How Is Nick Carraway Shown In The Great Gatsby Catastrophes

Nick Carraway and the Complicated Catastrophes

Often regarded as one of the most prominent books of the 20th century, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a book about kind-hearted and honest Midwest native Nick Carraway, who, after recently moving to New York, comes into contact with illustrious millionaire Jay Gatsby, and gets tangled up in a web of lies and violence involving himself, his cousin, her husband, her friend, and Gatsby. In other words, Nick expected his life to retain its simplicity when moving East, but he had no idea what was in store for him.

Many characters are affected largely by the events of the book, but maybe most of all would be Nick. The reason he moved East was to learn the bond business and find a more exciting life than the one that was back home in the Midwest, but what he got definitely wasn’t what he was expecting.

Myrtle’s death, Gatsby and Daisy’s affair, Wilson’s suicide, all of these never would have happened if Nick hadn’t moved to New York.

Tracing the events of the novel back far enough, the causes of all of these were set into place when Nick became involved in the lives of the residents of East Egg and West Egg. Take for instance Myrtle’s Death. She only got killed because Daisy wanted to go to town, Daisy only wanted to go to town to escape telling Tom of her and Gatsby, Jay and Daisy only rekindled their relationship because Nick invited Daisy to tea, Nick only invited Daisy to tea because Gatsby told him to, and if Nick had never moved to New York, he couldn’t have invited Daisy to tea. Coincidentally, there would’ve been few good things that would’ve come out of Nick staying in the Midwest. Gatsby would still be chasing (and failing to achieve) the ‘American Dream’, Tom would still be more abusive to Daisy than he is at the end of the novel, and many other things that, while less significant in the scale of the story, are still important to the effect Nick had on the lives of the other

characters

When first encountering Gatsby on page 52, Nick had no idea how it would change him. From small and minute details influencing his personality to large things leading up to and involving his death, Nick is a changed man by the end of the novel. His time spent with the rich and greedy has made the values he grew up on (Honesty, kindness, etc.) slowly disappear. As stated by our narrator in chapter 1, his Father told him to never criticize anyone because he has had more advantages than most people. We can see throughout the novel that Nick doesn’t follow this advice, yet he still repeatedly states that he’s an honest man. I think this is because of his first meet with Gatsby. Up until that point, Nick had been a fairly honest person, but Gatsby’s lifestyle and companions transformed him into a judgmental and cynical person.

By the time our narrator has spoken his last word, almost every single character in The Great Gatsby has been changed one way or another. From the nameless party-goers to the Buchanans, each and every person has come out of the experiences told by Nick a changed being. Yet, even though he insists that he is honest, Mr. Carraway’s attitude towards values he was raised on slowly diminish. His opinion of the world has essentially flipped, from being one of hope and wonder, to one of despair and disgusts.