Thursday, January 28, 2010

Vocab. Words

wan - adj. - pale, weak, strained

prodigality - n. - the quality of being wastefully extravagant

feigned - adj. - pretended, assumed, disguised

languidly - adv. - lacking in vigor or vitality

colossal - adj. - extraordinarily great in size, degree, or extent

complacency - n. - a feeling of quiet pleasure or security

levity - n. - lightness of mind, character, beavior, or weight; fickleness; lack of appropriate seriousness

extemporizing - v. - improvising

supercilious - adj. - haughtily disdainful or contemptuous

infinitesimal - adj. - indefinitely or exceedingly small

fractiousness - n. - refractory or unruly, irritable, quarrelsome




Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 7 Journal

Summary: One night, Nick observed that the parties had ceased occurring over at Gatsby's. He goes over to see if Gatsby is sick, and an unfamiliar butler answers the door. The butler is rude to Nick, but informs him that Gatsby is not sick and says that he will tell him of Nick's visit. Nick then learns from his Finnish servant that Gatsby has replaced all of his servants, and the new ones don't seem very much like servants. The next day, Gatsby and Nick talk on the phone and Nick learns that they all used to run a hotel, were sent from Wolfsheim, and are there because they won't gossip. Nick is then invited over to Daisy's for lunch the next day with Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, and accepts. It is brutally hot the next day, and Nick has an unpleasant train ride to the Buchanan's. Gatsby and Nick arrive at the house and are guided into the cool salon. Daisy and Jordan are awaiting them, but Tom is on the phone in the hall talking to Mr. Wilson about the car. Daisy gets Tom to go make them some drinks, and while he is gone she goes over and kisses Gatsby, saying she loves him. Jordan and Daisy make a slight joke about there being a lady present. A nurse walks in with Pammy, Daisy's daughter. Daisy introduces Pammy to her guests, showing her off, and then the nurse takes her back. Tom returns with drinks, says some 'scientific' nonsense about the sun, and takes Gatsby out on the veranda to show him the view. Gatsby points out his house. At lunch, Daisy suggests they go to town. She says that Gatsby looks cool, but really in subtext it's like she is confessing her love for him, and Tom notices. He is atounded. Tom gets them all up to go to town immediately, and Daisy and Jordan go upstairs to get ready. Tom, Nick, and Gatsby chat for a bit, and then Tom goes inside to fetch some whiskey to take with them. Nick and Gatsby now deduce that Daisy's voice is 'full of money', that's why it charms. Tom decides he wants to take Gatsby's car and Daisy, and have Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby drive in his coupe. Daisy however goes with Gatsby instead, leaving Tom with Jordan and Nick. Tom speaks about the affair he has just witnessed with Nick and Jordan. Tom says he's been investigating Gatsby, and Jordan makes a joke about a medium. Tom has to stop to get gas, at the Wilson garage. Tom and George discuss their conversation they had earlier, and Mr. Wilson says that he needs the money for him and his wife to move West. Tom is startled. Wilson says that he suspects something about his wife, and it is obviously making him physically sick. Tom agrees to give him the car. Myrtle sees Tom's car out the window, and looks on with extreme jealousy because she believes that Jordan is his wife. Tom and Gatsby meet up on the road and Jordan suggests they go to see a movie. Daisy suggests that Tom, Nick, and Jordan go to watch a movie, but that she and Gatsby drive around for a while instead. Tom decides that they should have a further discussion on the matter at the Plaza hotel. They meet up and agree to get a room. Daisy complains about the heat, Tom tells her to stop, and Gatsby defends Daisy. Daisy decides that everyone needs to get a mint julep. They hear a wedding going on downstairs. Daisy remembers a man whom neither of them knew at her and Tom's wedding named Biloxi, who stayed with Jordan, and gave her an aluminum putter, until her dad kicked him out. Her dad died a day later. Biloxi said he was from Yale, which starts the discussion on Gatsby being an Oxford man, which Tom doesn't believe. Gatsby finally tells them that he only went to Oxford for 5 months, after the Armistice deal. Daisy gets up to make drinks, but Tom starts asking Gatsby about what he is trying to do to his household. Daisy answers for Gatsby, saying he isn't trying to cause any problems. Tom goes on about some tangent on how people don't respect the family unit anymore and makes a racist comment about how people shouldn't intermarry. Tom insults Gatsby and his parties. Gatsby gets mad and tells Tom that Daisy never loved him. The two men argue for a time, each getting more angry. Daisy breaks in and makes a comment about Tom's cheating and an incident in Chicago. Daisy breaks down after being taken into the argument and says that she loved Gatsby, but she loved Tom too. Gatsby is baffled. Tom says that he is going to take better care of Daisy, and Gatsby says that Daisy is going to move in with him. Daisy says that she is leaving Tom. Tom talks about Wolfsheim, and how he discovered the truth behind Gatsby's bootlegging drug-stores, and bring up a man named Walter Chase who was threatened to keep silent by Wolfsheim. Nick noticed that Gatsby gets a look in his eye, and sees why people say that he could have killed a man before. Gatsby frantically tries to explain to Daisy, but Daisy just wants to go home. They leave with Gatsby in his own car again, and Nick realizes he had forgotten that it was his 30th birthday that day. Nick is comforted of his fears of a new decade by Jordan, sitting right beside him. We view a scene in which Michaelis, a neighbor of the Wilson's, sees George's sickness and tells him to rest. Wilson decides not to, and asks Michaelis suspicious questions involving Myrtle. This whole time, George has Myrtle locked up inside, which she doesn't take kindly to. Michaelis leaves, and Myrtle runs out of the house, and onto the road. She recognizes Tom's car and believes that Tom is in it, and so she tries to get it to stop, but it turns out that she gets run over (Gatsby and Daisy have no idea who she is). Tom drives by and stops to see what all the racket at the garage is about. Mr. Wilson is freaking out about his dead wife. Tom sees Myrtle's corpse and learns what happened via Michaelis, a policeman, and a black man, who tells him what the car looked like. Tom goes and tell George that he wasn't in the car he was driving earlier, and that he sold it. Tom leaves after some questioning by the policeman, and sobs all the way home. They arrive back at the Buchanan's to find Daisy is already home. Tom invites Nick in, and Jordan asks him to come in, but Nick declines, not wanting to see any of them, and waits outside while Tom calls for a taxi. Gatsby steps out of the bushes and Nick discovers that it was Daisy who was driving the car, and that she had tried to swerve away, but didn't. Gatsby says he'll take the blame for Daisy though. Gatsby says that he is going to wait until Tom and Daisy go to bed before he leaves so that he can make sure Tom doesn't try to hurt Daisy. Nick goes inside to check and see if there is any commotion, but finds Daisy and Tom sitting at the table together, not unhappily, looking as if they were conspiring something together. Nick goes back outside, reports to Gatsby, who says he is still going to wait, and leaves in his taxi.

Allusion: Trimalchio - a Roman novel cahracter who was a freedman who worked hard to gain his wealth. Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

Symbols: Dr. T. J. Eckleburg.

Irony: Tom and George Wilson realize that their wives are cheating on them at the same time.
    There is a wedding going on downstairs in the Plaza, while the Buchanan party is                           upstairs, dealing with relationship issues.

Motif: That Gatsby killed a man. Time - 5 years ago, 30th birthday, three months before.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 6 Journal

Summary: A reporter arrives from New York to interview Gatsby. He doesn't really understand why, until the reporter tells him about his fame and the mysteriousness surrounding his life. Nick goes into the big spiel about Gatsby's life. He starts with how James Gatz changed his name to Jay Gatsby, and first met millionaire-by-mining Dan Cody on his yacht on Lake Superior. Nick goes back and talks about how he was born a nobody in North Dakota, but had a large imagination and had created Jay Gatsby by the time he was seventeen. Young Gatsby worked as a clam-digger and salmon-fisher to make a living and was popular with the ladies, but really only cared about one thing: becoming the man in his mind. Gatsby attended Lutheran College of St. Olaf, but stayed there only two weeks before going back to Lake Superior, where he met up with 50-year-old Dan Cody. Cody took a shining to Gatsby (for that was who James Gatz now was), and invited him on his yacht, the Tuolomee, taking him to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast. Gatsby lived with Cody for five years, circling the continent three times, working almost every position on the boat, including jailor. One night in Boston, the yacht picked up Ella Kaye, reporter and gold-digger. Cody died a week later, and instead of Gatsby getting his inheritance, Kaye got it all through some legal reasons Gatsby didn't understand. After telling Nick all this, Gatsby didn't see him for several weeks, as Nick was gallivanting about in New York with Jordan often. He payed a visit to Gatsby though one Sunday and on that day Tom, along with the Sloanes, rode up on their horses to Gatsby's for a drink. Gatsby and Tom remembered each other, and Gatsby mentioned his meeting Daisy at Nick's. Gatsby was polite towards them, and invited them over for dinner, but the declined and instead invited Gatsby over for dinner out of obligation. They leave before Gatsby is ready however, because they are having a dinner party full of families of "old money", and Gatsby wouldn't fit in. Before departing, Tom makes a comment to Nick about how women "run around too much" these days. A week later, Nick, Daisy, and Tom attend one of Gatsby's parties, and the normal party mood has changed to a sort of harsh unpleasantness. Tom and Daisy don't recognize many of the party-goers, but Gatsby introduces them, calling Tom "the polo player". They see a famous movie star and her director under a plum tree. Daisy and Gatsby dance together, and then go over to sit on Nick's porch for half an hour before supper, leaving Nick "on guard" in the garden. At dinner, Tom eats with a group of party-goers that includes a cute young woman that he seems to have taken a liking to. Daisy gives him a little gold pencil in case he needs to write any addresses down, a stab at his adultery. Daisy is obviously not having a good time, and when Gatsby goes to take a phone call, Nick and Daisy sit themselves down at a table full of drunks, having a conversation about how one girl, Miss Baedeker's, head got stuck in the pool. After leaving the table, Nick and Daisy watch the director and actress under the plum tree again, they seem different from the other partyers, and Daisy says she likes the actress. Daisy is appalled by the party, and Nick sits with her and Tom as they wait for their car. Tom asks who Gatsby really is and if he is a bootlegger, because many "new money" people got rich that way, and Nick denounces him. Daisy tells Tom that she enjoyed the party, just to spite him, and starts to sing with the music in her enchanting voice. Daisy makes a disapproving comment about how most of the people weren't even invited. Tom says he is going to find out who Gatsby really is, and Daisy tells him he got rich on a drug-store chain business. Their limousine drives up, and Tom and Daisy leave. Daisy is worried as she says goodbye to Nick that some other girl will get ahold of Gatsby at the party and erase those five years of devoted waiting. Nick waits until Gatsby returns and they discuss Daisy not liking the party. Gatsby wishes Daisy would just tell Tom the she never loved him and run off with Gatsby himself and get married back in Louisville. Nick tells him that you can't repeat the past, and Gatsby argues against Nick, saying he is going to make everything back to the way it was five years ago. Gatsby then reminisces about those many years ago, remembering his and Daisy's first kiss on that fateful nightwalk many autumns ago.

Allusions: Lutheran College of St. Olaf, the waltz Three O'Clock in the Morning.

Daisy's "green card": Symbol or motif of green?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 5 Journal

Summary: Nick returns home late to find Gatsby's house lit up like the World's Fair, but almost entirely empty. Gatsby goes to talk with Nick, and tells him that he has been "glancing into some of the rooms", in order to make sure everything is perfect for Daisy of course. Gatsby asks Nick is he would like to go to Coney Island or take a swim in the pool, as a sort of payment for Nick agreeing to invite Daisy over. Nick declines, and tells Gatsby that Daisy will be over the day after tomorrow. Gatsby insists that Nick's grass must be cut by his gardener for Daisy. Gatsby then talks to Nick about money, and invites him to join his little confidential business. Nick says he already has enough work, and goes to bed. The next morning, Nick calls Daisy, and tells her not to bring Tom. On the day of the tea-meet, it was pouring rain. Gatsby had Nick's grass cut, and Nick goes into West Egg to fetch his Finn, and some flowers, lemons, cakes, and cups. When Nick gets home though, he sees that Gatsby already took care of the flowers, bringing an entire greenhouse over to Nick's. Gatsby arrives at Nick's house, looking very nervous. They speak about the rain, the grass, and the tea supplies, waiting for Daisy. At two to four (when Daisy is supposed to arrive), Gatsby decides that he needs to leave, but Nick convinces him to stay, just as Daisy arrives. Daisy's car pulls up, and Nick goes out to meet her. They greet each other and Nick makes a joke about the butler's nose. When they go inside, Nick is a little confused because Gatsby has left the living room. Seconds later, Gatsby knocks at the door, looking pale and miserable. Gatsby walks into the living room, and there is utter silence. Daisy is first to speak, saying that she is glad to see Gatsby again. Silence follows. Just as Gatsby says that they have met before, the broken clock on the mantle falls, but Gatsby catches it in time. He apologizes for the clock, and Nick says it's alright. Daisy says that they haven't seen each other for a long time, and Gatsby replies "Five years next November." The tea arrives and Nick and Daisy converse for a while before Nick makes up an excuse so he can leave Daisy and Gatsby to themselves. Gatsby quickly goes along with Nick into the kitchen saying that everything was a terrible mistake, but Nick consoles him, saying that they're both just embarrassed. Gatsby goes back into the living room where Daisy is waiting. Nick goes outside and admire Gatsby's house for half an hour. The rain stops, and Nick goes inside, making as much noise as he possibly can before entering the living room. When he sees the two again, Daisy has tearstreams down her face and Gatsby is ecstatic and glowing. Both are happy. They discuss the halt of the rain, and Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick over to his house for a tour. As Daisy washes her face, Nick and Gatsby wait out on the lawn . While admiring the house, Gatsby says it took him three years to get the money to pay for it. Nick catches this and states that Gatsby had previously said he inherited his money. Gatsby quickly comes up with the excuse that he lost most of it in the panic of the war. Nick asks Gatsby what business he is in, and Gatsby immediately tells him it's none of his concern. He corrects himself however, saying that he was once in the oil and drug businesses, but that he's not involved in them anymore, and asks Nick is he has reconsidered his offer. Just then, Daisy comes out and exclaims that she loves his house, but asks is he gets lonely. Gatsby replies that he has a lot of celebrated people over all the time. They walk through the lovely-smelling gardens and up the marble steps into Gatsby's house. Gatsby gives them the tour, through music-rooms, salons, the library, and other extravagant places, Daisy making pleasing comments on Gatsby's possessions all the way. They make their way upstairs, visiting luxurious bathrooms, dressing-rooms, poolrooms, and walking in on the "boarder", Mr Klipspringer, doing liver exercises. Gatsby finally shows them his own personal quarters, and breaks out a bottle of Chartreuse. Daisy notices Gatsby's gold brush, and uses it. Gatsby begins to laugh from wonderment. Then Gatsby brings out his numerous colorful shirts, which Daisy begins to cry over. It begins to rain again, so they decide to end the tour there and stay inside. As they are looking at the bay from the window, Gatsby makes a remark about the green light on Daisy's porch right across the bay, shielded from view by fog. Nick notices an old photograph of a man and asks who it is. Gatsby tells him that it is Mr. Dan. Cody, Gatsby's deceased best friend. Nick sees another picture, this one of Gatsby on a yacht when he was eighteen, and Daisy exclaims how much she loves it. Gatsby then shows them the newspaper clippings he has collected about Daisy. Gatsby then gets a phone call about some business with a man in Detroit, who seems to think it is a small town. Daisy then points out the pink and gold clouds over the bay, and they admire them. Nick then tries to go so he can leave them alone, but they keep him there, and Gatsby fetches Klipspringer to play the piano for them. They sit in the music room, Daisy and Gatsby near each other, listening to Klipspringer play, but then Nick gets up to say goodbye. Nick walk over to the couch and sees that Gatsby's face is again beaming with bewilderment. Nick thinks about how Daisy couldn't possibly have met up to Gatsby's expectations of her, the illusion he's had for five years. They say goodbye, and Daisy and Gatsby soon forget about Nick, only acknowledging each other. Nick goes back to his house, leaving Daisy and Gatsby together.

Allusions: Marie Antoinette, "The Love Nest", Kant.

Foreshadow: Dan Cody, man in Detroit, Gatsby's illusion of Daisy.

Symbols: the clock on the mantle, rain, the green light - not important to Gatsby anymore, Owl Eyes, Gatsby's shirts, clouds.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 4 Journal

Summary: Gatsby has a few guests over at his house on Sunday morning. Nick gives us the details of many of the guests that attended Gatsby's gatherings throughout that summer in a timestable he made. Gatsby arrives in his fancy car to take Nick out on a surprise lunch. On the way, Gatsby tells Nick that he comes from a wealthy family in the Midwest (San Francisco) and went to Oxford. He also says that his entire family died, the reason for his money. Gatsby tells Nick of his many extravagant travels and the war. Gatsby shows Nick a medal from Montenegro and a picture of him and his buddies at Oxford. Nick believes him after that. Gatsby tells Nick that Ms. Baker will tell him more about himself at tea that afternoon. Gatsby gets pulled over for speeding, but simply shows the officer a card (a Christmas card; Gatsby has connections with the commissioner) and gets off scott free. At lunch, Gatsby introduces Nick to Mr. Wolfsheim, a Jewish mobster wearing cuffs made of human molars, and a colleague of Gatsby. Mr. Wolfsheim reminisces about an incident that occurred at a restaurant across the street in which one of his friends, Rosy Rosenthal, was killed. Mr. Wolfsheim leaves, and Gatsby informs Nick that it was Meyer Wolfsheim that had fixed the World Series in 1919. Nick sees Tom during lunch, and goes over to speak with him, but Gatsby is nowhere to be found at the sight of Tom. Nick is told of gatsby and Daisy's past by Jordan that afternoon: Daisy used to date lieutenant Gatsby, but when he went off to war, Daisy wasn't allowed to say goodbye and ended up being engaged to Tom the next autumn. Jordan recalls to Nick the night before Daisy's wedding, and how Daisy had decided she wasn't going to marry Tom after reading a letter (presumably from Gatsby). The next day, Daisy had recovered, and married Tom. They were happily married for a while, but Tom soon had an affair with a woman from the Santa Barabara hotel. Daisy gave birth to her daughter in Chicago the next April. Jordan then recounts the day her and Nick met at Daisy and Tom's, when Daisy was reminded of Gatsby. Jordan and Nick go for a drive around Central Park, and Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby wants him to invite both Gatsby and Daisy over one day. Nick and Jordan enjoy their romantic drive, ending it with a kiss.

Motifs: Another bad driver - the incident with Ripley Snell and Mrs. Swett. 

Allusions: Stonewall Jackson, the 1919 World Series incident. 

Themes: The corruption of the 1919 baseball World Series represents the corruption of the American dream.

Importance: We learn the history of Daisy and Gatsby, as well as learn more about Gatsby himself, and the business he is in. The subplot between Nick and Jordan thickens.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Vocab. Words

decadent - adj. - characterized by or reflecting a state of moral or cultural decline, luxuriously self-indulgent

risque - adj. - slightly indecent or liable to shock, esp. by being sexually suggestive

armistice - n. - an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time, a truce

rendezvous - n. - a meeting at an agreed time and place, typically between two people

destitute - adj. - without the basic necessities of life

mesmerize - v. - hold the attention of someone to the exclusion of all else or so as to transfix them

sardonic - adj. - grimly mocking or cynical

distraught - adj. - deeply upset and agitated

inebriated - adj. - drunk, intoxicated

debutante - n. - an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 3 Journal

Summary: Nick describes the goings-on at Gatsby's: Gatsby is always playing music, having guests over, transporting party-goers in his Rolls-Royce and yellow station wagon, and having large amounts of food (specifically oranges and lemons) delivered to his house. Servants are always running around performing tasks. Gatsby hosts extravagant late-night parties at least once a fortnight with caterers, an orchestra, and lots of booze. Nick is invited to Gatsby's house by a chaffeur, and attends that night. Nick meets up with Jordan and is introduced to some of the guests. Nick hears rumors about Gatsby: that he killed a man, was a relative of the Kaiser, and was a German spy. Nick eats supper with Jordan's party and meets her date, the undergraduate. Nick and Jordan enter the library where they meet Owl Eyes, who is completely drunk, and goes on about how the books are uncut (meaning Gatsby has never read them). Nick finally meets Gatsby, recognizing him from the war. He agrees to take a plane ride with him the next day. Jordan says that she was told Gatsby was an Oxford man, but she doesn't believe it. The party goes on with much dancing and music. The butler retrieves Jordan upon request to speak to her privately from Gatsby. The guests start to leave. Eventually, Gatsby and Jordan return to Nick. Goodbyes are said, and Jordan says she heard an amazing secret about Gatsby, but that she can't tell Nick. Nick and Jordan leave together and see a car wreck on the way out. The car crashed into a ditch and was being driven by a very drunken man and Owl Eyes. Nick walks to his house, and the night is over. Nick then tells us about what he did between these few events: working, seeing a girl in Jersey, enjoying New York. Nick visits Jordan midsummer and recalls the scandal about Jordan, when she cheated during a tournament, and learns why she likes men that are below her level. Nick witnesses Jordan's horrible driving abilities, and they discuss carelessness, the reason why Jordan likes Nick. Nick realizes he needs to break off a relationship with a 'fiancee' back west, and yet still calls himself one of the most honest men hes ever known.

Motifs: Carelessness, bad driving, large eyes, drunkeness.

Symbols: Owl Eyes

Allusions: Jazz History of the World by Vladimir Tostoff

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Gatsby Chapter 1 Study Questions

1. To give a tone of optimism and hope about Gatsby, as well as to set up the story for the theme of the death of the American dream. Fitzgerald is trying to set the reader up for the crushing of dreams that comes later on in the book, and also give the reader a sense of Gatsby's attitude toward the situation.

2. Nick was born into a good family, has money, received an education, has a good job, is intelligent, has traveled the world, and has a good personality. Nick says that after he got back from the war, he was less tolerant and more judging, but so far in the novel Nick doesn't seem very judgemental at all.

3. June 7, 1922.

4. Nick is a youngish man from a good family who has money and a good job. He attended New Haven college and works in bonds. He lives in an apartment right next to Gatsby's mansion. Nick is Daisy's second cousin once removed and knows Tom from collee. Nick is nonjudgemental, but wishes her weren't so tolerant because he doesn't really care to know as much as people tell him about themselves. He has many friends, and knows many secrets. People like Nick, but he doesn't care so much for them. Nick fought in WWI, and enjoyed it. He moved to West Egg in Long Island from the West after the war because he wanted a more fast-paced lifestyle. Nick will be a good narrator because he is so unbiased and can tell the story from all of its perspectives.

5. Fitzgerald describes Jordan Baker as "balancing" and compares her to a polite, curious, discontented, slender cadet. This shows how different Miss Baker is from Daisy. Jordan is shown to be more of a strong feminist, as she represents the theme of women's rights, and Daisy represents more of the traditional female. Jordan doesn't feel she needs to impress anyone or try to entertain them, she does whatever she feels like doing, even if that's traveling around, being athletic, and just not caring about things.

6. Nick feels a little awkward around Jordan, and isn't used to her kind of girl. He is surprised by her mannerisms and personality, but is slightly attracted to her nonetheless. 

7. Tom is your typical male chauvinist pig. He thinks he is better than others because he is good at polo and has a lot of money and nice things. He isn't tolerant of others at all. Tom is very disrespectful towards Daisy, and is obviously a horrible husband/person (not that I believe anyone can actually be a good or bad person though), as he is having an affair with another woman in New York, and Daisy knows about it. He is haughty, obnoxious, self-righteous, selfish, and unintelligent. 

8. Nick describes Daisy's voice as low and thrilling. It is enticing and charms people. This reveals Daisy's character. She attracts people to her just by speaking. She is a people-pleaser and enjoys being the center of attention. 

9. Daisy says that the best thing for a girl to be is a beautiful, little fool right after her daughter is born. She is meaning that women are born into a world of eternal sorrow and disappointment, and that it is better for a girl to just not pay any attention to what is going on, not think about what the people around them are doing, even if it is affecting them, and basically just play the happy, dumb blonde. She hopes taht her daughter doesn't end up feeling like she does and is just content living a happy, little lie. This reveals that Daisy has experienced/is experiencing some troubles in her life, that she can't do anything about because she is supposed to be just a stupid girl. She goes along with Tom's affair and pretends not to mind and continues to not do anything about it. Daisy would rather not know anything about the things going on around her, so she can try to just live in her own self-created lie of happiness.

10. I dislike Tom with great intensity, for the reasons stated in question 7. He is allied to Nick in only one way, and that is because they are related by marriage. He also brings Nick into his second life, connecting them further. Tom is a horrible husband. He doesn't care about Daisy at all obviously because he is cheating on her with an older, less attractive woman in the city. He is rude and disrespectful to Daisy and doesn't care about what she has to say in any situation. He sees her as inferior. I'm assuming he doesn't care much for his young daughter either. Tom recently read a book entitled 'The Rise of the Colored Empires' and other "deep" and "profound" books, which he views as scientific and complete fact, revealing to us not only his racistness but his unintelligence as well. Tom feels he needs to find an ego boost somewhere other than in just physical activities now. Nick is surprised by this at first, but then realizes that it's just like Tom to believe in something like that.

11. The Buchanan's are richer than Nick, Nick works, and Nick rents his home.