The Great Gatsby Chapters 1-3

For my blog, I would like to comment on and question both quotes and events that happened during my reading of the first three chapters of The Great Gatsby.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had.”

Let me start by saying that this quote stuck out to me because this is something that my mother had mentioned to me a number of years ago. I, of course, never really understood what it meant when I was younger because she didn’t exactly word it that blatantly. I don’t remember exactly how she said it, but I remember looking at her like she had ten heads because I was too stubborn to try and decipher her advice. I didn’t understand quite where my mom was getting at until maybe a year or two ago.
I realized many things. One, that people have advantages over me just as I have over them. We use these advantages to get what we want out of life. And most of the time, people have the same dream. But, it isn’t always about spiteful competition and stressing over what that person has over you, and therefore wasting energy trying to tear them down and undermine their talents. It’s about putting all of that energy into perfecting what you have over them because chances are, they stress over that little thing that makes anything you create, you, a.k.a. your uniqueness.
Or, more specifically, plain and simple, just mind your own business and let people do what they want in whatever it is that they are doing. Really, what people should do is know how to give constructive criticism when they really feel like commenting on something.

“Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.”

I picked this quote because I like it. It’s so true. I’ve never read anything that defined personality. I always though persona was something that some people had, and some people lacked.
This quote made me think, “how exactly do people gain personality?”. How do you get to know you? I kind of think I lack one. I don’t always play the same card when I react to certain situations. I try someone new everyday...not to sound bipolar or anything I am pretty much normal. (Whatever normal is...people pretty much have their own opinions on what normal is.) What I’m trying to say is I try a different me every day. It kind of narrows it down to who I am each day, but it’s still hard.
And what exactly is a successful gesture? Not everyone likes everyone. How do you know how beautiful your personality is?

Tom: “I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things.” Daisy: “You see I think every thing’s terrible anyhow.”

I would like to comment on what a terrible impact Tom has on Daisy’s character. His cheating has caused a negative effect on Daisy’s psychological state, and I think that it’s time Daisy divorced him because even though they’re in a time where divorce is a rarity, it comes down to this question: What does she care more about, her reputation and status from marrying a rich man, or her and her baby’s happiness and mental health?

In my opinion, Tom is trying too hard to be an intellectual. He seems too malleable to be able to form any type of “credible” opinion on a profound subject, and is probably only trying to improve his reputation, because he didn’t come off to me exactly as an intellectual thinker. He is probably only doing this because he has too much time on his hands and to make him feel better about himself. In high school he was basically the stud, the star, the epitome of masculinity. But, now that he no longer has anyone to pick on, harass, or undermine, now what? Now, he just tortures his wife to feel superior? Poor Daisy.

“...I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.” I didn’t get this at all. Once Mr. McKee and Nick left all of the commotion of their small get together, this is where the scene took us. I don’t know, it was just weird and strange sounding. I would also like to comment on how comical it was that Mr. McKee just woke up from a drunken nap at the party, started to walk, turned around, looked at his wife (who was in complete distress because her friend and Tom’s mistress, Mrs. Wilson, had just gotten punched in the face by Tom) turned back around, and headed for the door, leaving her to survive the drunken drama all by herself.

“Every one suspects himself at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”

This quote is kind of trippy. Only you know how honest you are, but how do you know other’s are? Sometimes you only get the virtue of knowing one other person has ever been completely honest to you.

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