Awk Turtle AKA Gatsby

One of the passages I choose that I thought was beautiful was when Gatsby was introduced to Daisy for the first time in a long time. This was beautiful to me because this contained a reality I’ve seen before whether it be on television or in real life. This passage contained humor, a whole lot of awkwardness, tension and everything else that makes this scene relatable.

 It starts with Daisy saying, “We haven’t met for many years.” Daisy, with voice being nonchalant, is cool and collected or acts like that. Then we see Gatsby. He’s totally the opposite of Daisy being very nervous with “tense unhappy eyes”. He reminds me of a young adolescent boy, standing in front of his crush for the first time and a boy who tries to play it cool in front of the one he likes and does his best to impress her. His unsure attitude mixed with his unconstrained eagerness makes him seem shy and a bit weird if you ask me. For example, when Daisy commented how long they have not seen each other, he immediately said the exact year, down to the month, on how long they were apart. That just comes off as too desperate and to be honest, that line made me laugh. That’s like saying “oh hey I haven’t seen you in a while” “yea it’s been like 12 days and 7 hours. Not like I’m counting or anything.”

The me is Gatsby and the friends are Daisy and Nick

Gatsby also comes off as hesitant and shy. Daisy and Nick talk, but Gatsby is there standing in “a shadow” and just watching the two of them converse. And when Nick excuses himself, Gatsby almost has a meltdown and a panic, asking where is Nick going. He is acting a bit childish. Even Nick says that “[Gatsby is] acting like a little boy.” It’s actually kind of a sad moment. Gatsby has been spending years upon years building up his fortune and his status for what reason? For Daisy. And now that he actually has a chance to show Daisy what he has accomplished and what he has to offer, he essentially just blank out and is reduced to this quiet and nervous jumble of mess. Nick did the right thing to force him to talk to Daisy. In the end, I was quite content that Gatsby finally gathered up the courage to sort things out with Daisy.

Another reason why I enjoyed this scene was because of the change in Gatsby’s personality. In the beginning, when we were introduced to his character, he was this sophisticated figure. He was rich, handsome, and well mannered. But in his confrontation with Daisy, his confident attitude vanished just like that and was replaced by a one that was filled with a panicky one. It’s amusing to see how his attitude and persona change just like that from a single person, but I guess it shows how much he cares about Daisy and how she means everything to him. 

Look, they look so in love.