The Great Gatsby Group

Question:

duders
duders
Student
High School - 11th Grade

In Chapter 6, what is ironic about Tom's remark that women run around too much and meet the wrong kind of people?

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Posted by duders on Thursday January 17, 2008 at 4:37 PM and tagged with chapter 6, gatsby, irony, the great gatsby, theme, tom, women.

Answers:


  1. cybil Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Tom himself is running around and cheating on his wife. He, therefore, is an example of the "wrong kind of people" he criticizes. He overlooks the fact that in order for women like Myrtle to "run around too much" they have to encounter men like him. In effect, Tom has indicted himself, and it's clear that his idea of proper behavior for Daisy does not apply to him.

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    Posted by cybil on Thursday January 17, 2008 at 9:22 PM


  2. sagetrieb Teacher
    Doctorate

    Tom’s comment is also ironic because that is in fact what Daisy is up to:  running around to meet Gatsby, who in Tom’s mind would be the “wrong kind of people” because he is a threat to Tom’s sense of himself as a man as well as to his relationship with Daisy. Neither Daisy nor Tom, after all, is a particularly “good kind of person,” for both lack moral grounding and authenticity.  Furthermore, in the conventional sense Gatsby is “the wrong kind” of people because he is a gangster, associating with criminals, and it is this fact that brings about his murder at the end of the story.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby

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    Posted by sagetrieb on Friday January 18, 2008 at 4:23 AM