In regards to Nick’s reliability and effectiveness in his role as the narrator, I believe that he is entirely qualified and that it was the most effective way to narrate the novel. First of all, he lives right next door to Gatsby which allows him to assist Gatsby due to his close proximity. In addition, Nick is Daisy’s second cousin once removed so he can closely observe the relationship between her and Gatsby. Since he is a secondary character and not Gatsby himself, his emotions are not as affected by Daisy’s or Tom’s actions. His nonpartisan perspective and understanding personality is stated in the beginning of the book. “…I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me…” (1) However, he is close to these characters so he can also give insight to the audience and has many intrusions throughout the story. Even though Nick is supposed to simply be a character in the book, it hints that he is also the author of the book and has an omniscient point of view. He also makes the audience feel as if he is speaking directly to them and simply retelling a story from the summer he spent with Gatsby. 4. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents many symbols that had a significant impact in effectively showing the deterioration of the American Dream. The most important symbols that are central to his message are the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes, and the green light. When Gatsby first takes note of the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg in chapter two he states that “above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg” (23). Throughout the novel, this pair of fading eyes painted on the... ... middle of paper ... ...by] had [not] once ceased looking at Daisy…he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (91). All Gatsby wanted to do was to impress her and to love her, but it seemed as though all she cared about was the size of his wallet. Ultimately, Daisy claims that she loved Gatsby primarily, but she did love Tom once and Gatsby’s daze is ruined by her confession. Additionally, she then allows Gatsby assume full responsibility for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she was operating the car when they hit her which lead to Gatsby’s murder. She did not even have the decency to attend his funeral and she and Tom simply “retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” and moved away. Gatsby deeply loved Daisy and wanted to believe that she loved him too, but the feeling was never truly reciprocated by her.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a motif of “unrequited desire” runs deep through the novel, and while the main characters exemplify this theme, the fact that the minor characters also demonstrates this unreturned respect suggests that the motif runs deep in the novel. These minor characters include the girls in yellow at Gatsby’s parties, who fail to gain the recognition they desire from the wealthy. Also through the different minor characters and especially the McKees, Fitzgerald illustrates different methods that the minor characters attempt, yet fail, to gain acknowledgment. Besides the behaviours of the characters, the time of appearance for the characters also becomes significant, as Catherine, who fails to achieve recognition
Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel based on Gatsby’s dream and hope. In order to enrich the story, symbols are used to emphasize what the author is saying and they create a curiosity in the reader as they are frequently used throughout the story. These three symbols – green light, valley of ashes and the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg are not connected to each other but each of them represents important things in the story.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the topics of the East Egg versus the West Egg, the valley of ashes and the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, and the green light at the end of the dock are key symbols that play important roles throughout the novel.
Fitzgerald uses devices like Dr T. J. Eckleburg, The Valley of Ashes, The Green Light, cars and colours in ‘The Great Gatsby’ to convey varying themes such as hope, longing, foreboding and one of the main themes, corruption, specifically corruption of the American Dream.
Indeed one of the unique features of this novel is the mystery surrounding it’s main character ‘Gatsby-the man who gives his name to this book’ This sense of inscrutability which is omnipresent with Gatsby is cleverly achieved through the narrative techniques which Fitzgerald employs. The most obvious, and also most effective of which is the narration from Nick’s perspective. Throughout this novel it is Nick’s views of Gatsby which we read, not Fitzgerald’s and not anyone else’s. Only Nick’s. And even Nick seems to be some what in the dark as to Gatsby’s character, he often switches tact throughout the novel on his impression of Gatsby. This seems to insinuate that he has been ponderous over Gatsby for some time. The reader gains the impression that Nick has made calculating decisions throughout the novel, in terms of what he allows us to know about Gatsby. He is after all writing in retrospect. The very fact that Nick still has an ambiguous attitude towards Gatsby even after his death, endorses the readers opinion of Gatsby as a character who can not be categorised. He is uniqu...
Throughout the book, it is extremely noticeable that Gatsby is faithful and has the ability to love Daisy with all of her faults. Even when Daisy says she would wait on Gastby to return from war, she ends up marrying another man, Tom. After Gatsby hears of this, he dedicated himself to win Daisy back (Sparknotes 1) Therefore, with his unconditional love, this could be compared to God’s unconditional love to all his people. Even when Daisy switches her feelings back and forth from Tom to Gatsby, he stays with Daisy and keeps a grasp on the thought of being with her. Towards the end of the story, Daisy runs over Myrtle and kills her in the process. Although Daisy is unfaithful to both Gatsby and her husband, he is still determined to take the blame for Daisy. Just like Christ carried his cross, Gatsby carried Daisy’s cross because his love for her overpowered any kind of punishment that he would
At first, the only function of Nick in the novel seems to be to act as a reporter, telling us the truth by telling us his shrewd, objective perceptions. Then, as the novel progresses, it turns out that the opposite is the case, and he is siding with Gatsby to make this character stand above all others and shine. Nick Carraway could be one of the finest examples of reader manipulation in literature. But his sympathy towards Gatsby is exaggerated, not so much in actions, but in the much praised language of the novel.
The two most important symbols in the story are the green lights at the end of daisy’s dock, and the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. The green lights represent Gatsby’s “American dream” and his yearning for daisy. The reader doesn’t understand this for a while though. Fitzgerald shows us later that this is what they stand for, to show how something simple can represent so much. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg is simply a sign that lingers over the valley of ashes. The reader can interpret it as anything he/she wishes. Toward the end of the novel, however, George Wilson interprets the eyes as the eyes of God, and he must act properly under them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the valley of ashes, the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg, and the light symbolically in The Great Gatsby. The valley of ashes represents the shallow and hollow lives of the rich people, the sad, sorrowful, and selfless lives of the middle class people, and struggles and pains that every character endures. The eyes of T.J. Eckleberg represent God and how he watches our every move, while also representing George Wilson’s love for his wife, and his drive to keep his family alive. The light is another important symbol in this novel. The light symbolizes Gatsby’s perseverance to get Daisy and also on a bright, successful future. Each symbol is critical in this novel to understand the common American dream.
Great literary characters are immortalized and perpetually discussed not because they are individually so grand and majestic, but because they exist as more than themselves. A great literary character truly exists in the external and symbolic associations that the author and audience apply. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals social and emotional elements of his character Daisy Buchanan through the symbols of white dresses and a pearl necklaces in order to convey a message concerning detrimental class values, a theme that can be better understood by comparing Daisy to a diamond.
Even though at first when they finally got together after all those years and everything seem great and romantic but good things always come to an end. The affair effected Gatsby in his life by having him back the old love he first had for Daisy even hoping for a lifetime future together. His dream is very much vivid about his romantic hopes about Daisy in his mind, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams, not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (95). He seems to be falling deeper in love with her even maybe more than the love she really had for him even though through the end of the chapters her love that she claims to have for him seemed not truly. In New York, the truth comes out more about she feels about Gatsby by being questioned and feeling guilty when Tom gets to the fact that she loves him and not Gatsby but Gatsby rejects his sayings and tells Daisy to say how she truly feel about him. Over all the excitement, Daisy tells how she truly feel about the whole love affair, “I did love him once but I loved you too” (132). It is possible that the leading of Gatsby’s death was caused from Tom’s jealousy of his wife’s confessed love for Gatsby. Tom would had told Wilson that Gatsby was the driver of the car that killed Myrtle and her secret
"The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose." This is a quote from Nick Carraway, the central figure of the story and the voice of Jay Gatsby. Dr. Eckelburg is introduced at this point. He takes on an image of a human figure, which he is characterized as at many times throughout the novel, and that of a Godlike figure.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an extremely symbolic book with many various symbols, however the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are the most symbolic element. F. Scott Fitzgerald never makes a point of what the eyes symbolize, however, throughout the novel, he suggests that the eyes have a different meaning to everybody and have many different embodiments. The eyes embody the growth of commercialism, God, and show the corruption of people along with their recklessness.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F. Scot. Fitzgerald, through his use of symbols, characters, and theme, displays for the reader a tale that provides a commentary on the American dream and more importantly on its corruption.