Examples Of Nick's Response For The Great Gatsby '

Comprehension Notes
The Great Gatsby, according to Richard Foster, was launched by a generation of neoclassical and formalist critics who tended to believe in the final, tough truth of existence imaged in the thinning possibility and thinning joy of Nick's lugubrious moral retreat.
Novel's mission is an essentially straightforward criticism of the American Dream.
Nick's vision, however, is not identical to Fitzgerald's, or at least to the novel's, for Nick is capable of being an unreliable narrator at moments that are crucial to the story's development.
Nick’s detractors have described him variously as a defunct archpriest, panderer, prig, spiritual bankrupt, hypocrite, and "moral eunuch"--a man capable of neither assertive action nor self-knowledge.

Nick develops a peculiar rigidity during the course of the novel.

The two narrative movements are simultaneous: Nick's emerging weaknesses as a narrator parallel his progressively constricted vision, as if the truths Nick affirms are not exactly the truths of his fable.
Nick's final disillusionment, that is, derives as much from his own moral dimness, his passivity, and his exaggerated gentility as it does from the facts of Gatsby's life; correspondingly, those qualities sometimes compromise the narration, altering, even from moment to moment, the response--empathy or removal, acceptance or doubt--that his telling draws from the reader.
The technique, which was subtle distinctions between representation and explanation has the advantage of economy; it gives readers two types of impressions: one created through descriptions of places, things, and events, and another created by Nick's responses and reflections.
In the first instance, Daisy's anecdote is trivial and insipid, clearly anticlimactic to the preparation she makes; in the second her comparison is ridiculous and insincere, camouflaging her real preoccupation.
Carraway's vision of Gatsby now becomes more subtle and

extreme.
Nick is not reliable because he does not know Gatsby’s true feelings and emotions in the story, he just assumes.
2.

Connections to the 1920s
One connection this article makes to the 1920s is it shows the different social classes and how extravagant Gatsby’s life was compared to Nick life. Nick had a small house, while Gatsby had a large mansion filled with so many different shirts in his bedroom. This was the scene when Daisy was over and she was spending time with Gatsby and Nick and she was crying over Gatsby’s beautiful shirts. Because Gatsby has so many shirts , it shows how fortunate Gatsby is with his wealth while Nick is not as wealthy as Gatsby and does not have as much as he does.
Another connection shown in this article is when the writer talks about how Gatsby has a dream and because of that he lives his life, while Nick does not have a dream, which shows how boring an dreary his life is. This shows the corruption of the American dream and how everyone during this time wanted to be wealthy and popular, while Nick did not care about any of that and is shown to have a “sad” and “boring” life, while Gatsby had an interesting and eventful life, but it ended shortly because of his “dream”.
3.

Reasons
I have to agree with this article because it does make a good point that Nick can be an unreliable narrator in this story. This is because we’re seeing from Nick’s point of view, it might not be accurate because Nick is making assumptions about who Gatsby is and his emotions or what he s actually thinking throughout the story. If it were from Gatsby’s point of view, then he would be reliable because he could tell the readers what he is actually thinking or what exactly he wants to do. Nick cannot be trusted because his personality changes throughout the story because of the experiences he goes through with Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle and Wilson. Nick also cannot be trusted as an author because it is shown in this article that he contradicts himself and sometimes even he exaggerates what is going on with his own personal feelings and emotions.
4. Interesting Quotes
“Yet the limitations of Nick's character do have narrative consequences, for Nick sometimes sees only part of a meaning that a scene carries, sometimes shifts ground perplexingly, and sometimes even strains "judgments" out of inconclusive evidence” (Cartwright 1).
This quote is significant to me because it changes my opinion on Nick. At first I thought Nick was a reliable author because of how at first in the beginning I thought he was honest and told things the way they actually are, instead of exaggerating the truth. However, this opened up my eyes and made me realize that Nick in reality is not a reliable narrator at all. This is a clarifying point about the analysis because again it shows me Nick is not reliable because he makes judgements without any actual evidence and just assumes that something happened and that the character are feeling this way.

“Nick's reflections are not the remarks of the person who almost asks to see the rubies, but rather the more hardened and distant judgments of the man who has seen further to the ruination of Gatsby's dream. They are remarks true to Nick's developing character, but less true to the moment that Gatsby and Daisy inhabit. Nick wants to argue that the dream is unachievable at the very moment that Gatsby is achieving it” (Cartwright 5).
This is significant to me because it shows how throughout the story Nick contradicts himself because of how Nick believes that dreams can never be accomplished whereas Gatsby actually accomplished his dream. This displays how because the story is not shown through Gatsby’s point of view, Nick cannot be trusted because he doesn’t know what Gatsby believes in and what he thinks about every single day. Gatsby is mysterious throughout the story, and not much is shown about him and Nick basically only assumes that Gatsby does things that he doesn’t even know if it is fully true. It gives a clarifying point about the analysis because it explains again why Nick Carraway cannot be seen as a reliable narrator because of how he contradicts himself and changes his personality viewpoint throughout the story.

“The work represents a kind of miscegenation of forms, a romance enclosed in a novel of manners, and Nick and Gatsby seem attached as if by pulleys: as the one is more credible, the other is less so. Gatsby can be both criminal and romantic hero because the book creates for him a visionary moral standard that transcends the conventional and that his life affirms.14 ...If Nick's ending betrays the story, the novel's inextinguishable sense of possibility partly restores it. Ultimately, the failure of Nick's narration is a failure of his will to believe, even in his own imagination. Too cautious to pay the price for living too long with a single dream, Nick pays the much dearer price for living too long with no dream” (Cartwright 9).
This quote is important to me because it explains that you should always follow your dreams because of how Gatsby believed in his dream and he accomplished it while Nick did not believe in dreams and he ended up with a boring and sad life. Gatsby however is popular and having a fun life because of how he kept working hard in order to fulfill his dream of being wealthy and rich like Tom and Daisy. This quote also describes the topics of the story like that appearance is different from reality and how Gatsby can be seen as a reliable narrator but he is a lying person because he hides who he truly is while Nick cannot be a reliable narrator but he is honest to the characters in the story.