The Dinner Party

 

I just finished reading chapter one of Gatsby. The fact that Fitzgerald moves Nick out east and into the lives of his super-rich neighbors seems an intentional mixing of classes, and with Nick inclined to reserve judgment, chapter one - the dinner party as I like to call it - is then a great episode to find out who these different characters are. Upon first impression, Tom seems a wealthy, cruel, macho, meathead-type. He sounds foolish and racist when discussing a book about the submergence of the White race by minorities. Readers also very overtly learn that he has a mistress on the side, one who has the effrontory to call during dinner. All-in-all, he seems like a jerk, but then again Fitzgerald writes that Tom was "one of those men who reach such acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax" (10), meaning that he has to overcompensate for his shortcomings. His mistress and racist attitudes might be a way to cover-up deep insecurities about his boredom with life now that he is no longer a college athlete. Daisy, Tom's wife, also seems to mask her insecurities with sarcasm, idle conversation, and wit. Only after the party - and upon Nick's revelation that Tom is cheating on her - does she tell Nick that her life is miserable. She wants her daughter to grow up to be a "beautiful little fool" (21) because to Daisy, it seems that women cannot amount to much more. Daisy seems constantly under Tom's rule, even though she is intelligent and capable, and her response to such oppression is dimwitted ignorance. Sad really. Jordan, the last character we meet, seems to be a progressive woman - a professional golfer - but somewhat a cheat and a phony. Her act of just lounging around all the time making light conversation seemed a little like an act as well. I'm not sure quite what will happen with her, although I wouldn't be surprised if Nick fell for her. After meeting these characters at the dinner party, life on East Egg doesn't seem all that thrilling. Tom and Daisy's relationship seems marred by infidelity, lost dreams, ignorance, and greed. Something has to happen between those two, but with their total denial of life's misery, I could see them sticking it out and living the rest of their days in a rich fantasyland with all the bells and whistles, but without love, emotion, or happiness. The dinner party symbolizes an emptiness amongst these upper-class suburbanites, a new generation unaccustomed to hard-work. They float through life instead. I am interested to see how Nick and Gatsby fit in with all of them. Brief mention of Gatsby, but I'll tackle that next time. Goodbye for now!