Skip to main content

Wolfsheim turns the conversation away from his cuff buttons to Gatsby's relations with women. What does he assure Nick of?

Wolfsheim's cuff buttons are one of those details from The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) that really stick in one's mind whether one wants them to or not.  The shock of finding out they are made of human teeth can almost make a reader miss what Wolfsheim has to say next to Nick.  He has already told Nick that Gatsby is a man of "fine breeding" (76), whom a person can take home to meet his mother.  After letting Nick know about the cuff buttons, he tells Nick that Gatsby "would never so much as look at a friend's wife" (77). At this point, Gatsby has already met privately with Jordan Baker, to explain to her his and Daisy's history and to ask her to ask Nick if Nick will arrange for Daisy to come to Nick's house for tea, so Gatsby can meet her there.  Wolfsheim is no doubt right in his assessment of Gatsby as a faithful friend, but Tom Buchanan is not Gatsby's friend. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more