F. Scott Fitzgerald
I know what you're all thinking: "a second post so soon? Is this Christmas?" Please, contain your enthusiasm.
Anyhow, this section of the novel brings us to (what I think is) the climax. That potential confrontation preceded by the unbearable heat has come to fruition in a New York hotel room*. Even though the climax offers a juicy scene for the reader, its true significance comes from the virtue of revealing the inner machinations of the characters' minds.
After Tom had delivered Nick and Jordan and Gatsby had delivered Daisy to the hotel in New York (read: after Daisy had decided to live her life with Gatsby), Tom and Gatsby threw out all subtlety and argued over who should get Daisy. Tom argued that Daisy loves him despite his infidelity while Gatsby argues that Daisy never loved Tom; Gatsby was simply too poor to marry Daisy five years prior. Even though Gatsby seems to be correct, unlike all of Gatsby's and Tom's previous accomplishments, there is no complete victory in this argument: "' Oh, you want too much!' she cried to Gatsby. 'I love you now- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past.' She began to sob helplessly. 'I did love him once- but I loved you too" (Fitzgerald, 132). Gatsby may be correct in claiming that Daisy does not love Tom, he cannot say simply that she never loved him; she had been married to Tom for years and had had a child with him.
The oversimplification by both Tom and Gatsby signifies both men's oversights. To Gatsby, Daisy had represented freedom from poverty and anxiety toward all women. As he had miraculously escaped his impoverished life on a yacht, Gatsby sought to snag Daisy for his own in a glorious display of his own potential. Similarly, Tom simply wants to hold on to his wife as proof that his last football game in college was not his last hurrah, that his life is not zipping past him like Gatsby and Daisy did as he was getting gas at his mistress' residence, that there is hope for redemption after his mistress leaves for Chicago. Neither men want Daisy because of her qualities alone. Nick still seems to be the only one who notices Daisy's beauty and lovely voice.
Even though victory is not certain for anyone in this climactic clash, as in seeing a comment number above 100 on an angst-filled Facebook status, one thing is certain:
this is gonna be good.
*At this point I sang New York Minute for a good five minutes. Scratch that. A great five minutes.
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