Fitzgerald, Gatsby, and Some Impressionistic Quotes : Forum : Slowly Bending toward one Ulti..


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Slowly Bending toward one Ultimate Degree (pg 113; Nick and Daisy)

13 Years Ago


"Almost the last thing I remember was standing with Daisy and watching the movie picture director with his star. They were still under the white plum tree and their faces were touching except for a pale thin ray of moonlight in between. It occurred to me that he had been bending toward her all evening to attain this proximity, and even while I watched I saw him stoop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek. 'I like her', said Daisy. 'I think she’s lovely.' But the rest offended her and arguably because it wasn’t a gesture but an emotion. She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented 'place' that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a shortcut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand. "