The first interaction we see between Nick, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan provides some good clues. Despite the bad behavior of the others, Nick remains polite and well-mannered. When Daisy blames him, for example, for missing her wedding— because of the fact that he was in the war—he doesn't call her selfish or lose his composure. When Tom takes a call from his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, during dinner—while his wife sits in the next room—Nick doesn't say a word about it, ask her any questions, or seem to make any judgments. (For that matter, when Tom takes him—without asking—to meet this woman with whom Tom is cheating on Daisy, Nick's cousin, Nick keeps his opinions to himself about Myrtle, the dog Tom buys her, and the apartment he keeps for her.) He doesn't even laugh at Tom when Tom spouts his ridiculous racist opinions or claims to hate the word "hulking." Nick could speak up about, to laugh at or object to, any one of these situations, but he reservedly keeps his opinions to himself and behaves politely and discreetly.
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