In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Jay Gatsby as a somewhat sympathetic yet wholly corrupted rendering of the American Dream. Nothing about Gatsby is what it appears to be and the foundation on which his life is based at the time we meet him is a ladder of lies. However, Gatsby is merely the central focus of an entire world composed of people just as corrupted as he, in the sense that these people practice an intriguing and dangerous blend of casual honesty versus intimate dishonesty.
One of Gatsby's greatest errors is his failure to realize that the people with whom he surrounds himself practice this blend of honesty and dishonesty for the specific purpose of maintaining the status quo. Gatsby, on the other hand, has created his ladder of lies in an attempt to change the world he seeks to enter. Jordan Baker's statements serve as verbal markers in the book for the casual honesty the East Egg people practice. Within the first few hours of meeting Nick Carraway, the narrator, she reveals to him that Tom Buchanan is having an affair. What is so astonishing about her revelation is that she does it at Tom's table while he and Daisy are in the other room apparently arguing about the affair. She reveals the information so matter-of-factly, as though it were just so much coffee-table talk:
A subdued impassioned murmur was audible in the room beyond and Miss Baker leaned forward, unashamed, trying to hear. The murmur trembled on the verge of coherence, sank down, mounted excitedly and then ceased altogether.
"This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor--" I said.
"Don't talk. I want to hear what happens."
"Is something happening?" I inquired innocently.
"You mean to say you don't know?" said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. "I thought everybody knew."
"Why--" she said hesitantly, "Tom's got some woman in New York" (Fitzgerald 19).
Nick does not even know Jordan's first name, yet she i...