The Great Gatsby
Prompt #1 · The Great Gatsby
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
In Nick's first dinner at the Buchanans' mansion, Fitzgerald introduces Tom's discussion of white supremacy and Daisy's cynical remarks about her daughter. Analyze how Fitzgerald uses this scene to establish the moral emptiness of the established wealthy class. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you are, and—” After an infinitesimal hesitation he included Daisy with a slight nod, and she winked at me again. “—And we’ve produced all the things that go to make civilization—oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?”
Chapter 1
Argument
Tom's pseudo-scientific racism, delivered with anaphoric repetition and casual hesitation before including his own wife, exposes the intellectual bankruptcy and dehumanizing ideology underlying old money privilege. The scene establishes how the wealthy class uses fabricated theories of superiority to justify their position while revealing the absurdity of their claims through Daisy's knowing wink.
Quote 2
“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Chapter 1
Argument
Daisy's cynical wish for her daughter to be a 'beautiful little fool' reveals her awareness that intelligence and awareness bring only suffering in their morally bankrupt world, functioning within the dinner scene to expose how the wealthy class perpetuates its own emptiness by deliberately cultivating ignorance. The parallelism between 'fool' and 'beautiful little fool' emphasizes how beauty serves as compensation for intellectual vacancy in their society.
Quote 3
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made …”
Chapter 9
Argument
Though from the novel's conclusion, this retrospective judgment directly names the moral emptiness established in the dinner scene, where Tom's racism and Daisy's cynicism first demonstrate their 'carelessness'—the metaphor of 'smashing up things and creatures' echoes back to their casual destruction of human dignity displayed in their dinner conversation.
Quote 4
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
Chapter 1
Argument
Nick's father's advice to 'remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had' ironically foreshadows the Buchanans' moral emptiness, as their privilege manifests not in humility but in entitlement and racial superiority—the very opposite of the empathy this maxim intends to cultivate.
Quote 5
“Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”
Chapter 3
Argument
Nick's self-proclaimed honesty ('I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known') contrasts sharply with the Buchanans' deceitful moral vacuity in the dinner scene, highlighting Fitzgerald's critique of the wealthy class's performative virtue versus their actual corruption.