Character Analysis Of Jay Carraway In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby recounts a love story of fortune, sacrifice, and passion. Mystified by the foreign land of excessive capital and immense material possessions, the narrator, Nick Carraway, judges or exalts numerous inhabitants of the East and West Eggs, especially Jay Gatsby, whose mystery and secrecy attracts many. Although it seems like Mr. Carraway obsesses about Gatsby, strictly, for his wealth, a careful look at craft choices and his characterization reveals that Jay Gatsby captivates Nick because he is one of the only characters, who, unclouded by prosperity, recognizes his own fascination with money.
Employing Gatsby’s reactions towards Daisy, Nick notices that Jay realizes the power of affluence, understanding

that affluence is the key to Daisy’s beauty and love. In fact, when discussing Daisy’s celestial voice, Carraway and Gatsby debate, “ ‘It’s full of —’ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before.” (120). While Nick fails to decipher the mysterious splendor of her voice, Gatsby comprehends the value in an instant. Although prosperity and love of Daisy enthralls them both, Gatsby can still decrypt her outward appearance without any effort. Readily, eagerly, Nick agrees with Gatsby’s explanation. He trusts his opinions and appraisal, without any doubt. Similarly, during the grand tour of Gatsby’s home, Mr. Carraway reports that his bedroom was the plainest room, excluding a dresser “garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold. Daisy took the brush with delight, and smoothed her hair, whereupon Gatsby…began to laugh. ‘It’s the funniest thing, old sport,’ he said hilariously” (91). Gatsby laughs, “hilariously,” because Mrs. Buchanan walks straight to the only expensive thing in his room, like a moth to a flame, utilizing it to improve her appearance. This is just Daisy’s personality, but Gatsby acknowledges the ludicrous nature of her actions. And again, Gatsby recognizes their attraction as a one of riches and physical wealth, but continues to court her, hoping that will bring him happiness.
Despite Gatsby continuing to seek perpetual affluence and status, through the narrator’s careful choice words when describing his humble past, Nick perceives Gatsby’s upbringing as a way for him to understand his absurd attraction to money. When retelling Gatsby’s story, Nick articulates, “he must be about…the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented…Jay Gatsby…and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). Mr. Carraway says outright that a longing for wealth consumed Gatsby. However, “vulgar” and “meretricious” make it sound like Gatsby knew that he was money obsessed with only the appearance of virtue, so at least he had awareness of the harm in his desires. Furthermore, while Gatsby worked as “a calm-digger and a salmon-fisher” and dreaming of a affluent future, Nick writes that Gatsby’s “heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain” (99). Gatsby’s “heart,” indicating his most profound emotions, churned with disgust. Deep down Gatsby knows that the “gaudiness” is destructive and impure. Nick appreciates that, unlike the rest of the rich inhabitants, Gatsby understands that his life’s pursuit is ill-advised and foolish. From his modest history, Jay could decode everyone’s occupation with fortune, even though he proceeded to live with that goal.
Likewise, Mr.

Carraway employs his initial meetings and mentions of Gatsby to establish the non-money related values of Gatsby. For instance, when Nick says Gatsby’s name for the first time in the novel, he narrates, “I wanted the world to be…at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction” (2). Recalling the story from the future, Nick says he wants “moral attention forever,” signifying that he longs for further virtue than was exerted during his stay in the east. With the use of “privileged,” he brings attention to the advantage of wealth and how it connects to the “riotous excursions.” However, Gatsby is “exempt.” Nick does not group him with the others, so Nick must perceive Gatsby as more virtuous than the rest. Similarly, after describing their first meeting, while Nick exalts Gatsby’s smile, he all the sudden says, “precisely at that point it vanished — and I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.” (45). Noticing that Gatsby isn’t really the prosperous image he projects to the residents of the Eggs, Nick can see through Gatsby’s façade. At this point, he is still “elegant” and refined, but now Nick understands that his “elaborate…speech” is more an act than reality. Gatsby continues to appear wealth-obsessed, but at least Nick can recognize that Gatsby’s knows this is not his real

personality.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, Nick glorifies Gatsby, not for his income and possessions, but for his recognition that he is wealth obsessed. In the end of the novel, the only people that come to Jay Gatsby’s funeral are his father, the owl-eyed man, and Nick, who says, “I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all (165). Even in death, when Gatsby’s huge home is dusty, empty, and depressing, Nick feels a great commitment to him because he loved Gatsby for more than his material worth. Their relationship had depth beyond just jealously for money.