Final Draft
Analisa Reyes
Ms. LaBouff
ALH6
3 December 2013
Developments in Weakness and Downfalls in Strength
It is common for a person to have strengths they show off and are proud of, as well as weaknesses that probably would not receive as much exposure. Should a person have an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses, or is it common for one to have more of one than the other? Is it possible for strengths to be weakened, or the other way around? The April 19, 1925 Minneapolis Sunday Tribune review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, referring to the classic tale as an “ironical panorama of the weakness of the strong and the strength of the weak,” understandably communicates the incongruous factors of strength and weakness of the characters Tom Buchanan, when dealing with his affair, Nick Carraway and his sense of judgment, as well as Jay Gatsby and his sense of hope.
Tom is first introduced to readers as a man with a “supercilious manner,” a “cruel body” that was “capable of enormous leverage,” and eyes that “established dominance” (11). He can be seen as an arrogant and intimidating person to many. To contribute to his arrogance, Tom is cheating on his wife and has an affair with Myrtle Wilson, a woman he meets on a train, and describes her husband George as “‘so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’” (30). Tom’s affair is out in the open for practically everyone in the world to know, which shows that he does not care that he is cheating, and that he is allowed to have his fun. As expected, he is hypocritically outraged and disconcerted when he learns of Daisy’s “scandalous” affair with “‘Mr. Nobody from Nowhere,’” and wants to be “[counted] out” of the cheating and affair, which is probably one of the most hypocritical things that Tom could ever say (137). This is where he realizes that he cannot accept the taste of his own medicine, as well as his “transition from libertine to prig [being] so complete” (137). He describes Daisy’s lover in a disrespectful way
Ms. LaBouff
ALH6
3 December 2013
Developments in Weakness and Downfalls in Strength
It is common for a person to have strengths they show off and are proud of, as well as weaknesses that probably would not receive as much exposure. Should a person have an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses, or is it common for one to have more of one than the other? Is it possible for strengths to be weakened, or the other way around? The April 19, 1925 Minneapolis Sunday Tribune review of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, referring to the classic tale as an “ironical panorama of the weakness of the strong and the strength of the weak,” understandably communicates the incongruous factors of strength and weakness of the characters Tom Buchanan, when dealing with his affair, Nick Carraway and his sense of judgment, as well as Jay Gatsby and his sense of hope.
Tom is first introduced to readers as a man with a “supercilious manner,” a “cruel body” that was “capable of enormous leverage,” and eyes that “established dominance” (11). He can be seen as an arrogant and intimidating person to many. To contribute to his arrogance, Tom is cheating on his wife and has an affair with Myrtle Wilson, a woman he meets on a train, and describes her husband George as “‘so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’” (30). Tom’s affair is out in the open for practically everyone in the world to know, which shows that he does not care that he is cheating, and that he is allowed to have his fun. As expected, he is hypocritically outraged and disconcerted when he learns of Daisy’s “scandalous” affair with “‘Mr. Nobody from Nowhere,’” and wants to be “[counted] out” of the cheating and affair, which is probably one of the most hypocritical things that Tom could ever say (137). This is where he realizes that he cannot accept the taste of his own medicine, as well as his “transition from libertine to prig [being] so complete” (137). He describes Daisy’s lover in a disrespectful way