Reread the section in chapter 2 where Tom takes Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle. How does Fitzgerald depict Tom and Nick differently here, and why? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
Fitzgerald’s depiction of both Tom and Nick’s personalities helps to show the great differences between their characters. In this extract, Tom is very outgoing, talking to Wilson, the husband of the girl he is having an affair with. They have a good conversation about a car that Tom has promised to sell to Wilson after Tom has the car tuned up. By comparison, I have found that Nick is very shy and quiet, preferring to keep his thoughts to himself. Fitzgerald wrote, “though I was curious to see her, I had no desire to meet her.” This shows how Nick prefers to keep to himself and observe others, rather than throw himself out into the crowd and try to be the center of attention.
Another interesting difference between the characters is that, from this extract, it is clear that Tom is used to getting his way, and will manipulate people to get his way. In this extract, Tom forces Nick to meet his girl, without taking into consideration whether Nick would want to at all. He also manipulates Wilson, by telling him that he has a car to sell, so that he can keep seeing his mistress at their home. On the other hand, Nick is used to not being in charge of making the decisions and goes with whatever the other people want to do. In the story, when Tom says that they are getting off of the train to go meet his mistress, he does not complain, and just blindly follows him. Later on in the chapter, the same thing happens, where he is forced into meeting a bunch of Tom and Myrtle’s friends and ends up spending most of the night with them. This goes well with his character, as in the first chapter he confessed that people find it very easy to open up to him, and finds people constantly talking to him about his problems, as he is very introverted, and keeps quiet with people.
This chapter and extract do a very good job at contrasting the characters and setting some distance between Nick, and the more Upper-class people in the areas of West and East Egg.
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