The Great Gastby Reading Journal: Post 2.

July 23, 2009 at 3:00am

I thought the story would be closely connected to the American Dream, social classes and, probably, snobbery. Having read up to chapter 2, my predictions are confirmed; in the very second paragraph we read: "Whenever you feel like criticising anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Apart from this, Nick, who happens to be the narrator of the story, tells us he comes from a family that has been prominent in the Middle West and describes what the West and East Eggs from NY are like. He also says that the West Egg, where he has moved after coming back from war, is less fashionable than the East Egg.

I chose the following quotation because I found it funny (funny haha, that is):
"No, we just went to Monte Carlo and back. We went by way of Marseilles. We had over twelve hundred dollars when we started, but we got gyped out of it all in two days in the private rooms. We had an awful time getting back, I can tell you. God, how I hated that town!"

First, I thought "How on earth could someone ever hate Monte Carlo?" but I came to the conclusion that it is understandable what Jordan felt, being robbed must be awful, specially if you are far away from home and you're left without any money to come back.
But then I was like, "Come on! These flapper girls must have been quite silly and careless to be robbed in the second day of their trip..."
So I remembered an article I once read in Cosmopolitan Magazine on how to prevent your being stolen when you're on a "girl trip abroad". The text included pieces of advice such as not showing off, not getting too drunk and not sleeping with strangers "no matter how exciting that idea might sound." And it was then that I found the first similarity between flapper girls and Cosmo Girls.

As far as how the characters are portrayed is concerned, Tom seems to be a tough, narrow-minded person; Nick is someone wealthy but seems not to show off or care too much about it; Daisy is portrayed to be quite shallow and dumb, when talking about "The Rise of the Coloured Empires" by Goddard she says Tom "reads deep books with long words in them." and seems unable to give her own opinion on the subject, she simply makes fun of her husband whispering "We've got to beat them down." I got the impression that Jordan Baker was quite rude.

After reading chapter two I think that the story will have to do with adulthood. It shocked me how deliberately Tom introduces his mistress to the cousin of her wife.