Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 7, Pages 113 - 125

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald sets chapter seven on a hot summer day, and, boy, does it get heated! Just about every extremity of feeling could be found in this section: anger, passion, sorrow, jealousy, and any other dramatic emotion thinkable.  My favorite scene contributing to this rising action in Fitzgerald's plot involves Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan, and Nick lounging in a parlor at Daisy's house.  After Daisy commands her husband Tom to make some drinks for her guests, "she got up and went over to Gatsby and pulled his face down, kissing him on the mouth" (Fitzgerald 116).  Immediately, I thought of this clip from Will Ferrel's Anchorman.


With that act of passion, Daisy not only threw ALL contemporary social convention out the window, but she proved to Gatsby that she does not care about Tom, fear Tom, or, most importantly, love him at all.  Eventually Tom realizes the affair between Daisy and Gatsby and struggles to conceal incredible anger and jealousy.  However, Fitzgerald juxtaposes a seemingly victimized Tom with an equally betrayed George Wilson to ensure that his reader maintains a negative perspective on Tom.  George, who's recent learning of his wife's infidelity "had made him physically sick", loves his wife very much and thus suffers so strongly from her betrayal (Fitzgerald 124).  In contrast, Tom reacts with the petty emotions of envy and hatred instead of heartbreak and sorrow.  Accordingly, Tom's love for Daisy lacks the genuine purity that Mr. Wilson's love for Myrtle possesses.  Furthermore, when Tom stopped by Wilson's shop with Nick and Jordan to get gas, Myrtle mistook Jordan for Tom's wife!  With Daisy's utter devotion to Gatsby, Tom's escalating fury, and Myrtle's jealousy, the first half of chapter seven marks a turning point in The Great Gatsby.  Hopefully the action doesn't fall as quickly as it has risen, because I'm definitely enjoying the easy-to-follow style and romantic intrigue that Fitzgerald incorporates so well into Gatsby.     

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