In this chapter, the difference(s) between East and West Egg are thrown into the spotlight by Tom and Daisy attending one of Gatsby's soirees. After Tom, a man called Sloane and a nameless woman drop by Gatsby's home, Tom becomes "perturbed" about Daisy "running around alone." Consequently, the following Saturday night, Tom and Daisy are found at Gatsby's house.
Nick comments on the change in the atmosphere on page 104: "... I felt the unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn't been there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy' eyes. It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment." All it takes is the presence of the East Egg to change how the party feels.
Tom and Daisy could not be more different than Gatsby. While the married couple grew up in family wealth, Gatsby worked for his money. Gatsby is the offspring of an unsuccessful farming couple, but Tom and Daisy were always rich. But why does that make a difference? Who cares whether the wealth is new or old? Why does Tom obviously see Gatsby as being lower than him?
The difference between Tom's money and Gatsby's money is that Tom is possessive of his money, and likes to take it everywhere with him, as seen when he brings his polo ponies to college. Gatsby, however, is very open with his money, and likes to share. He throws parties at his house and when people come who he hasn't invited he is "to polite to object." (p. 108). Gatsby also has no problem giving away his wealth, as seen when Tom visit's Gatsby's house and Nick remarks that Gatsby "would be uneasy until he had given them something, realizing in a vague way that that was all they came for." (p.101). Since Gatsby grew up poor and earned his money, he has less trouble parting with it. Tom, on the other hand, needs his money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lex’s responses to the first two questions. As for the third, Tom thinks of Gatsby less as inferior and more as competition. Gatsby, with a magnetic personality that is not only charming and witty, but also gracious, is a potential love interest of Daisy. Tom definitely senses the fragility of his marriage to Daisy, and although he’s having an affair with Myrtle, he is still possessive of his wife. Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy is obvious, and Tom is probably suspicious as to why Daisy has been increasingly on her own. I think it is unfair that Tom can stray from the relationship, but he holds different standards to Daisy.
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