The American car also complements the tension between substance and surface: it’s shiny chrome magnetized millions of people yet beneath the chrome was an essentially unsafe and not particularly sophisticated machine. The car provides the setting for this exchange and links to form (the snappy or staccato dialogue, and the sense of pace and tempo that it provides). It also symbolizes the machinery of American capitalism. In many ways, the automobile symbolizes the speed, recklessness and sense of escape that so embodies this age of American history.
The driving exchange encapsulates the prevalent idea of the absence of responsibility. In many ways, Jordan Baker is the exemplar for the tension between substance and surface: a conflict that epitomizes the age in which the novel is set. We have to ask of such people: what do they really think of themselves? The surface is brimming with confidence but what is underneath depicts a different story.
The sense of mask-wearing and the idea of ‘dealing in subterfuges’ gives her an elusive quality. In this respect, she very much embodies the values of the 1920s super-rich clique. She is avoiding that which might expose her. Jordan Baker’s dishonesty is all about keeping a step ahead, so she can avoid being seen for what she truly is. The Great Gatsby Chapter 3 “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men… I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” Background:
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