Nick's reference, actually, is to a "secret society," and
it is found in a passage while Nick and Daisy are talking alone. Daisy has explained to
Nick the various ways her life is quite awful; her outburst seems heartfelt and filled
with emotion. However, as soon as she stops speaking, Nick feels "the basic insincerity
of what she had said." He is suddenly uneasy in Daisy's company, feeling "the whole
evening had been a trick" to manipulate his emotions:
I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked
at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in
a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom
belonged.
Nick's reference to
"a rather distinguished secret society" is not clarified at this point in the novel, but
it is important because it represents the first time he becomes aware of Daisy's shallow
and disingenuous personality and the bond that holds the Buchanans together--Tom and
Daisy both "belong" to an as yet unnamed group of "distinguished" people who are set
apart from society at large. The connotation of "secret society" suggests limited
membership and special rules of behavior. In spotting Daisy's phoniness and
manipulation, Nick feels a very distinct difference between her (and Tom) and himself.
As the novel develops, this difference becomes clear to Nick. He develops contempt for
the Buchanans and their "secret society," the idle, snobbish, selfish upper class of
inherited wealth and amoral, destructive behavior.
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