A Jaundiced Jordan: Examining Hazard and Deceit in Jordan Baker Through Color As a driver comes upon a stop light, and the light flashes yellow, they are told to proceed with caution. Not to stop—the driver doesn’t have to slow down—but the yellow flashing serves as a reminder for them to watch out as they drive through the intersection. They should keep their eyes peeled for any careless drivers. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jordan Baker is the exact person a typical driver should watch out for—she is the epitome of carelessness. This ‘reckless’ nature extends to more than just her driving ability, however, as the novel’s narrator Nick Carraway notes how incredibly dishonest Jordan is, by her constant deceitfulness and perceived …show more content…
Jordan admits that she made a mistake when assuming that Nick was honest and that her assumption was ‘careless.’ The yellow appears since Nick had broken her trust when he threw her over. He leaves soon after this comment, and Jordan officially escapes Nick, a shrewd, clever man, angry and half in love with her. Jordan’s shield of yellow reemerges. Nick Carraway assumes that Jordan Baker lies to get what she wants, to thrive in her position in society. He assumes that her actions resemble her driving: reckless, full-steam ahead. However, her driving may be the only careless thing about her. What she lacks in masculine protection she makes up for in her deceptive nature. Lying is precisely how Jordan survives in her society. She hides in the yellow of her hair, the yellow tint of windows, and keeps her eyes out for hazards all around her. Nick diagnoses Jordan with an incurable dishonesty, a disease that would always stick with her. But the truth is, Jordan’s dishonesty is just a symptom of the disease of patriarchy. All his contemplation of Jordan’s actions will never prove an answer to her. Nick is a man who resides in the
In The Great Gatsby, the author uses the role of reckless driving to show carelessness and destructiveness of Jordan Baker’s character. Professional golfer, Jordan Baker
Jordan Baker is a friend of Daisy’s. Daisy met her through golfing although, Jordans attitudes and demeanor don't support this story. She is clearly annoyed and bored by the situation, which only intoxicates Nick. Jordan has an attitude of nonchalance about her, she is seemingly untouched by the dramatic nature of the night.
Jordans reckless driving is used to highlight the inability for the rich to care about other needs. Nick the main character tells Jordan to slow down and Jordan replies with a “ They’ll keep out of my way (Fitzgerald 53).” With this, it shows the reader that the rich believe they are above the law. They are so infused into their own bubble and own world that forget there is another reality out there. With the attitude, the rich have it eventually leads to disastrous events. Fitzgerald uses cars as a symbol of their superiority and how they are seen as greater than the rest. Cars are vehicles
The characterization of Jordan Baker as a bored, shallow woman is introduced through the use of description, word-choice, and sentence structure, and accurately represents the rest of the people Nick meets throughout the novel who fake their lives and use the cover of wealth to distract from their inner turmoil.
In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, we see that the character of Jordan Baker is quite different from other women of her time. She has beliefs and values that are radically different from everybody else's. Through her actions, it is clear that she represents the emergence of a different type of woman -- one who is self sufficient -- in the 1920's. Fitzgerald uses this individual to symbolize the changing ways of life in America.
Thesis: Through the flawed characteristics of Tom and Daisy as well as the irresponsible actions of Jordan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, it is evident that the theme “wealth can breed carelessness” causes certain characters to forget about their responsibilities and minimizes any potential forethought.
(Fitzgerald, pg. 63) Jordan is explaining to Nick how she is able to drive badly as
She compares the two careless who seem equally improbable candidates for self-respect: Julian English in Appointment in Samarra and Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby; Jordan Baker had a self-respect, while Julian English didn’t and committed suicide. An incurably dishonest, Jordan Baker once said in The Great Gatsby, “It takes two to make an accident”. To wit, she justified what she had done (primarily bad) by recognizing that not only in car accidents, in which it is more often than not one person’s fault, but also in a relationship, two people have to involve. If Jordan Baker didn’t have self-respect, just like Julian English, she would not sleep, to say nothing of caring about how other people would think of her. Rather, knowing the price of things, she stands as a great example of person with self-respect having the courage of one’s mistakes. Also, Jordan Baker, unlike Daisy in The Great Gatsby, a fool with money who married a rich man, bewitched by the sensual voice of money at the moment, will probably cut off the ring of same miseries
To start off, Nick Carraway is responsible for the death of Gatsby. During the harmonious relationship with Jordan Baker, Nick displays tolerance of Jordan Baker’s dishonest behavior and considers her dishonesty as incurable. Nick expresses his thought to Jordan by saying, “It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply ” (58). However, Nick’s forbearance of woman’s dishonesty develops, and his tolerance of dishonesty reaches an apex. Nick soon covers and hides the origin truth of Myrtle Wilson’s death, and he lets Gatsby assume the responsibility of Myrtle’s death. The next day, Nick sees the abandoned corpse of Jay Gatsby at his pool. After the death of Jay, Nick hides the secret of Myrtle’s death from Tom, but displays his disappointment toward Tom. If Nick had told anyone that Daisy was driving the car, George would not have shot Gatsby. Nick Carraway’s wrong decision that was not to tell anyone Daisy ran over Myrtle has led the Gatsby’s death. Moreover, Carraway’s wide tolerance has not prevented the death, but caused it. He is respo...
The quote that best describes Jordan Baker is, “Let’s get out…this is much too polite for me” (45). The bad qualities of Jordan Baker are she is deceitful, derisive, and contemptuous. Jordan’s good qualities are she is a strong and supportive woman. Fitzgerald developed Jordan Baker throughout The Great Gatsby because she is an example of how people prey on other people for money. In addition, Jordan Baker is important because she represents a new type of woman in her time.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jordan Baker portrays a professional golfer who is both Daisy Buchanan’s friend and a woman with whom Nick Carraway, the narrator, becomes romantically involved. She is poised, blonde, very athletic, and physically appealing. Throughout the story, Baker represents a typical privileged upper class woman of the 1920’s Jazz Age with her cynical, glamorous, and self-centered nature. Despite the fact that she is not the main character, Jordan Baker plays an important role in portraying one of Fitzgerald's themes, the decay of morality, in the novel. When the audience is first introduced to Jordan Baker, it is during a warm evening when Nick Carraway drives to the East Egg to visit with his cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom.
... in" (8). Fitzgerald attempts to describe her in a perfect fashion in this scene which is the reason for Nick’s comment. Throughout the story Fitzgerald portrays Nick as a person that often judges other people, and by showing his instant praise towards Jordan he certainly proves that she could be an honest and innocent person, which is why Fitzgerald has her wearing white in this scene, even though the reader can later find out that that is not exactly the truth.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jordan Baker was bold, deceptive, and needed variety and stimulation. This is what made her to be the Orange character that she was. Those who fit into the orange category of personality fit these criteria and more. She is modern, she is hypocritical, and she is in love with her glamorous life.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald affiliates driving with greed and carelessness by revealing Jordan Baker's selfish motive while driving and Daisy's recklessness when driving. He uses the specific incident of when Daisy kills Myrtle to portray carelessness. After a heated argument bet...
Themes of violence and carelessness are found throughout the text of The Great Gatsby. A violent act is portrayed in every chapter of the novel but one; often, the episodes are the products of passion, but they are also frequently due to carelessness. Myrtle Wilson’s tragic death perfectly embodies the sort of negligence, passion, and power that hangs about calamity throughout the novel. The driver, Daisy, appears suddenly, kills Myrtle, and leaves suddenly, without taking responsibility for damage done. "The ‘death car,’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend" (Fitzgerald 144). The accident that killed Myrtle Wilson was a senseless and reckless act- the result of frayed nerves and a distracted mind. Daisy did not watch out- nor did she stop, investigate, or try to explain herself. The fact that her confession could have saved Gatsby’s life is infuriating and typical of the character. This idea of carelessness seems common to women within the novel; Jordan Baker is another classic example of violence by negligence. She is breezy, carefree, and completely irresponsible, a striking impression made crystal clear in every situation, most notably when discussing her driving. When Nick scolds that she is a rotten driver, and that she should be careful, her blithe excuse for her negligence is that, "Well, other people are" (Fitzgerald 63). This flippant answer is an accurate glimpse into Jordan’s nature. Jordan Baker’s reckless abandon is just one example of the careless natures that contribute to violence within the novel. This thread of irresponsibility permeates throughout the novel. Tom and Daisy themselves are, in the end, deemed to be careless and dangerous. As Nick says, "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…" (Fitzgerald 188).