Weather In The Great Gatsby

It’s often said that hot weather contributes to a hot temper, and perhaps the author of The Great Gatsby contributed to this saying. In Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel titled The Great Gatsby, he uses setting to ingeniously push the plot forward and set the tone of a multitude of scenes, causing conflicts and high tensions which even the reader experiences. Everything from the senses used because of the setting and the effects the setting has on the character's mentality to the decisions made by characters to visit each location. Starting from East Egg with a large group of friends bored on a hot day, opting to get away and find something exciting in the city where nothing had changed. Tom used it as an excuse to get away from his slipping control

Tom snaps at Daisy because of her uncooperative attitude, “We can’t argue about it here, … follow me to the south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza” (Fitzgerald 125). Fitzgerald uses this to set the scene where the climax is reached. Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan came as a group but currently, it seems Daisy and Tom are the only two whose feelings matter as they chose to visit a place to argue instead of have fun like promised to their guests. This is also the moment when the Plaza Hotel is set as an argumentative zone. In addition, Daisy and Tom choose to stay in that already irritating, hot, and enclosed building that only magnifies feelings. Our narrator, Nick, illustrates the true extent of the temperature and how it may affect each character, “the prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into a room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that… intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back” (Fitzgerald

Although the group had only recently settled into the room at the Plaza, Daisy couldn’t ignore the heat and shared her complaints with the group. Tom who is already annoyed at Daisy from the argument just a few moments before snaps yet again, “The thing to do is to forget about the heat, … You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it” (Fitzgerald 126). His tone was rude towards his wife, compelled by the heat and scrambled emotions at the thought of losing Myrtle and Daisy. Tom realizes that Daisy is not even attempting to realize the reason why he originally proposed driving into the city: to distract the group, and more importantly himself, from the heat and stress by doing fun activities. Unfortunately, just when things start to settle down again another layer of agitation appears as “the compressed heat exploded into sound and we were listening to the portentous chords of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from the Ballroom below” (Fitzgerald 127). The author yet again another blanket of depth to the setting, making a situation for the characters that would be miserable for anyone. Now using the majority of their senses by adding hearing, a song so loud it can’t be ignored brings up the sharp contrast of how Daisy and Tom’s relationship used to be better. Fitzgerald successfully uses senses throughout the entire scene building up to