In any instances of direct and attributed speech during Chapter 1, Fitzgerald describes (through Nick) how the person is speaking very deliberately and consciously, to emphasise the characteristics of the people introduced at this early stage of the novel. There are a multitude of instances of this type of description (for example, when he describes Daisy’s speech: “’Do they miss me?’ she cried ecstatically”, “She added irrelevantly: ‘You ought to see the baby’”, “’Tom’s getting very profound’, said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness”. These descriptions of her speech show her lack of consideration for others, her lack of care even for her own child and her vacuous nature respectively). This type of description projects the personalities of the characters, setting the tone for their roles in the rest of the book. In the case of Daisy, the description highlights the irresponsibility and idleness of the wealthy and excessive people of East Egg, and indeed of the upper classes, which ties in with the inequality of the era which is under such scrutiny throughout the novel.
Fitzgerald introduces the characters of Tom, Daisy, Jordan and, albeit briefly, Gatsby to the reader in Chapter 1, along with Nick, whose character has been addressed in analysing the viewpoint of the novel. Particular personalities are endowed unto each character, which allow them to become symbolic of certain things. Other than Nick, the first character the reader meets is Tom: the image of Tom which Nick first presents to the reader is of him in his “riding clothes”, standing with his “legs apart” in front of his house, which has just been described as a magnificent and elaborate house. This first image alone makes the reader assume many things, which ultimately turn out to be correct: the riding clothes give the impression that he belongs to the higher classes (riding/polo is a very upper class pastime) and is a part of many aristocratic social circles; the fact that he is standing with his legs apart is representative of the fact that he is certainly not shy, and that he is very headstrong and proud; the fact that he is standing in front of his house re-enforces the image of pride and arrogance. After this initial image, Nick tells us of his “supercilious manner”, “established dominance”, “enormous power” and “cruel body”. By now it is clear that Tom is a very abrasive and egotistical man. His masculinity is also stressed (‘gruff, husky tenor’, ‘paternal contempt’), further accentuating his uncompromising and unpleasant nature. AS well as these internal thoughts from Nick, Toms external actions also define him as very protective and conscious of his wealth and status, leading into paranoia ( his eyes “flashing restlessly” as he admired his house). This description shows Tom to be a symbol for the arrogance of the social elite. Daisy is also shown to be symbolic of the social elite, but more of their inconsideration for others and air of detachment. Our initial image of Daisy is reclining on a couch in her house with a lady friend, both wearing white dresses, with the wind blowing them so that the dresses “were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house”. This shows Daisy in a radiant and ethereal light, with the white of her dress also emphasising a pureness which suggests a disconnection with the real world, a life free from the grime of hard work. Her name in itself reveals her key characteristics: simple, unsophisticated and common, as well as her femininity, the latter of which is heavily stressed by her scatter-brained and promiscuous nature (her “murmur” proving the latter). Her actions, such as her “absurd, charming little laugh” also show up her air-headedness; the fact that she is inactive at home in the middle of the day and gossiping with a friend underlines her idleness and is representative of the lack of hard work and immorality which Fitzgerald perceives in the ‘old money’ bourgeois who inherit their prestige and wealth. Jordan is presented to be a self-centred and rather indolent woman, as shown by her static nature (e.g. she is described as being “completely motionless” when Nick enters the room). In this, she is very similar to Daisy, in representing the attitude of the higher classes. However, Fitzgerald tries to make it abundantly clear that Jordan is also illustrative of the new type of woman emerging during the Roaring Twenties: the newly independent woman; the type of woman who goes out without a chaperone. He achieves this on the most part by giving her a unisex name, and one which is also a combination of two carmakers, increasing the reader’s perception of her relative masculinity (indeed, she is almost the polar opposite type of wealthy woman when compared to Daisy). The description of Jordan also hints at her masculine independence through Nick’s thoughts (“...which she accentuated by throwing her body back like a cadet”). Furthermore, she shows an arrogance comparable to that of Tom, through one of the few occasions she speaks to Nick in the opening chapter (“’You live in West Egg,’ she remarked contemptuously”), stressing her place in the social elite. Last of all in the opening chapter, the character of Gatsby is introduced fleetingly. In this first chapter, the reader only gets a vague idea of the kind of person he is. He is certainly not presented in the same manner as Tom, Daisy and Jordan are. It is made clear that he is much more complex and subtle than they are (“...as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.”). However, Nick also reveals that Gatsby “represented everything for which (Nick) had an unaffected scorn”. This probably means that Gatsby had levels of wealth on a par with Tom, which Nick had learnt to automatically relate to a certain form of snobbery and vanity. Much of the description of Gatsby in the first chapter is internal characterisation: however, there is a small moment where Nick actually observes Gatsby which does much to firmly separate him from the likes of Tom. When Gatsby is “standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars”, there is a feeling that Gatsby is a dreamer and a wonderer, one who aspires to go higher in life. And then, “when (Nick) looked for Gatsby once more, he had vanished.” - This adds to the sense that there is something about Gatsby which is intangible to the reader on the limited information the reader has received thus far. It shows that there is a mystery about him, an elusiveness which effortlessly sets him out as a special person. Fitzgerald uses both external and internal characterisation (the internal usually taking the form of Nick’s thoughts) to place each character into a mould which they conform to for the duration of the novel. This characterisation also serves to clarify the roles in society the characters symbolise: Tom and Jordan showing the arrogance of the higher classes, with Daisy showing their irresponsible and idle nature, and Gatsby showing the dreamer who aspires to reach the higher levels of society (shown literally when he “stretched out his arms over the water” towards East Egg, as if pining for status), but is ultimately unable to do so. Through this characterisation, he is clearly juxtaposed from the Buchanans and Jordan, in terms of fundamental thought if not in terms of wealth.
The most apparent symbol for inequality Fitzgerald employs can be found in the setting, more specifically in the difference between West Egg and East Egg. These two Eggs are based on Great Neck and Manhasset Neck, NY, but renamed so as to highlight their polarity, perhaps also to represent the more prosperous East coast of USA and the more barren and unpopular West coast of USA. The first comparison of the two Eggs the reader is given is “... but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size”. This shows the reader that, while the two Eggs look the same, there is a massive social class gulf between the two, introducing the concept of appearance vs. reality (as the two Eggs appear the same, but in reality they are in complete opposition to one another), which is another key concept which Fitzgerald addresses. Nick calls the gulf between the Eggs a “sinister contrast”. This kind of “contrast” is shown by Fitzgerald through minor details as well as the more obvious signs. In the West, things like Nick’s description of his house as a ”cardboard bungalow” and “an eyesore”, and the “abandoned grass roller in the yard” generate a feeling of neglect and relative poverty. Something else which highlights this disparity, as case study of this dissimilarity, is the distinction made between Gatsby’s house in West Egg and Tom’s house in East Egg. Tom’s house is describes as an immaculate beacon of affluence: it was “even more elaborate than (Nick) had expected”, showing is surpassed Nick’s expectations despite his prior knowledge of the “white palaces” that “glittered along the water”. It is described as a “Colonial mansion”, which gives it status and relative antiquity, meaning a house like this could not be merely bought by anyone rich: it would have to be inherited or bought by someone with huge social power. The image of the “vines” adds to this feeling of oldness, and the “reflected gold” from the windows is a brazen allusion to wealth and prosperity. These images of landed power and settlement into the pinnacle of society contrast sharply to the image created by Gatsby’s house. Far away from the established extravagance of Tom’s house, Gatsby’s colossal French “imitation house” is made to look comparatively vulgar. If Tom’s house was representative of his effortless role at the top of society and ‘old money’, Gatsby’s is representative of his ambition and failure to reach that social circle and the ‘nouveau riche’. This image is portrayed by the “tower on one side, spanking new under a think beard of raw ivy”, showing up the house’ unsettled newness, almost it’s uncomfortable place in society. At the start of the chapter, Nick also reveals that “when (Nick) came back from the East last autumn (he) felt that (he) wanted the world to be in a uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever”, which shows that he probably eventually moved back to the Mid-West because of the decadence and the intensity of unrestrained materialism and immorality that he found in the East. Setting is used by Fitzgerald in Chapter 1 to introduce the reader to the idea of a divided society, both in terms of class and literally in terms of location. The Eggs become the foremost symbol of inequality in the novel, and are as such very important, as inequality is central to the main destination of the novel.
Fitzgerald’s use of time has an effective simplicity about it in Chapter 1. The events have clearly been told in chronological order, but the reader is made aware by Nick that he is recounting the tale retrospectively (i.e. the events have already occurred), meaning that the prose is a balance between a description of and act which occurred and Nick’s own views on what happened: action and reflection, which the reflection occasionally looking further back into time than the story itself (especially when Nick describes his family and his relationship with Tom from Yale). This shows the reader that the views Nick presents are not unfounded, but tempered by experiences which have already happened and the reader is not aware of. The fact that Nick is presenting a tale from the past also ties in to one of the ultimate morals of the story, that no-one can escape the past: Nick has been affected so deeply by the events which occur in the book that he cannot forget it. In the story itself, Gatsby is the main victim of his inability to escape his past, and this is subtly foreshadowed by Fitzgerald’s decision to make Nick a retrospective narrator. Fitzgerald tells the story through a person who has the benefit of hindsight, who is commenting on the past, and so has a justifiable and considered opinion on nearly everything.
In summary, Fitzgerald uses a wide range of literary tools in the first chapter to delicately convey not only the outline of the story, but many of its themes as well, thus laying the foundations for the story which follows. These tools also make sure all of the components of the story which are introduced here (e.g. the setting, the characters etc.) leave a mark in the mind of a reader, and become something the reader can identify, with the possible exception of the “Great” Gatsby, who remains a mystery at the end of Chapter 1.
