy, as time goes on but it is rather short lived, he felt like she was untrustworthy and the way she acted after Myrtle's, Toms mistresses, death caused Nick to not care about her any more, and lose what love he had for her.
Nick sees these two girls as goddesses, showing his feelings of lust over both in the eyes of the readers. Nick begins describing Jordan with imagery just as vivid as that of Daisy’s depiction. “The last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face”, Nick describes inviting a warm and sweet image to fill the mind, though this feeling did not last long (Fitz???). Following suit in his relationship with Daisy, Nick becomes blind to the reality of Jordan and her personality. With this narrational blindness and a single perspective, the audience continues to receive unreliable information, this time about all endeavors relating to, or about Jordan. Being blind and love-struck again, Nick not only continues to be unreliable as a narrator, he completely replaces Daisy. “With characteristic unawareness, Nick compromises with his feelings by using Jordan Baker as a surrogate Daisy” (Unreliable Narration in The Great Gatsby). This claim by Boyle defines the reason Nick continues to follow the pattern he took with Daisy and realize later that Jordan is not the woman he previously thought she was. Upon coming to this realization Nick ends his affairs with Jordan, leading to a new point in the pattern not shown in his one-sided
In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway functions as both the foil and protagonist, as well as the narrator. A young man from Minnesota, Nick travels to the West Egg in New York to learn about the bond business. He lives in the district of Long Island, next door to Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man known for throwing lavish parties every night. Nick is gradually pulled into the lives of the rich socialites of the East and West Egg. Because of his relationships with Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, and others, along with his nonjudgmental demeanor, Nick is able to undertake the many roles of the foil, protagonist, and the narrator of The Great Gatsby.
Gatsby's extravagant parties went on during "summer nights" and people were rarely invited, but "they went there" to celebrate in a sumptuous atmosphere. As Nick gets to know better Jordan Baker; his curiosity about Gatsby's wins and he asks her about his past, but she adamantly avoided the question and start talking about how she "like large parties" due to their "[intimacy]." On the night of his acquaintance with Gatsby, Nick turns quickly to Jordan and interrogates her about his "dim background." Nick's actions seem child-like and very chagrined due to his choice of action; it seems that the only way Nick could get information about Gatsby is by gossiping like small school
Nick is still, however, an honest and good man. He is not extravagantly rich, but unlike Gatsby he earned all of his high social connections fairly. He is rather disgusted with the East and it’s empty values by the end of the book. But he is still intrigued by it all, as he demonstrates through his relationship with Jordan Baker. He holds an almost subconscious
As the book goes on it shows you a little bit more to Nick’s character. He’s candid to an
Though the Great Gatsby is a male dominated book, there are a few women who have great influences. Daisy Buchannan is the main female character, having romantic relations with both Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Myrtle Wilson is a woman who is married to a hardworking man, but she remained unfaithful throughout the length of the novel. Lastly, Jordan Baker is probably the least mentioned woman but had an equally important role as the others. Fitzgerald used the development of the three women to further the plot and theme of the book and show the treatment and role of women in that society at that time.
She is just nosy and wants to get him involved with her friends. Nick assures her this is not true but she is not sure because she did hear it from distant relatives of Nick’s.
Regarding Gatsby, Nick "had enough of all of them [referring to Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan]"(Fitzgerald 79) and he thought Gatsby was "despicable."(Fitzgerald 79) This is all just after the accident. By the end of the whole story though, Nick's sympathy toward Gatsby improved. He felt terrible that no one paid honor to this man or cared that he was dead.
He helped him reconnect with Daisy and supported him loyally till his funeral. Meanwhile, Nick is a really nice person who cares and seems like he is always there for Daisy. Although he does not do the right thing when it comes to helping her choose between Tom and Jay, he just leaves the scene, probably because he did not want to take sides, as he was a close friend with all three parties of that conflict. “At this point Jordan and [Nick] tried to go, but Tom and Gatsby insisted with competitive firmness that [they] remain” (Fitzgerald 7, 130). Carraway tries to flee the scene, instead of advising Daisy that Jay would be a much better man than Tom who is cheating on her ever was. As her cousin, it was part of his duty to guide her and tell her about the most realistic option in spontaneous and unexpected situations of such. That’s is to say, Nick is one of the characters that will express the strong bond between the illusion of appearance and reality by his kind personality that covers the mistakes and bad decisions he makes.
Nick becomes attracted to Jordan at their first encounter, and a romantic relationship soon follows This relationship however does not last and eventually fades away. Nick dislikes Jordan’s clandestine and indifferent personality, yet his attraction for her overwhelms his dislikes. Even with the existence of Nick’s disapproval of Jordan’s personality and behavior, their relationship progresses well, as they meet up more often during the summer. Following Myrtle’s death, their relationship commences a state of decadence, and finally their romance is ended after a phone call right before Gatsby’s death. These scenes involving Nick and Jordan are portrayed with some differences and similarities in the film adaptation of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald).