Regarding Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker, who have not been
discussed---
As the villain of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby, Tom physical aspects denote his brutal nature.
He is a stout, sturdy man
with a rather hard mouth and superciious
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...a cruel
body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the
impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it,
even toward people he
liked...
From this
description, the reader experiences little surprise when Tom punches Myrtle--"people he
liked"--and breaks her nose, or when he has no compunction about implicating Gatsby in
her death.
Likewise, the descripton of Jordan Baker
suggests her morally effete, and
self-absorbed personality:
[with] impersonal eyes....She was extended full
length at her end of the divan, completely motionless and with her chin raised a little
s if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to
fall....
At any rate Miss Baker's lips fluttered, she
nodded at me almost imperceptibly and then quickly tipped her head back again--the
object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and give her something of a
fright....Almost any exhibition of self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from
me.
In later
chapters, Jordan's having cheated in a golf competition (considered a game of gentlemen
and ladies) and her desire to be at parties where she knows no one are clearly in line
with her amoral, decadent, and self-absorded character as is her surprise that Nick
Carraway is the first to break up with her, rather than the other way
around.
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