Jordan Baker
Jordan is Daisy’s friend; she is a professional golfer who cheated in order to win her first tournament. Jordan is extremely cynical and with a masculine / touchy demeanour that Nick initially finds compelling. She is beautiful in her appearance but highly dishonest, and frequently appears to lie. Nick becomes romantically involved with her; however Jordan rejects him on the grounds that he is as corrupt as she is.
Quotes
‘The most amazing thing’
‘She held my hand impersonally, as a promise that she’d take care of me in a minute, and gave ear to two girls in twin yellow dresses, who stopped at the foot of the steps.’
‘You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride’
‘There was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age.’
‘Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to be at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body.’