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Daisy Buchanan
A friend of Daisy's who becomes Nick's girlfriend. A successful amateur golfer, Jordan is beautiful and pleasant, but does not inspire Nick to feel much more than a "tender curiosity" for her. Perhaps this is because Baker is "incurably dishonest" and cheats at golf. Still, there is some suggestion in the novel that she loves Nick, and that he misjudges her.
Jordan Baker Quotes in The Great Gatsby
The The Great Gatsby quotes below are all either spoken by Jordan Baker or refer to Jordan Baker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
On a chance we tried an important-looking door, and walked into a high Gothic library, panelled with carved English oak, and probably transported complete from some ruin overseas. A stout, middle-aged man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. As we entered he wheeled excitedly around […].
“[…] They’re real.”
“The books?”
He nodded.
“Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and—Here! Lemme show you.”
[…]
“See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!”
“[…] They’re real.”
“The books?”
He nodded.
“Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and—Here! Lemme show you.”
[…]
“See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!”
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west—all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.”
He looked at me sideways—and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all.
He looked at me sideways—and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him after all.
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“Why didn’t he ask you to arrange a meeting?”
“He wants her to see his house,” she explained. “And your house is right next door.”
“Oh!”
“He wants her to see his house,” she explained. “And your house is right next door.”
“Oh!”
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Chapter 9
Quotes
That's my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.
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Get the entire The Great Gatsby LitChart as a printable PDF.
Jordan Baker Character Timeline in The Great Gatsby
The timeline below shows where the character Jordan Baker appears in The Great Gatsby. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
At dinner Nick meets Jordan Baker, a young professional golfer, who is beautiful but also seems constantly bored by her...
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...learns he has a phone call and leaves the room. Daisy follows quickly behind, and Jordan tells Nick that the call is from Tom's mistress. The rest of dinner is awkward....
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Chapter 3
Nick runs into Jordan Baker at the party. While spending time with her, he observes all the amazing luxuries...
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Nick and Jordan decide to find their mysterious host, and wander into Gatsby's library. There they meet a...
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Later, as Nick and Jordan sit outside watching the party, Nick strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next...
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At almost two in the morning, a butler approaches Jordan and asks her to come meet with Gatsby. She returns a while later from this...
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...has a brief relationship with a woman from New Jersey, and then begins to date Jordan Baker. Yet though he's attracted to Jordan, he doesn't like her because she's dishonest and...
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Chapter 4
After lunch, Nick meets Jordan at the Plaza Hotel. She tells him the "amazing thing" that Gatsby had told her...
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Jordan finishes the story later in Central Park. She says Gatsby never fell out of love...
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Chapter 7
...day of the summer, Daisy invites Nick and Gatsby to lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. At one point, while Tom is out of the room, Daisy kisses Gatsby on the...
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...yellow car. Gatsby and Daisy travel alone in Tom's coupe, while Tom drives Nick and Jordan. It's clear Tom now knows about the affair between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby's car is...
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...the distance, then spots Myrtle Wilson staring down from the windows above the garage at Jordan Baker, whom she seems to have mistaken for Daisy, her rival in love.
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...Long Island (Gatsby and Daisy took Gatsby's car), Nick observes that unlike Daisy, people like Jordan Baker know better than to hold onto irretrievable dreams. Nick describes the car he rides...
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The point of view shifts back to Nick: Tom, Nick, and Jordan arrive at the scene in their car. Both Tom and Wilson are overwhelmed by grief...
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Tom, Jordan, and Nick drive to the Buchanan's house. Tom calls a taxi for Nick. As Nick...
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Chapter 8
At work that day, Nick falls asleep. The phone wakes him: it's Jordan. Their conversation quickly turns unpleasant and one of them hangs up on the other. Nick...
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Chapter 9
...as a story of the West since many of the key characters (Daisy, Tom, Nick, Jordan, Gatsby) involved were not from the East. He says that after Gatsby's death, the East...
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Nick goes to Jordan Baker's house to set things straight with her. She tells him she is engaged to...
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