The Great Gatsby character sketches

The character I have chosen to study is Jordan Baker. She is a young 23-year old female golf champion, somewhat of a celebrity. At the time the story takes place Jordan Baker is a guest at the Buchanans’. The first time the reader and the narrator of the story, Nick Carraway, meet her is in the very first chapter of the novel. She is dressed in white and holds her back very straight, so her appearance doesn’t come unnoticed. Special attention is given to her perfect posture and “rapid, deft movements”, so when it is explained she is a sportswoman, the reader is not surprised.
Jordan Baker is described as an “incurably dishonest” person. Some day Nick remembers that he had heard a disgusting rumor of Miss Baker cheating during a certain championship. Moreover, she is very irresponsible. In the third chapter of the novel she has a conversation with Nick on this subject. “You’re a rotten driver”, he says, and Jordan replies airily: “They [the other drivers] will keep out of my way. It takes a two to make an accident. I hate careless people”.
In addition, Jordan Baker is fond of rumors. At the beginning of the story she is one of the people who accept and spread a rumor that Gatsby “killed a man once”.
However, Jordan is a calm person. Through all the story she is indifferent and set apart from the main characters’ twisted love vicissitudes. So is the narrator, Nick Carraway, and that is why they eventually stick together and find themselves interested in each other. She offers comfort to him while he feels lost in the new experiences and acquaintances.
But even though Nick dates Jordan for some time, in the end he prefers to break up with her. She acts rather coolly during the conversation, but, as she confesses herself later, she “felt a little dizzy for a while”. Nick, on his side, leaves her “angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry”.
Jordan’s actions after breaking up with Nick intentionally echo Daisy’s – both of them got quickly married immediately after parting with their beloved man. That is the main role of Jordan Baker as a supporting character.
This essay is devoted to studying the character of Nick Carraway. He is the narrator of the novel “The Great Garsby”. He provides the voice of the novel, sharing the memories of his travel to the East to study bond business in 1922 with the readers. Raised in a wealthy middle-western family, Nick graduates from New Haven, a college where he met another key character of the novel, Tom Buchanan.
At the very beginning of the story, in the first chapter, Nick goes to visit Tom and his wife, his cousin Daisy. This evening at the Buchanans’ house is a key point of the novel, because that is where he meets Jordan Baker and, more importantly, first hears of Jay Gatsby.
Nick is an open, naïve person, and this is one of the reasons why Gatsby chose him to act as a liaison between Daisy Buchanan and himself. That was a right choice, because Nick is friendly and eager to offer a helping hand. The very first reunion of Gatsby and Daisy took place at Nick’s house.
The book begins with Nick speaking about his honesty and unwillingness to criticize anyone. However, as the time goes, Nick helps Daisy to cheat on her husband, which can not be referred to as an honest action. Moreover, even when Nick learns that his new friend Jay Gatsby’s identity is completely false and fabricated, he still stays loyal to Gatsby. These two moments show the reader the development of Nick’s character.
The subject of this character analysis essay is Tom Buchanan. He is one of the key characters of the novel “The Great Gatsby”, and one of the antagonists.
The reader’s first impression of Tom is not meant to be pleasant. Tom Buchanan is described as a “sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward”. When the story goes on, this impression of arrogance and brutal force is strengthened.
When Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, first comes to Tom’s place, he is sure that Tom and his wife Daisy fit each other and lead a normal family love. But soon enough he learns that Tom has a mistress. According to Nick, “the fact he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known”. Even in his own honeymoon journey with Daisy Tom managed to pick up some crew from the hotel they were staying at.
What’s more, this time Tom takes Nick to meet his woman. Even though Nick “had no desire to meet her”, Tom persuaded him due to his arrogance and forcefulness. Tom’s “determination to have [my – Nick’s] company bordered on violence.
It seems that Tom and Daisy have just nothing in common, and it’s only the child who is keeping them together. However, when their irresponsible and light-minded actions lead to the death of two people, Tom and Daisy calmly reunite, discuss the matter and leave the city, leaving Nick to take care of the problems and mess they caused.
In the novel Tom Buchanan acts as a twin to Daisy’s character, contrasting her at first and making the reader understand that she is just as cruel as her husband is by the end of the story.