Search and Eventually Discover [The Great Gatsby: Pgs 49-60]

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

So we are on this journey to discover who this man is called Gatsby? He is supposedly an Oxford man, but that has not yet been confirmed or denied. We receive a glimpse of Gatsby through the eyes of others, but through the conversations so far his personality and story are not yet portrayed enough to say one way or the other who he is. In other words, it is a mystery. (For the record, people like mysteries too; maybe it will be an awkward mystery, that could be exciting.) Now that I have had my mindless babble for the section, which I am not including in the sentence count, we proceed...

We have these two sort of random situations toward the end of the party. The first between the husbands and wives, while Jordan was talking to Gatsby elsewhere. If I were to take this literally, I would say it was a random event that will have absolutely no effect on the remainder of the story. If I were to look at the situation symbolically, I would have to guess that it either represents the pointless bickering between spouses or perhaps that women of this time begin to search for more independence from their significant other. (These may or may not have anything to do with the story at all, but I guess it is possible.) The second event is where the man who Jordan and Nick found in the library and another man were driving a car which got stuck in a ditch. Possible tip for the future, do not drink and drive, because worse could happen and you look foolish. Also, if drinking really makes someone act like a complete imbecile, we should really keep unintelligent people away from alcohol.

What I find the most odd about the story so far is how slowly the pictures of characters develop. For example, we have this idea of who Jordan is and a pretty, young women, who is a well known golfer; she seems to have a bubbly and kind persona. Yet at the end of the chapter we learn she is rather careless, at least while driving a car. Also, "She was incurably dishonest" (Fitzgerald, 58). I never would have guessed that. However, Fitzgerald seems to be doing this with all, or a majority, of the main characters.