It makes me sad because I've never seen such "such beautiful shirts before'- (Fitzgerald 98). The absurdity of a person being sad because she has never seen such beautiful shirts before drives home Fitzgerald's point better than any other sentence could. The people who value these tangible goods are obviously silly people in whom a person can have no faith or trust. The societal problems of encouraging this scramble for possession is what the author is attacking in making this scene seem unnatural and fake. By bringing out this point, the author forces the society to take a look at Daisy and see how foolishly the people of this time are acting, just like her.
Tom Buchanan, Daisy's hulking husband, is bathed in a spiteful tone by Fitzgerald, who shows contempt for this character's materialistic values and disregard for good character. While describing the meeting between Nick Carraway, the narrator, and this arrogant man, Fitzgerald describes this haughty man's eyes as "shining, arrogant- and that they had "established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward- (Fitzgerald 11). The author uses the words such as "shining- and "appearance- to show how fake and shallow this man is, just like a two dimensional man of plastic. The aggression shown in this characterization is of a violent human being that disregards all feelings for good and what is morally correct. This is obviously a humanoid being that looks more to his possessions, including his wife, than a person that feels and bleeds like most. A short time later in the novel, this point is made even more obvious by how Fitzgerald denotes Tom as having "something pathetic in his concentration, as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more- (Fitzgerald 18). In writing that Tom's "old complacency was not enough to him anymore,"" Fitzgerald's attitude toward this crude, ambitious man is clearly one of scorn.