Chapter 1-Pages 1-21
The book opens with the narrator, Nick, explaining lessons learned from his father, primarily judging other people. In "the summer of twenty-two" Nick moved to New York on "the West Egg" to pursue his work in bonds. On the island he lives next door to the Gatsby's mansion. Nick knows many people from going to Yale and is invited to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan. At the party we are introduced to Jordan, a Golfer. After the party, Daisy and Tom want Nick to ask Jordan out on a date, but Nick goes home. When Nick returns to his house, he sees Gatsby out on a dock, and Gatsby disappears.
Tom Buchanan: "He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather 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. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body-he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage-cruel body." (Page 7-Fitzgerald)
-Powerful
-Cruel Body
-Hulking
Tom's role in this book has been to play a character full of testosterone and represents the class of wealthy, connected, and arrogant of the world. Everything he does is so he can have more power than everyone. In the first chapter we see that he has a lover in New York, this clearly shows that he can not appreciate his wife. Tom seems like a person who is a hypocrite, who does things without thinking of the consequences, and abuses others.
"Whenever you fell like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." I enjoyed this quote especially since it goes back to the saying of, "try walking a mile in my shoes". The quote exemplifies Nick's status, that he has been a man of the world, with many experiences that many people have not gone through. Also, it shows the importance of others to be aware of what some people are going through before they judge them.
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