Thought piece 1 - Jessica

The first chapter sets the rest of the novel up beautifully as it introduces the characters that will have an impact on the story. It only presents the basics of each character such as Tom’s ‘woman in the city’. In the beginning that is all she is known as. Fitzgerald only tells us that she is Tom’s other woman as it hides the rest of her identity. He doesn't give her a name, while in contrast to her is Daisy, Tom and even the omniscient narrator in the character Nick. With these characters Fitzgerald shares so much detail about each of them like the way Daisy talks in a ‘low, thrilling voice’ she used to draw people in. Fitzgerald keeps his character ‘Mr Gatsby’ as a mystery to everyone,  not just the characters in the book who know Gatsby as the man with the lavish parties but the readers as well.

Fitzgerald sets the scene and the mood in the chapter through the intricate detail he uses. When describing the surroundings he uses personification of simple things such as the garden to draw the reader in closer and keep their interest. While the mood of the first chapter is both elegance yet inferiority highlighted by Nick. The elegance that Fitzgerald presents is held by the Buchanan’s living on the better side of the bay, and the way their lifestyle is presented. But in contrast to them is Nick, although he is living on the opposite side of the bay, he is superior intellectually but his lifestyle presents his inferiority to the Buchanan’s.

The Buchanan's are the representation of the idealised ‘American Dream’, which consists of having a big, beautiful house full of materialistic objects, a wonderful happy family and the money to pay for it all. Yet Fitzgerald realised the idea that was the basis of so so many individuals aspirations was in fact a lie and that nothing would ever be ‘perfect’. Fitzgerald does this through Tom’s affair and Daisy's blatant ignorance towards it. Daisy is often labelled as silly and childish, however she is quite clever and so puts on the front of being fragile and ‘innocent’, but when she talks to Nick about her daughter saying that ‘the best thing for a girl to be is a fool’ her intellect begins to shine out. She knows that her life is not perfect and that it has flaws but she ignores them to keep herself happy. She acts the fool when in fact she is quite the opposite.

Mrs Baker is the strength and knowledge of the novel. Her masculine structure that was idealised throughout the ‘roaring 20’s’ presents he strength. She is also the fountain of knowledge for Nick as she brings him in on the secrets that ‘everyone knows’ except him. She tells him about Tom’s woman in the city and the mysterious Mr Gatsby. She is the light that guides Nick through his confusing new surroundings.