The analysis of Extract 3

The third extract from the first chapter of the novel begins with a detailed
description of the interiors of the Buchanan’s house and the characters of the two
women who are in the room.
At the very beginning, first of all, the reader's gaze is drawn to the internal
structure of the room itself. It is so spacious and light that it gives the impression
that the rooms, like an air castle, are soaring above everything else, rushing
somewhere up to the sky.
It should be noted here that the light colour scheme prevailing over
everything else was chosen for a reason. By means of the light colours, the author
intends to depict the airiness, one might even say the divinity of Daisy and Jordan.
They are both dressed in white dresses, which is the color that causes association
with everything pure, immaculate, sublime. The decoration of the room does not
look down-to-earth, heavy, rather on the contrary — the whole situation is
ephemerally serene, time seems to have frozen, and the couch on which the ladies
are sitting looks as if they were “buoyed up upon an anchored balloon”. Taken
together, everything that is happening looks like an unbelievable miracle.
However, all this fragile weightlessness collapses after Tom shuts the rear
windows. His decisive action makes the caught wind die out, and the curtains and
the two young ladies “slowly balloon to the floor”.
The reference to white colour sets the mood and can be associated with
youth and beauty. Daisy is charming, young lady, whom young men find
unforgettable. The whole atmosphere depends on white color and associated with
angels and goddesses. The morphological opposition “boy up – weigh down” is a
key opposition of the extract, because Daisy is no longer associated with this
ethereal creature. She is now viewed as an idol, who is material and pragmatic.
Thus, the room with the open windows and the light colours conveys the idea of
lightness and weightlessness.
The other part of vocabulary is that large semantic groups of words denoting
weightlessness and motion. Motion here depends on weightlessness. Normally
motion is expressed by verbs, but here are many nouns which express this idea. For
example, a normal word for the situation when the window is opened is “draft” but
it is too heavy. A lot of verbs take the form of present participles, which play an
important role in the extract. Grammatically it is meant to denote the action in
process which is simultaneous. Here the description shows that for Nick at certain
stage time stopped, froze, because he has fallen under her charm. Therefore, he is
observing this picture. Nick Carraway is paralyzed with surprised fascination.
The phrase with a present participle “fluttering as if they had just been
blown back in after a short flight around the house” is used in Subjunctive II,
which shows unrealistic action. It is emphasized grammatically after so many
lexical means were used. The idea of breeze or draught is rendered by
onomatopoetic words: “to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a
picture on the wall, a boom”. These sounds are produced by means of fluttering
objects in the draught. The moment Tom closes the French windows the air is
caught up and the illusion is shattered to pieces.
Adverbial modifiers support Daisy’s real state (she pretends to be happy but
she is not). The main obstacle for her being happy is her husband: he is having an
affair with another woman.
Finally, there is another key aspect of the extract, which is Tom and Daisy
themselves. Despite the fact that at first glance they may look like antipodes, at the
same time they belong to each other. Tom's contempt for people is opposed to
Nick’s “unaffected scorn” to the particular kind of people. Here the word
“contempt” is used to refer to Daisy and belongs to this semantic group. She is
depicted using a call; her heart is domineering, but Daisy behaves peremptorily.
The key idea expressed in the extract is that Tom and Daisy belong to each
other. Moreover, it is mentioned that they belong to some secret society: “I was
waiting, and sure enough, after a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk
on her beautiful face, as if she had declared her membership in a rather
distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged”.
 This is a completely realistic story about Daisy and Tom – they share the
same views. Tom may have many mistresses, Daisy may express her disgust – but
these two will never part. Money, their attitude to people and to life in general
make them an inseparable whole.