An Analysis of an Extract from the Novel The Great Gatsby

(pg. 110)

‘That drug store business was just small change,’ continued Tom slowly, ‘but you’ve got something on now that Walter’s afraid to tell me about.’

I glanced at Daisy who was staring terrified between Gatsby and her husband and at Jordan who had begun to balance an invisible but absorbing object on the tip of her chin. Then I turned back to Gatsby—and was startled at his expression. He looked—and this is said in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden—as if he had ‘killed a man.’ For a moment the set of his face could be described in just that fantastic way.

It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.

The voice begged again to go.

‘PLEASE, Tom! I can’t stand this any more.’

Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone.

‘You two start on home, Daisy,’ said Tom. ‘In Mr. Gatsby’s car.’

She looked at Tom, alarmed now, but he insisted with magnanimous scorn.

‘Go on. He won’t annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over.

            This extract is pivotal to the whole of the novel The Great Gatsby. In this extract, we see the first signs of Gatsby losing control over his affair with Daisy during a significant confrontation with Tom. The word “terrified” (3) modifies Daisy, showing that Daisy is extremely uncomfortable with what Tom has revealed about Gatsby’s true identity and occupation, for instance, Gatsby’s involvement with the “drug-store business.” (1). Besides Jordan’s efforts to distract herself by a seemingly pointless and perhaps childish activity, namely “balancing an invisible object on the tip of her chin” (4), Daisy’s dread intensifies the tension in the atmosphere, justifying Gatsby’s bafflement in the upcoming lines.

After hearing Tom’s accusations and his true identity was unconcealed, in line 6, Gatsby loses control of his expressions, looking “as if he had killed a man” (6). Gatsby’s frustration raises to a climax: he begins acting frivolously and embraces a “defence-mode” in an attempt to “protect” Daisy and everyone else in the room from learning more about his real story. He even goes so far as to “defend his name against accusations that had not been made” (8-9). This attempt backfires, however: Daisy becomes even more frustrated, scared by Gatsby’s unexpected behaviour. Thus, she “draw[s] further and further into herself” (9-10), making Gatsby give up. At this point, Gatsby’s “dream” of being with Daisy—a dream built on the firm belief that nothing had passed between Tom and Daisy during the time she was separate from Gatsby—and the allusion to the American Dream symbolized by this dream fade: Gatsby “fights” (10) “indespairingly (…) towards [Daisy’s] lost voice across the room” (11-12), but Daisy has lost all courage (15-16).

At the end of the extract, aware and confident of his triumph, Tom deliberately allows Daisy and Gatsby to go together (19-20). Thus, Tom proves both the other characters in the scene and the readers that he has crushed Gatsby’s hopes to the greatest extent and that he has ended Gatsby and Daisy’s “little flirtation” (19) never to start again.

-Bora