Jordan's Carelessness In The Great Gatsby

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Carelessness in Great Gatsby The roaring twenties was full of selfish, careless people who craved money and partying. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, takes place in Long Island, New York during the roaring twenties and the prohibition era. Many people did not conform to prohibition and continued to drink anyway, in fact they loved to party. Long Island was split into two parts, West Egg and East Egg. The residence in East Egg are those of “old money”, which who inherited their money. West Egg is the less fashionable of the two and is known as “new money”. The people were so invested in money and partying they began to be careless, which sums up one of the most important ideas in this book. Fitzgerald criticized this …show more content…

Jordan is a professional golfer who cheated her way through to win the tournament. The newspaper suggested that she moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round (Fitzgerald 57). Jordan is careless in this way and lies abundantly. She not only is a lazy golfer she is also a lazy and careless driver. Nick tells her she is a rotten driver and she should not be on the roads. Jordan protested that she is a careful driver and even if she isn't, other people are, “They’ll keep out of my way. It takes two to make an accident” (Fitzgerald 58). Jordan believes that she is a careful driver but also insists that if she wasn't careful, which she isn’t, others would stay away from her, and it would be their fault if they got in an accident because they wouldn't have been out of her …show more content…

Nick goes to visit Tom and Daisy for dinner one night, along with Jordan Baker. While at dinner Tom gets up to answer a phone call, which happens to be from his mistress, Myrtle. Suddenly the mood gets tense while Daisy is aware of why he eluded the dinner table, “Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house”(Fitzgerald 14). Tom has this wonderful wife and daughter and has the decency to answer the phone from his mistress, while they have guests over. This action taken by Tom greatly affects Daisy. His carelessness to be polite causes Daisy to feel forlorn, she gets up to go stop Tom. Tom is aware that Daisy knows he has a mistress, yet doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. Not only does Tom affect Daisy, he also continues to lead on Myrtle. As Nick and Tom go to New York for a day, they pick up Myrtle and have a party in their apartment. The conversations were tense and mainly about marriage. Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, mentions how neither Myrtle nor Tom can stand the person they are married to, but explains why they aren't just divorced and married to each other, “It's really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s catholic, and they don't believe in divorce”(fitzgerald 32). Nick does

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