The Great Gatsby

"He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body- he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage- a cruel body."


This is how F. Scott Fitzgerald describes Daisy Buchanan's husband, Tom. It's almost an oxymoron- a large, "hulking" (to put it in Daisy's words) man in a very girly outfit: flouncy blouse, blazer, tight jodhpurs, and shiny riding boots. To give you a visual picture:

Not only is this slightly hilarious (Tom greets the speaker with a gruff, macho voice), but also a great use of foreshadowing in determining Tom's character. To say that someone has a "cruel" body? This implies that Tom's body has cruel intentions, which have already been shown when Daisy points out the bruise on her delicate finger, and a few chapters later when Tom punches his mistress in the nose.