At the end of Chapter one I feel as though
nothing really exciting has happened but enough has been told to the reader
which makes me want to know more about the characters and how they are
connected to Gatsby.
I like the narrative voice used by Fitzgerald
because it is different from most of the novels I have read in the past, Nick I
feel is perfect for the narrative voice, because he seems to have a very individual
view of the time and the people that he interacts with, also I like the fact he
has a clear view on each characters personalities, as from what I have read he
never seems unsure about what he thinks of a person. I like Nick as a character
as while is part of the story world he seems to have an separated view of the places
and people he visits, Nick is more ‘down to earth’ than the rest of the
characters introduced in chapter one, and I feel like he is able to connect more
with the reader, I believe Fitzgerald has done this on purpose as most people do
not live there life like Daisy and Tom. It seems more interesting to have a narrator
which you can connect with and who tells a story about people that you have
nothing in common with, as I believe being an outsider looking in is fascinating.
The tone that I got at beginning of the chapter
was very formal and proper because Nick is speaking about himself as I feel he doesn’t
like speaking about himself. We then see a more personal side of Nick when he
speaks about Gatsby describing him as ‘gorgeous’ and ‘hope’ this makes me think
that Nick has a very strong relationship with Gatsby. After the short
description about Gatsby the tone becomes more formal as Nick is describing areas
of his life, the setting and context of the novel in depth, when talking about
himself the tone is formal and when he speaks of his past and how he ended up
at the setting of the story the tone becomes more buoyant as though he enjoys
speaking about his journey of meeting Gatsby. When we meet Daisy and Tom the tone becomes uncomfortable
as though you wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time in their company. Although I
think that is mostly down to the tension between Daisy and Tom, as when we meet
Daisy alone the tone becomes light and carefree, which is very much like the
personality of Daisy, the way Nick describes her makes you want to meet the ‘charming’
‘bright’ and ‘passionate’ women which I think Fitzgerald wants you to feel. Tom
is a ‘typical’ man who is powerful, wealthy and someone who peaked in college. Fitzgerald
made him like this so the reader would not feel any sympathy for him, as even
when we met him there were no signs of any deep emotions which seem inhuman.
Miss Baker is a smaller character of the other
three that we have met and I think that shows from the characterisation that Fitzgerald
created for her, she is described as very typical 1920’s flapper girl who is
very tall with small breast which could almost be describing her as a man. I am
unsure about her because all I really found out about her personality is that
she is very inquisitive about other people lives including Toms and Daisy’s,
from this I didn’t really come to like her because of the way she was snooping around
other people’s personal lives.
At the end of the chapter there is a sort of
cliff hanger moment when we get to see Gatsby not just mentioned but there in
person, this was sort of a cliff hanger because we don’t know what he looks
like, what he speaks like and why he was standing outside alone at night. I
think Fitzgerald did this for a reason, because that moment made me want to
find out why the eponymous character is so
allusive, and although there have been a few indirect mentions about Gatsby we don’t
know what makes him Great and this is something I really want to find out.
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