The Great Gatsby by Róisín Ní Mhóráin

Gatsby's introduction:

roisin3 — 2015-03-03 10:30:32 UTC

"But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone — he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock."

A sense of mystery is immediately attached to him.

Daisy - as described by Nick

roisin3 — 2015-03-03 10:31:43 UTC

"Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour."

Nick - judgement

roisin3 — 2015-03-03 13:34:09 UTC

"I’m inclined to reserve all judgments"

This quote is very misleading - in the novel we learn that Nick is not a completely unbiased narrator - in fact he can be downright nasty about other characters, eg. Tom Buchanan

"one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax"

Jordan Baker

roisin3 — 2015-03-03 13:45:01 UTC

"She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall. "

What is Nick implying when he says:

"Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me."

Aren't women allowed be 'self-sufficient'?

Tom Buchanan

roisin3 — 2015-03-03 14:24:45 UTC

" 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. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body. His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts."