Nick Carraway

‘You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver?
Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I?

I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I
thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.
I thought it was your secret pride.’
 (Pg. 190 Ch. 9)

	Jordan in this quote of hers, exposes Nick perfectly for what he really is. He is a hypocritical, prideful man masquerading in the clothes of an innocent friendly man. Through-out the book, Nick leads the other characters of the novel to see him as someone who they could all trust, and someone who didn't hold any prejudice, but they were wrong. Even at points in the novel where Nick seems to show how he does not judge, (i.e., 'There was no difference between men, in intelligence or race') he clearly contradicts his judgment lacking judgments later with quotes against women such as “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply”. Nick may not be judgmental in the same ways as Tom or other characters such as Catherine, he is very far from being exempt from the category of deeply judgmental, or hypocritical.


Tom Buchanan

“His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the im-
pression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of
paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and
there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.
‘Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,’

he seemed to say, ‘just because I’m stronger and more of a
man than you are.’ We were in the same Senior Society, and
while we were never intimate I always had the impression
that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with
some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.
” (Pg. 10 Ch. 1)

	Tom Buchanan is the most pretentious character in the entire novel of The Great Gatsby. He is rude, he is egotistical, and he is ridiculously masculine (which seems to be more of an act for dominance than a real quality of his personality). He likes to make himself seem to be bigger and better than all the other men. As Nick describes his paternal contempt, the quote shows how Tom doesn't even spare those he likes from his father-like tone of disapproval or even acceptance. Everything he says or does just has an undertone of, as Nick explained it, 'just because i'm stronger and more of a man then you are' and he keeps that tone until the very end of the novel. Tom is pretentious and totalitarian through and through.