Driving

=Driving = Adrian Cheng



** In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses driving to characterize characters. The people of West Egg and New York are extremely careless, reckless people. This is especially true for the Buchanans and Gatsby. The characters’ driving style reflects their emotions and decisions. The progressively dangerous driving style displayed by characters in the novel parallel the emotion and mood of the novel at the time. Also, the act of driving reflects the decisions of individual characters in the novel. **



**As the novel progresses, the driving of the characters becomes progressively more dangerous and reckless, reflecting the emotional turmoil of the characters. **

(Random driver; after observing the car crash. Obviously drunk and failing to notice the wheel came off) “at first I didn’t notice that we’d stopped” “wonder’ff tell me where there’s a gas’line station?” “Back out, put her into reverse” “But the //wheel’s// off!” “No harm in trying.”

The driver is obviously drunk and has absolutely no idea what is going on. The carefree nature of his driving shows that there is no apparent conflict in the novel at this moment. Everyone is just laughing and standing around, nobody takes the crash seriously.

“All right, old sport,” called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet, Gatsby waved it before of the man’s eyes. “Right you are, know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!”

Gatsby is excited and anxious His anxiety translates into him speeding Also, the policeman excusing him from the law is a show of his power

“Was Daisy driving?”…”It ripped her open” (Nick) “Don’t tell me, old sport,” Gatsby winced, “Anyhow, she stepped on it. I tried to make her stop but she couldn’t,”

Daisy was emotionally devastated at that time Driving could have been a means of escape She was speeding horribly And also, how does driving a car “soothe her nerves” as Gatsby puts it; it’s just careless, she shouldn’t be driving a car. (Somebody doing 36mph in a 30mph zone. Perhaps he was anxious about something?) []



** The decisions characters make while driving represent the decisions they make in life. **

“Do you remember a conversation we had once about driving a car?” “you said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver” (Jordan, about Nick) This talks about how most of the character’s decisions escape consequence, until two characters who make bad decisions come into conflict with each other. This quote is also talking about how Gatsby and Tom make bad choices in their lives but they don’t seem to have any problems until they meet each other.

“well, if you’re a poor driver, you oughtn’t to try to drive at night” (Nick to car crash driver)

If we take driving to be the character’s approaches to life, then Nick is saying, if you know you’re going to be making terrible decisions, maybe you shouldn’t be making the decisions Of course, everyone in the book doesn’t care about the consequences of their actions and so their actions harm the people around them.

 (How is it even possible to run a car into a pole?) [] (The formatting looks terrible, but i just can't get the bullet points in without messing everything up)