F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Nick Carraway's Self-Interest

Nick's Self-Interest in The Great Gatsby

In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings and love affairs. His main character, Gatsby, is flamboyant, pompous, and only cares about impressing the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Nick is Fitzgerald's narrator for the story, and is a curious choice as a narrator because he is of a different class and almost a different world than Gatsby and most of the other characters in the book. Nick relates the plot to the reader as a member of Gatsby's circle, yet he expresses repeatedly his dislike for the man. Nick cannot relate to Gatsby because of their fundamental personality differences. Moreover, he disapproves of Gatsby's desire to impress Daisy at all costs. However, Nick continues to follow Gatsby because by doing so he can ensure his relationship with Jordan, a celebrity socialite, and because, in a perverse way, Nick can use Gatsby to bolster his own self-esteem.

Nick expresses his opinion about Gatsby quite clearly: "I disapproved of him from beginning to end" (162). However, he makes this remark at the end of the novel and actually does like Gatsby when he first meets him. "I could see nothing sinister about him" (54). Nick's image of Gatsby only begins to be tainted once he learns of his relationship with Daisy. Nick's dislike does not stem from jealousy; it comes from the fact that Gatsby shapes his life around what Daisy wants. Nick does not see Gatsby as a real person, only as an image set out to please Daisy and conform to what she desires. The epigraph of the novel states:

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;

If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,

...

... middle of paper ...

...al element of life, and thus finds Gatsby foolish as he devotes his life to pleasing Daisy. However, Nick links himself with Gatsby so that he can gain in social status and self-regard. Nick wants to be respected, and Jordan gives him much more respect after he becomes Gatsby's friend. Thus Nick keeps up the friendship to benefit his love life. He also gains self-assurance because he sees himself as Gatsby's only "true friend". Thus it is Nick's selfishness that causes him to develop a rapport with Gatsby even though Gatsby "represented everything for which I [Nick] have an unaffected scorn" (6). Gatsby becomes merely an object, though he is the character that gives his name to the title of the novel. Gatsby is only "great" relative to Nick's self-interest.

Work Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster Inc., New York: 1991.