They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.
Chapter 7 · Narrator
Context
Nick peers through the pantry window of the Buchanans' house and sees Tom and Daisy sitting together at the kitchen table. Despite the day's revelations and the death of Myrtle Wilson, they have retreated into a posture of marital solidarity—not passionate reconciliation, but functional alliance.
Analysis
The juxtaposition of 'weren't happy' with 'weren't unhappy' defines the Buchanans' marriage as existing in a moral and emotional limbo beyond ordinary categories—a partnership sustained not by love or even contentment but by shared class interest and mutual complicity. The word 'conspiring' is the passage's most damning judgment: it reveals that their marriage functions as a conspiracy against the rest of the world—a closing of ranks that protects both of them from the consequences of their carelessness at the expense of everyone outside their charmed circle.
How to Use in Essay
One of the most important passages for essays on the Buchanans as representing the moral corruption of the ruling class, or for arguing that their marriage endures precisely because it is not a romantic union but an alliance of privilege—they are bound by shared guilt and class solidarity rather than love.