Reading Journal - Chapter 1

"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”, are the words of Nick’s father on the first page of the book. This piece of advice was the best that Nick ever received and I agree that it is worth saying and listening to. We are told in this chapter that Nick comes from a prominent family in the mid-West. His father owns a hardware business and also graduated from the same college that Nick did; New Haven University. This strikes me because back in the day it wasn’t common for everyone to go to college like the way it is now, so he must’ve had some sort of money, connections of power, or both to be able to attend and graduate college. I think that his father must’ve been a very intelligent and humble man, and I wonder if Nick is going to carry on some of his father’s traits in the rest of the story.

Nick seems to have a great plan by buying a house with a friend in New York when he decided to become a bonds man, but his plans change and he ends up alone in a bungalow next door to the Gatsby mansion in a place called West Egg. Even though we haven’t met Gatsby yet we know that he is very wealthy from the description of his home and is a prominent character in the book, since his name serves at its’ title. West Egg is the less fashionable of the two ‘Egg’ cities. East Egg is where Tom Buchanan, (Nick’s college acquaintance), and his wife Daisy (Nick’s second cousin) live. They live in an extremely elaborate “Georgian Colonial” mansion and have the money to back it.

Tom seems to be a very opinionated and ignorant person, while his wife Daisy is the complete opposite. We are also introduced to Ms. Baker. She is a very mysterious character that we don’t know much about and Nick even points out on p. 11, “It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.” Ms. Baker tells Nick a few family secrets, including one about Tom having an affair.

As Nick leaves he feels disgusted and doesn’t seem in awe of the Buchanan’s like the way he did when he first arrived. I probably would have felt the same way. I find it funny how money can try to mask the problems in a person’s life, yet they always seem to surface while you’re in the issues company for awhile. I’m also looking forward to learning more about Gatsby. At the end of the chapter Nick sees him and wants to invite him for dinner, but he vanishes. This leaves me very intrigues at the end of chapter 1.