In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald gives insight into Nick’s new perspective, a disgust of the East and his realization that he was utterly out of place there. Fitzgerald display’s Nick’s growing appreciation for the West. In the beginning of the passage, on 175 he regards coming back with a gift like sentiment. Nick’s memories of return to the West are always on Christmas, which means he views coming home as a gift. “Cheerful as Christmas itself on the tracks beside the gate” when Nick spots the cars on the tracks waiting to bring him back home it gives him as much joy as Christmas itself (175). The passage is also included to add that Nick is finally realizing that the west is where he truly belonged. He regards Christmas snow as “Our Snow” to imply that Nick has re-accepted the West as his own (175). The line “Before we melted indistinguishably into it again” was included to show that Nick and the other westerners …show more content…
Nick notices that although the characters had lived in the east they were not truly from there. “I am part of that”, he mentions as he realizes he is a part of the West and not the East. Fitzgerald also adds realization that “this has been a story of the West, after all.” upon having Nick reminisce on his origin and that of his one time friends (176). Fitzgerald is expressing another realization, that in which Nick understands that none of the characters were truly meant for the East. Nick notes that maybe the reason the characters all struggled was because they were westerners. “Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common.” Fitzgerald is also showcasing the Nick’s realization that the characters in the book were not equipped for eastern life “we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to eastern life”
Nick and Jordan are intrigued to discover who Gatsby was. Unexpectedly, Nick discovers a man who remembered him from WWI was Gatsby. Nick illustrates the idiosyncratic Gatsby’s exquisite appearance, his solitude since he is a non-alcoholic, and his reputation. Nick crafts Gatsby’s description, “His tanned skin was drawn attractively tight on his face and his short hair looked as though it were trimmed every day...the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests...no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby’s shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby’s head for one link” (Fitzgerald 50). Nick’s fascination for Gatsby is clearly evident during the chapter. Since Nick’s fascination for Gatsby is insatiable and he is neighbors with Gatsby, a bond may be established between each other. Also, Gatsby’s solitude is caused by the misinterpretation of his guests of his true persona and there oblivious of his existence. This solitude is displayed in the gratitude he received from the opportunistic, unloyal women. From the information asserted, Tom and Gatsby’s personalities are clearly
In chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the change of Nick’s emotions. During the early 1920s a new dawn buds out with Nick, and Tom traveling to New York. On their way they stop to visit Tom’s lover Myrtle Wilson at the Valley of Ashes. Myrtle Wilson invites Tom, Nick, the Mckee family, and her sister Catherine to her apartment for a party in New York. During the end of the party Nick expresses a variety of emotions, as he is “enchanted” and “repelled” by the arguments, and the careless gibberish of the drunken souls . Nick is enchanted by the amount of secrecy humans can disclose to a “casual watcher” when they are careless. He is “repelled” by the arguments and the derogatory comments Myrtle, and Tom makes about other people as they start to drink more.
Among the first indicators of Nick’s unreliability as a narrator is shown through his extreme misunderstanding of his father’s advice. When Nick’s father told him that “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (1) he most likely meant not all people have the same opportunities in life. However, Nick perverted his father’s meaning and understood it as “a sense of the fundamental decencies us parceled out unequally at birth” (2). Nick’s interpretation of his father’s advice provides insight into his conceited, somewhat supercilious attitude, as he believes that not all people are born with the same sense of manners and morality.
Jordan’s and Gatsby’s memories of Daisy, the piecing together of Gatsby’s actual history and Nick’s reflections on his own life belong to different eras and possibly jumping between these different timelines and impressions and Nick’s present impressions would have been inelegant. Fitzgerald places him in this hard position for a reason, to help him reveal just how befoul the society was becoming. Rather, William Voegeli, a critic of “Gatsby and the pursuit of happiness” shows a different side to this, he states, “Nick rents, Gatsby buys, and the Buchanans inherit,” also stating “”you’re no better than anybody else and no one else is better than you” (William Voegeli 1). Which shown in the novel is not true, Nick is a middle class character compared to the magnificent West Egg class.
Gatsby’s willingness to protect Daisy even after her rejection shows how deeply he likes her and how he isn’t willing to give up his American Dream even when there seems like there’s no hope. Throughout chapter seven of the book, the readers are taken on a journey, through the first person narrative of Nick, in order to find out Daisy’s decision. On this journey, there are several tone shifts ranging from tension to melancholy with several others sprinkled in between. F. Scott Fitzgerald influences the readers to feel these emotions and makes several impacts on the chapter in his novel “The Great Gatsby” by using the rhetoric of diction, imagery, and selection of detail.
One of the aspects I enjoyed about Fitzgerald’s novel is that Nick is a very intriguing character to discover. He has a rich back-story. He was a mid-western man who graduated from Yale. Later, he served in the army during the First World War, and this caused him to be restless, which led him to discover the bond business. He earned some money
In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses tone, diction, syntax and imagery to voice Nick's perception of the world around him. In this passage his use of language is used repetitively to convey Jordan Baker, Daisy and Tom Buchanan's lives. On the outside it may look like they all are living a perfect and ideal life, however Fitzgerald's illuminating use of language highlights how far from perfect their lives truly are.
Fitzgerald presents us with the conflict between the illusion and the reality of the American dream. The novel begins in the present tense, and is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the narrator and moral centre of the novel. His tale is told in retrospect, if not. Nick Carraway is a young man from the Mid West. introducing himself as a graduate of Yale and a veteran of World War One.
“The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings, love affairs, and corruption. Nick Carraway is the engaged narrator of the book, a curious choice considering that he is in a different class and almost in a different world than Gatsby and the other characters. Nick relates the plot of the story to the reader as a member of Gatsby’s circle. He has ambivalent feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s magnificent capacity to hope. Using Nick as a moral guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to illustrate the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve this, Nick’s credentials as a reliable narrator are carefully established and reinforced throughout the story.
In Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator Nick takes the time to list and describe many of the guests that visited Gatsby in his residence during the summer of 1922. The list of Gatsby’s guests includes people from different social groups and parties. There are people from East Egg, the location of “old money” and social importance and people from West Egg, the location of “new money” where people are trying to fit into the society as people from East Egg. Even though all of Gatsby’s guests come from different places and have different morals, they all have one thing in common, which Nick states as, “those who accepted Gatsby’s hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him”(Fitzgerald
In the Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald the novel does not reflect an autobiography, but several of Fitzgerald’s personal experiences are reflected in it. Similarities can be drawn between the novel and Scott Fitzgeralds own life. Similarities include Gatsby and Fitzgerald 's want for success through continuous failure, dreams of success, strong feelings towards alcohol, and their love life. Nick’s qualities that relate to Fitzgerald include his honesty as a man in relation to the liars surrounding him. Also his mid western values to not be judgemental makes him a perfect observer, but also makes him the perfect outsider, which is how Fitzgerald always felt in the company of rich people. The relation between Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby
Nick thinks the East is more exciting than the MidWest in terms of the way of life. He goes on about the fascination and thrill of the parties and wealth he is exposed to following his arrival in the East. The metaphor and simile Fitzgerald uses, comparing the MidWest to “the warm center of the world” and to “like the ragged edge of the universe,” emphasizes the perspective change in the way of life. The center is meant to drag people into appreciating their essence, but Nick is dissatisfied and restless, choosing bond business as an alternative. Nick realizes the opportunity to go to the East opens up a new experience, perhaps pleasing. However, Nick’s innocence is consumed by the corruption of close relations. The exposure to the less prevalent features of the East draws him further from the Nick he once was back in the MidWest. The direction Nick chooses strongly shows the power decisions have on his life. If Nick had not sought for a change in his life, which was prosperous enough, a mishap would have been
Through Fitzgerald’s symbolic description of Gatsby, he explores the extent of the American Dream’s deceptive nature that slowly destroys a person and his/her morals. During the Roaring 20s it was very common for people to project illusions to mask who they truly were; to fit in, it was almost essential to have one to survive in the highly materialistic and deceitful society. Nick is introduced as the objective narrator...
Nick Carraway has a special place in this novel. He is not just one character among several, it is through his eyes and ears that we form our opinions of the other characters. Often, readers of this novel confuse Nick's stance towards those characters and the world he describes with those of F. Scott Fitzgerald's because the fictional world he has created closely resembles the world he himself experienced. But not every narrator is the voice of the author. Before considering the "gap" between author and narrator, we should remember how, as readers, we respond to the narrator's perspective, especially when that voice belongs to a character who, like Nick, is an active participant in the story.
It never crosses Nick's thoughts, that setting up and condoning an affair is a moral corruption of traditionalist and religious values. Nick does this through the exchange of Gatsby and Daisy’s secret meeting, which Nick says, "I'm going to call up Daisy tomorrow and invite her over here to tea. What day would suit you?" Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby presents a realistic picture of the society he perceives around him. The idea of the American Dream is achievable, although most often is hard to accomplish, and everyone’s own interpretations and expectations make it a near impossible task.