He had possessed the arrogance of a tall member of a short race, with no obligation save to be tall.
Interpretation
The quote critiques arrogance stemming from privilege, highlighting that one's advantages do not justify entitlement.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote reflects on how individuals who possess certain advantages, such as height in this case, may develop a sense of superiority over others. This arrogance is portrayed as unwarranted, as it is simply a result of an innate characteristic rather than an achievement or a moral quality. The focus is on how these privileges can distort self-perception and interpersonal relationships.
In practice
In a discussion about social privilege, this quote can highlight how individuals may act based on their inherent advantages.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
All lies are told with a straight face. It is truth that's said with a dismissive giggle.
The evils that arise to us from the structure of the material universe are neither trivial nor few, yet the history of political society sufficiently shows that man is, of all other beings, the most formidable enemy to man.
Man does not live by soap alone; and hygiene, or even health, is not much good unless you can take a healthy view of it or, better still, feel a healthy indifference to it.
Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.
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