Monday, April 19, 2010

Group Two: Jordan

Whitney-Writer
Daly—Revising and Posting
Peppin
Gill

Please place your character sketch of Jordan here.

2 comments:

Averill said...

Jordon Baker is a woman without direction. She doesn’t ever seem fond of anything. She speaks of West Egg “contemptuously” (11), but at the same time finds her East Egg friends and their quiet criticism of West Egg “too polite” (45). Despite her apparent wealth, she doesn’t fit the society correctly. She’s an enigma. She goes to big parties to be alone. She refused to speak with company when reading aloud from a book. Even her clothes don’t fit, as “she wore her evening dresses, all her dresses, like sports clothes” (50). It’s with this description that we start to reach into the crux of Jordan’s character- the game, tennis. Tennis seems to be the only thing that pleases her beneath the “bored and haughty face the she turned to the world” (57)- “she was incurably dishonest” (58). This, more than tennis, is Jordan’s game of choice, the careful manipulation of those around her in an endless string of acts and lies. She flits above everything around her as a method to conceal her untruthfulness, and makes her move with slow, careful deliberation. She begins her work on Nick at the end of chapter 3, when with a few pointed words (“That’s why I like you” (58)) she manages to influence him so heavily that he is compelled to break off a faint connection to an old interest. Nick understands her dishonesty, but that doesn’t dull its effectiveness. The first move has been made. Nick can’t expect their match to be fair.

Bishop said...

The first word that comes to me when reading your posting is 'WOW.'
I think you do an amazing job of taking this assignment and running with it into the realm of success. I love how you include quotes directly into your character profile even though the assignment and the example you were given do something else. I think that by including quotes into your character profile makes your response more believable and the assertions you make about Jordan that much stronger.
I really like the idea of Jordan being an enigma and how you back this claim up by citing her cloths and her game of choice, tennis. Thus, I am left with a host of questions. Why is tennis Jordan's game of choice? While I like your argument here, I think that there is more to it. Think about how Jordan is one of the only character that bounces back and forth, with ease, between East and West Egg. Nick is a character who does that same thing. Thus, perhaps, that is the reason why they are attracted to each other? However, more to the point, is it her dishonesty the thing that allows her to be mobile her in her ability to float between the locations of the rich? This leads to the question--is Jordan a character that lies to herself in order to appease those who surround her? I would suggest that you look at the description of her body and how Fitzgerald almost makes her gender neutral.

This is a great post--however, I think that you were limited by time and that there is more that needs to be said, and that you want to say. Thus, i would encourage you to keep working on this character profile and how you can render it in a manner that fully draws out who Jordan is as a character.

Please let me know what you would give this response as a grade, and how you would grade yourselves as a group.

Thank you for these rich thoughts.

Best,
AK
Grade: 88/90