Gatsby the Great: Jordan Baker Analysis

Jordan Baker

Jordan, a 23-year-old women's golf champion, becomes involved with Nick during the course of the summer of 1922. Jordan seems "incurably dishonest," (63) a trait enhanced by Nick's remembrance of a rumor that she cheated at her first big golf tournament. Although Nick finds Jordan haughty and careless, he finds himself attracted to her anyway. At the end of the novel, Jordan gets engaged to another man after not seeing Nick for a short time, leaving Nick angry, yet still "half in love with her, and tremendously sorry" (186). Jordan's action seems to intentionally echo Daisy's leaving Gatsby to marry Tom five years earlier.

For more character analyses like this one, visit this link: http://www.novelguide.com/thegreatgatsby/characterprofiles.html

About the Author

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3190.F_Scott_Fitzgerald.)

For a more in depth biography of Fitzgerald, click here: http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/author-biography

Prohibition

A big part of the novel that interested our group is the idea of "new" and "old" money and the status that comes with each. Gatsby's identity as a bootlegger eventually leads to his downfall. The effects of Tom revealing his identity is an aspect that the group wanted to delve into. This topic is so significant that it is what caused Daisy to stay with Tom. Through research we discovered a variety of events that happened during the time period of prohibition in the 1920s. We realized that not only did prohibition play a big role in the novel, but in society as well. By connecting these events to scenes from the novel, the constant battle between Gatsby and Tom is portrayed through this game (http://thegreatgatsby.weebly.com/prohibition-game.html).

Click here for more on prohibition in The Great Gatsby.

Details in The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald was a very articulate author; many of his descriptions were very detailed, and he found the perfect balance between articulacy and vagueness.

"[Jordan’s] gray, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I’d been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free. (3.169)"

Gatsby the Great

Jordan Baker Analysis

Jordan Baker

No comments:

Post a Comment