Who Is The Fool In The Great Gatsby

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In the first chapter of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway goes to visit his cousin Daisy in the East Egg. When he first arrives, he meets Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. Upon entering the house, he finds Daisy with her friend Jordan Baker. They all have dinner together and during that time, Nick finds out that Tom is cheating on Daisy. After dinner, when Jordan and Tom are gone, Nick and Daisy talk and Daisy mentions her child. “It’ll show you how much I’ve gotten to feel about―things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where…” (Fitzgerald 16). This brings up the question, is the child actually Tom’s? The child is scarcely mentioned throughout the first three chapters. After going back and rereading the chapter, I’ve noticed that Tom previously interrupted Nick and Daisy’s first attempt at conversation about the child: Then she added irrelevantly: “You …show more content…

And I hope she’ll be a fool―that’s the best thing can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). This made me question why would she want the child to be a girl. Daisy wants her child to be “...a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). Fools usually don’t really know or care about much about anything. They are oblivious to everything. The daughter not knowing or caring means that she could live happier, but what should the child be oblivious about? Her not actually being her father’s child? Or just the fact that her father was, so obviously, cheating on her mother? It is known to many of the characters in the novel that Tom is cheating on Daisy but, what is his reasoning for this? Could the affair with Myrtle be Tom’s revenge against Daisy for giving birth to another man’s child? This is a possibility, but it is not very likely. Tom is mostly like having an affair just because he believes he can. He is also wants to dominate every situation. Which is why when he feels insulted by Myrtle, he hits