How Is Nick Carraway Portrayed In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is, according to many, the greatest piece of American literature in existence. To others, it is simply a novel that cannot be regarded with anything more than antipathy. Although the book is primarily unsuccessful in delivering many of the key components of good literature, the story can still be adored by any person who reads it. The Great Gatsby is truly an iconic work, despite its lack of many important features. The Great Gatsby documents the events of one summer in 1922. The plot is filled with scenes of extravagant parties at Gatsby’s huge mansion, a scandalous affair hidden in a New York apartment, and the climatic face-off between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan over Daisy Buchanan’s love. Throughout

Although Nick is present at every event that he describes, he is not taking action to become more involved in the scene. For instance, he does little more than observe the scene around him when Tom and Myrtle invite him into their apartment with the other guests. He attempts to leave the lovers only one time when he says to “hold on” because he has to “leave [Tom and Myrtle] here” (28). However, they convince him to stay with them, and he goes into the apartment. During this small party, the only two things he does are have conversations with the other guests and get drunk. One flawed characteristic of Nick that many readers may believe spoils his reputability is that he rarely takes action to do the right thing according to his sense of morality. At this small party, he notes that the “line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets,” referring to the affair that he is now hiding from certain characters. Nick is one of the only characters who seem to have a sound sense of morality, but even he is able to suppress it for the benefit of others. Nick is a flawed person, and as the narrator, he does not effectively convey the story in a way that makes the reader get involved