How Does Nick Carraway Mature In The Great Gatsby

In his best-selling novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses character development, especially that of Nick Carraway, to advance the plot.
At the start of The Great Gatsby, Nick is portrayed as an innocent and privileged young whose view of mankind has been distorted by his gruesome experience in war. The first chapter begins with “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice…” (1). This quote suggests that in the past, before Nick experienced the happenings in the novel, he was very naïve towards the harsh truths of the world. The chapter continues with Nick’s father’s advice, “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, … just remember that all people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve

had’” (1). These “advantages” imply that Nick led a sheltered childhood and that his family was relatively well-off. Nick appears to find a great deal of meaning within his father’s advice and later makes him “inclined to reserve all judgement” (1). Again, Nick looks to be a very pure and honest person, reluctant to face the reality of human malice. Nick admits, however, that as his life progressed and he followed his father’s teachings, it became harder and harder to suspend judgement, except in the case of Gatsby. This pessimism, I believe, came from Nick’s experience in the Great War. His brief, apparently joyful recount of the experience; “I enjoyed this counter raid so thoroughly, I came back restless” (3); seems too brief and too joyful to be reflective of his true thoughts. It is as if the reality of the war is too hard to face for Nick and that this terrible experience warped his impression of mankind.
After living a relatively dull life in the mid-West and encountering the horrors of war, Nick becomes enthralled by the wealth and luxury of New York.