Importance of Nick Carraway, Narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator,
Nick Carraway, tells a story in which Jay Gatsby tries to attain happiness
through wealth. Even though the novel is titled after Gatsby, Nick
analyzes the actions of others and presents the story so that the reader
can comprehend the theme. Throughout the novel, Nick is the vehicle used
to gather all of the pieces together to learn about Gatsby. Nick is the
only character that changes in the novel from the beginning to the end.
Nick is the literary device that is employed to learn about Gatsby, which
ultimately tells the theme of the story. Throughout the novel, flashbacks are
inserted, courtesy of Nick, to reveal piece by piece about the mysterious Gatsby. Nick patches the pieces of the puzzle together regarding Gatsby's past and lack
of a future. Nick is like the box of a puzzle; the puzzle is impossible to put
together without it. Without Nick, the reader's opinion of Gatsby would be
drastically different. The reader's opinion would be swayed by the idea that
Gatsby becomes rich via bootlegging alcohol and counterfeiting bonds. Nick
persuades the observer that Gatsby is "...worth the whole damn bunch (rich class)
put together"(Fitzgerald 162). Even though Gatsby aspires to be part of the upper echelon, he, fortunately, is different from them. Nick also analyzes Gatsby's behavior
in order to provide the reader with details and a summary of the great man. At
the end of the novel, Nick comments on Gatsby's life by stating that "(Gatsby)
had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seem...
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...ald 172).
Throughout the novel, Nick is instrumental as voice that tells the
reader about Gatsby. "Nick is "both within and without, never really assimilating
like the rich" (Chambers 41). Most importantly, Nick is the only character in the novel that changes. Nick Carraway is the main character of the novel. Without Nick, the important allegorical message would not be illustrated: Money cannot buy love or
peace of mind.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Berman, Ronald. "The Great Gatsby" and Fitzgerald's World of Ideas. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1997.
Chambers, John B. The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. London: Macmillan/New York: St Martin's P, 1989.
deKoster, Katie, ed. Readings on "The Great Gatsby." San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster Inc., New York: 1991.
However, despite Nick’s flaws and obvious misjudgement of himself, Nick does not become a ‘bad person’. On the contrary, it is these flaws and errors of judgement that shape Nick into a human, relatable character. Being human is not about perfection; on the contrary, it is flaws of character and errors of judgement that shape the human experience.
Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic were indicted on criminal charges arising from Martha Stewarts December 27, 2001 sale of 3,928 shares of stock in ImClone Systems, Inc. ("ImClone"). ImClone is a biotechnology company whose then-chief executive officer, Samuel Waksal, was a friend of Stewart's and a client of Stewart's stockbroker at Merrill Lynch, defendant Peter Bacanovic. On December 25, 2001, ImClone learned that the Food and Drug Administration had rejected the company's application for approval of Erbitux, a cancer-fighting drug. On December 28, the day after Stewart sold her shares; ImClone publicly announced that the Erbitux application had been rejected. Shortly after ImClone's announcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission "SEC" and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York launched investigations into trading in ImClone stock in advance of the announcement to the public of the news about Erbitux.
The seriousness of insider trading was not brought to light until some time after the stock market crash of 1929. This specific event can be summed up as a day where many investors traded around 16 million shares
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was impacted by two legal troubles. The first one was related to Martha Stewart herself. She was charged with insider trading in 2003. This led to bad publicity and prohibited her from a leadership position for several years. The second legal trouble was because of a bridge of agreement that MSLO signed with Macy’s.
Finally, Nick’s inability to involve himself emotional with anyone is also a problem. He is more of a bystander than a participant. He fears of being close to anyone, and mostly just gets along with everything. That is a problem. He needs to find someone to listen to, instead of him always being the listener. This emotional distance, which he has, is not a healthy thing for him and can cause him to end being a loner.
Nick often does not speak of himself but when he has, he has referred to himself as “one of the few honest people that (he) has ever known,” (Fitzgerald 59) but seems to act the complete opposite of said characteristics. Nick starts of the novel by saying “In consequence I am inclined to reserve all judgments,” but all he seems to do is just that, labeling Jordan liar when he, himself, is also a liar. Nick also tells of how shallow his “friends” are but he himself is shallow as well. Nick cannot be relied upon to practice what he preaches and therefore cannot be relied upon to write the complete truth. Nick’s hypocritical nature demolishes his credibility as a person, and therefore as a narrator.
Among the first indicators of Nick’s unreliability as a narrator is shown through his extreme misunderstanding of his father’s advice. When Nick’s father told him that “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (1) he most likely meant not all people have the same opportunities in life. However, Nick perverted his father’s meaning and understood it as “a sense of the fundamental decencies us parceled out unequally at birth” (2). Nick’s interpretation of his father’s advice provides insight into his conceited, somewhat supercilious attitude, as he believes that not all people are born with the same sense of manners and morality.
Gatsby is quintessentially presented to us as a paradoxical enigma. As the novel progresses this sense of mystery shrouding him is heightened. We see Gatsby through the looking glass, we catch frequent glimpses of him, yet only through Nick’s trained eye. We are, to a certain extent, unable to judge him for ourselves. Even so Nick is eager to depict Gatsby as a multi-faceted character, one who hides behind his own self concocted images of himself. Is this the ‘indiscernible barbed wire’? Is Gatsby himself the ‘foul dust that floated in the wake of’ his own ‘dreams’?
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. The.
Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
London: Penguin Books, 1990. Trilling, Lionel. " F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed.
Martha Stewart, the countries top icon for homemaking has been in the eye of the public since June 2002, but not for her craftiness or culinary abilities. Stewart instead has the spotlight on her for crimes of insider trading. A tip from her former broker Peter E. Bacanovic, persuaded her into selling her IMClone stock after sharing information about a close friend of Stewart’s getting rid of his shares. Stewart’s companion, Sam Waksal, was also the chief executive of IMClone Systems Inc. IMClone Systems is a well-known company specializing in the research and development of therapies treatments of cancer. The stock selling was provoked due to a leak of information about The Food & Drug Administration rejecting IMCLONE’s drug outfit application their cancer drug Erbitux. Before the information reached the public about the FDA’s decision and share price plunged, Stewart sold her 3,928 shares of IMClone. Martha sold her shares at $58, and by the time the news hit, prices fell to $45, resulting in a savings of only 50,000 for the celebrity. But the whole situation of the Martha Stewart case is not a question of insider trading but a question of ethics and management in business: it’s an issue of ethics and the choices people have between right and wrong and the determining factors that cause us to make those choices. While researching this subject I have found many interesting topics. One topic I found very interesting was the fact that a highly qualified executive of Merrill lynch, one of the top brokerage firms in the world, was Martha Stewart’s financial advisor. Another interesting point is that Martha Stewart the mom of home cookery and cuisine, a profession based on honesty and founded on the basis of motherhood would lie about the tips she took to earn an extra buck while already being a multibillionaire. After more research I found that the most important point and the topic of the whole situation was the point that even the most perfect and idolized individuals can be manipulated by money or even the thought of more money in the case of Martha Stewart.
In general the customer bargaining power is low and therefore it raises the potential of market's profitability. Though, most of the companies provide "buy-backs" and price protection that lessens the chance to cash on moderately strong manufacturers position.
Eble, Kenneth. "The Structure of The Great Gatsby." F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1963. 89-94
middle of paper ... ... Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.