The Chosen and the Beautiful

Jordan makes her way to Daisy’s house, where she meets a sheepish Tom, who says that his wife is blaming him for being “brutish again” (133). He makes his way to the city, leaving Jordan to tend to a fragile, drunk Daisy. Jordan informs her that Nick will invite her to his house soon, so that she can meet Gatsby. Daisy is eager to escape with Gatsby. When she hears Pammy cry, she says that she never wanted a child, and that Tom gave her a diamond bracelet when the doctors promised that their daughter would live.

The next day, Nick telephones Daisy, inviting her to Gatsby’s without Tom. Jordan listens in. Daisy is so anxious about making a good appearance before Gatsby that she beats her maid Valerie in the pursuit of finding an outfit. Daisy insists that Jordan comes to Gatsby’s so that they do not make Nick a third wheel.

Nick greets them in a suit and his house has been dressed up for the occasion with a lavish bouquet. Gatsby appears and shocks Daisy with his rain-sodden appearance. The moment of reunion is an intense one, and Jordan notes that “he looked at me more than he looked at Daisy; every time his eyes came to her, they seemed to skip, as if after years of not seeing her, he had to become accustomed to her brightness again” (143). He is so nervous that he knocks over a clock on Nick’s mantelpiece.

When Daisy is still as a statue, Jordan asks her if she wants to leave, but the former insists on staying. Gatsby and Daisy soon sit and engage in intimate conversation and Jordan flees to look for Nick. When she finds Nick, he informs her that Gatsby built his house himself, with some money he received from a bootlegger. Jordan comments that Gatsby’s soul is all for Daisy.

Jordan and Nick begin making out and he tells her “I believe I love you” (148). She makes light of the feeling and seizes the impulse to arouse Nick so that he appears all disarrayed before Gatsby, conscious that he is attracted to him. She guides him to perform oral sex on her, and she performs manual sex on him.

When they return to the house, Gatsby and Daisy are on opposite sides of the sofa, with Daisy in a show of tears. Daisy takes Jordan to Nick’s bathroom and confesses that Gatsby loves her enormously. She then insists that they go to Gatsby’s house.

At his house, Gatsby shows them a suite he has made for Daisy, in the style of France’s last queen, Marie Antionette. He guides Nick away, to give the women a chance to explore the room in privacy. In Gatsby’s room, they witness the opulence of his shirt collection, as the garments fly about like birds. The house is lavish and varied, in the manner of old country estates. As she is contemplating statues, Jordan comes across a servant who looks like her.

Gatsby’s butler insists that he take a call that he cannot ignore. When he returns, he and Daisy daydream aloud about traveling together. While she begins with Chicago, he imagines their trip extending to Paris, Marrakesh, and Ceylon in India. He comments that perhaps Jordan could “show us around Ceylon,” as if that is her home country, which indicates his ignorance and indifference to her true origins (163). Nick says that his great-grandmother was from Bangkok. Jordan realizes she has never told Nick her adoption story and wonders “how he thought I’d come about at all” (163).

They are distracted by Michael Klipspringer’s piano playing and Nick and Jordan flee when it becomes evident that Gatsby wants to be alone with Daisy. They go back to Nick’s, and he suggests that Jordan should one day visit France with him.

At the end of the summer, Jordan is conscious of the Manchester Act, which would halt immigration from a long list of Asian and non-white countries and even repatriate those who had already come from those places. Nick asks Jordan if she is worried, and she rebuffs him by telling him the Act has nothing to do with her and running off with Jodie Washington for a few days.

Still, Jordan and Nick become an item. There is a party at Gatsby’s midway through August and Daisy turns up with Tom. There is immediate tension between Gatsby and Tom when Tom says that he does not like parties where he does not know anyone. Jordan meanwhile finds Gatsby’s home to have a “desperate” aura with “everything” being “just a shade too bright” (172). She wanders off on her own and comes across the golden scales of a dragon. She thinks that it is another of Gatsby’s wondrous tricks; however, this particular paper cutting is the work of the Asian boy Jordan saw in Gatsby’s house the previous day. He introduces himself as Khai, and he mistakes her for “one of Mrs. Chau’s girls” from Vietnam (174). She realizes that he thinks her dress is a costume and is embarrassed. He tries to talk to her in Vietnamese and she experiences a sense of dislocation, never having heard her language spoken since childhood. He cuts her a shower of chrysanthemum blossoms and despite her best intentions to remain aloof, she is mesmerized. He insists on putting Jordan on a list to see the performers’ show and she feigns nonchalance.

Jordan finds Gatsby taking another mysterious phone call. He comments that she does not like him; however, he wishes to change that as she is important to Daisy. He adds that Jordan ought to get on his good side, as he knows people who could help her if the Manchester Act comes to fruition. She tells him that he is as much of an interloper in this scene as her.

Jordan considers that Gatsby takes his revenge on her by keeping Nick occupied until dawn. She goes back to Nick’s house and wonders if he will return with Gatsby’s scent on him.