Nick observes the lives of the main characters, so he provides a point-of-view from that of a subordinate character. Nick’s narration focuses on Jay Gatsby, the novel’s namesake and protagonist. Nick, however, becomes somewhat “dependent on other people’s narratives” to make his impressions of Gatsby before meeting him (Hemming 35). Since Nick’s sources are limited to the people surrounding him, he can only convey their distorted, second-hand opinions. As the narrator, Nick reports the statements that he hears from parties he attends at Gatsby’s; additionally, he forms his own opinion about Gatsby once they meet. Sue Hemming insists that as an inside narrator, he is biased and lacks the ability to question the main character’s motives, and …show more content…
the “stories tend to degenerate into melodrama” (35). A melodrama has an emphasis on the emotions, and if the narrator was completely involved, The Great Gatsby would fail to have a message that differs from love and the perfection of life. In other words, if the novel focused on only a love story told from one of the lovers, the true purpose would be undermined because that character would focus only on the romance. Nick’s overview of Gatsby and Daisy provides a perfect amount of intimacy observed from a close friend, so their love life can still be known, without blurring other characters’ lives. Whether Gatsby’s stories are true or are lies, Nick passes along conversations without judgment. For example, Nick believes in the success of Gatsby’s family, and he discovers Gatsby’s time of “collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, [and] painting a little,” but the illegal sale of alcohol in the era of Prohibition defines his true fame and character (Fitzgerald 65). Despite Nick’s suspicions of Gatsby and the rumors he hears, Nick still strives to befriend Gatsby because he has an intriguing charisma. Fitzgerald portrays Nick as a “go-between (or pander),” which prevents Nick from injecting his own lifestyle and attitudes into the story, so instead, Gatsby shines in the spotlight (Hermanson 13). Further, the author places a focus on Jay Gatsby’s love life. Nick captivates in telling the story of Daisy and Gatsby, their past and their reunion, that he “just remembered that today’s [his own] birthday” (Fitzgerald 135). Nick forgets his own birthday through all of Gatsby’s drama, and this disregard shows that Nick serves not as a main character but as a definite narrator. The narrator’s immersion in the characters’ lives causes him to speak from the outside point-of-view of a background character. Although Nick observes from the shadows, he finds and explores his own identity and own course of life. Nick brings together the characters and contributes in conversations with his own intentions, an “involved outsider,” as Hermanson refers to him (13). Even though he narrates, Nick interacts and creates personal relationships with all the characters in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby wants to reconnect with his former love, Daisy, so he enlists Nick’s help to arrange a meeting. Nick tolerates spending time with his group of friends, but he becomes caught up in their secrets and stands out as an essential character when he learns about their extramarital affairs. Even though Daisy marries Tom, she initiates a love affair with Gatsby. Now, Nick also learns about Tom’s affair with Myrtle Wilson. With his knowledge of two love affairs in one marriage, Nick now has the role of keeping these secrets. Nick, however, hesitates in going along with Tom: “Well, I’d like to but . . . ” because he knows lying to Daisy puts him in the wrong; therefore, Nick’s actions and words affect the reputations of characters (Fitzgerald 28). When Nick sees the affair between Tom and Myrtle, their tumultuous relationship burdens his virtue. As another example of finding his own identity, Nick begins describing his new life in New York City and his attraction to the rich social scene and indicates that he has a purpose in moving to the big city. Nonetheless, Nick “stumble[s] upon fiercely passionate and committed men who stand in complete contrast to [him],” and befriends the most hopeful man, Gatsby (Hemming 35). Gatsby entertains and impresses people with stories about his life while hosting extravagant parties; his passion seems to influence Nick’s minds, for he believes the love between Daisy and himself will reignite in the way that it once was. Trying to persuade Nick, Gatsby tells him that hope is within reach and that dreams can come true, and Gatsby attempts to prove himself. Gatsby and Nick form a bond, and Nick experiences good times with him such as flying in Gatsby’s plane together. Nick proves his true friendship when he defends Gatsby after Gatsby’s murder, despite being “disillusioned with everything Gatsby pursued” (Gross and Gross 11). Gatsby is ultimately viewed as a deceptive and false man who has no close ties with reality. Nick learns that Gatsby has become rich by bootlegging and lying about his business of selling liquor in drug stores. Nick and Gatsby’s friendship is built on a lie of how Gatsby became rich, but despite this lie, Nick stays on Gatsby’s side. In these ways, Fitzgerald creates a character and narrator with his own identity and life separate from the other main characters. A dynamic character experiences a change in his character or point-of-view; Nick Carraway arrives in New York as a seeker-of-fortune and leaves knowing the striking consequences.
Nick lives amidst a “time of profound human change,” and his character clearly shows transformation from start to end (Hermanson 12). Nick begins as a person seeking and dreaming of fortune, and then meets Gatsby, further making dreams seem within reach as “his vision comes slowly, in the act of writing the book” (Samuels 15). As Nick writes the book, change can be detected from before and after he meets Gatsby from his written accounts. Before, Nick begins a hopeful bondsman wanting to reach success in Long Island, and after he meets Gatsby, he realizes that far-fetched dreams can become true, as Gatsby’s enormous mansion confirms. In addition, as Nick writes, his thoughts evolve with each event described. First, he “decided to go East and learn the bond business,” but then seeks adventure by meeting Gatsby and spending time with him at his mansion and around New York, putting together pieces about the real nature of Gatsby's business (Fitzgerald 3). Nick proceeds with experiencing life in New York through and with Jay Gatsby. He observes Gatsby’s life by writing the book but ends up “discover[ing] himself” because he learns from the lies of rich, unhappy people which strengthens Nick’s already strong morality (Samuels 14). His father’s words define Nick’s character, but the morality Nick claims to have is proven when he does avoids falling into the abominable lives Daisy, Nick, and Gatsby live. While in New York, Nick discovers first-hand the consequences and miseries of wealth. From passing the site of Myrtle's murder to being the only one attending Gatsby’s funeral, Nick leaves the city with his true ability to “judge people’s actions with compassion,” even through the corruption and lies he sees which affects his outlook on life (Lewis 498). When Nick meets Gatsby, he fantasizes
about a life like Gatsby's rags to riches success, but he later adjusts his view when he learns the truth behind Gatsby’s accomplishment. Although Nick begins as a dreamer, as a witness he sees that dreams can fail, leaving lives in despair and ruin. Arguably the best fit as narrator, Nick speaks from an outside perspective while Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom, the main characters, present a narrower view. Daisy, as the narrator, would tell a story that centers around herself as evidenced by the fact that her “murmur was only to make people lean toward her” (Fitzgerald 9). This action of speaking quietly depicts Daisy as self-centered and concerned only about her own life. David Trask also calls Daisy as “shallow as the other hollow people,” further explaining that Daisy has a dearth of profound care for anyone (83). If Daisy were the narrator, she would focus solely on her love life and leave no room for other character development. Fitzgerald’s message of wealth and fame lacking happiness and success would not be conveyed by Daisy’s romantic point of view. Daisy’s single interpretation as a narrator would distract from Gatsby’s true life--a bootlegger/dreamer-- because Daisy would focus on the fairy-tale love story of her secret visits to Gatsby’s mansion. Also, if Daisy were the only narrator, she would fail to describe Nick’s life since he is a minor character; however, his story is worth noting because he brings Daisy and Gatsby together, and he is the only person who sees the shallow, self-centered nature of the other characters. Another potential narrator could be Gatsby himself. The Great Gatsby is indeed the name of Fitzgerald’s novel, but would he be the best narrator? Since Gatsby lies to Nick about his life, he displays as an unreliable character, until he decides to tell him the truth. Lying about his family and lying about an affair make him unreliable. However, the other side of the argument is Gatsby is a suitable narrator because Fitzgerald centers the story around Gatsby’s life. One would think that the main character should be the primary perspective because the source best writes himself. However, considering both positions, Gatsby’s constant lies show that he lacks truth and morality. Finally, if Fitzgerald chose Tom to be the narrator, then Gatsby and Daisy’s love would be shown in a different light. When Tom states that “Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now,” Fitzgerald shows that Tom misreads Daisy’s intentions of being in love; she loves only for the benefit of herself, thus making him look like a dullard because he overlooks this realization (Fitzgerald 131). Assuming Daisy marries Tom for his money, she does not truly love him. Since Daisy’s games blind Tom, he is a poor choice for the narrator. His lack of truth about his own affair and jealousy of Daisy’s affair with Gatsby make him an unsuitable narrator. Therefore, Nick Carraway proves as the best choice for narrator because he is can see how these people lead empty lives without consideration for others. Since Nick proclaims that he refrains from judging others and demonstrates a moral sense that contrasts with the author’s other potential narrators, his role as narrator is realized. Nick makes it clear that his father gives meaningful advice that shapes his character’s mindset. He proves to “reserve all judgement” as a “habit” because his true character relies on honesty (Fitzgerald 1). Leon Lewis suggests that despite the “abyss” Nick faces, he avoids following into the falsehood of life because of his “caring [and] introspective” views (497). Nick’s value of honesty supports his credibility as the a narrator. Furthermore, as previously stated, Nick observes the main characters from an outside perspective, so his conversations are reliable. According to Matthew Bruccoli, Nick’s views are “the effect of a first-person immediacy with authorial perspective,” meaning the style in which Fitzgerald writes is through a character in The Great Gatsby who writes the novel, but still experiences the events directly (Lewis 499). Since Nick experiences these events personally, his role as narrator is intimate and unbiased compared to Gatsby’s narcissism. Apart from the other characters, Nick is the only character who has a moral sense, differentiating from right and wrong. Nick provides a “necessary counterweight” with his morality and care, therefore, balancing the characters through all the chaotic but taciturn lies (Lewis 498). The fact that Nick has morals learned from his father give him a dignity that the other characters lack because they lose themselves in money. Nick is the best narrator for The Great Gatsby, for he tells the life of Gatsby through his own truthful judgment of character.
Throughout The Great Gatsby several themes appear. The role of judgement of others takes great play throughout the book. Each character’s personality is revealed through their judgments. However the narrator Nick is revealed through his judgments more than anyone. Nick claims that he reserves judgment. However, Nick is contradicted by his own words. He judges others constantly and claims this is himself being honest. In a way, he victimizes himself, and seems to be blind to his judgments but aware of everyone else's.
Nick Carroway is not a very judgmental person, in fact, he himself states that he withholds judgment so that he can get the entire story out of the person to whom he is listening. To say that Nick is both approving and disapproving is not suspiring, for Nick rarely looks at things from only one perspective. Nick finds Gatsby to be ignorantly honest, in that Gatsby could not fathom the idea of saying something without really meaning it. He respects Gatsby for his determination to fit in with the East Egg crowd, though Gatsby does not realize that he does not really fit in with them. On the other hand, Nick sees Gatsby to be excessively flashy and, in the words of Holden Caulfield, 'phony.' Gatsby's whole life is a lie from the moment he left behind the name James Gatz and became Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lies about his past to try to have people perceive him as an 'old money' guy when that really is not necessary. Gatsby's valiant efforts to lure Daisy are respectable, yet they show Gatsby's failure to accept reality and give up on his long lost dream.
His duplicity continues, as he meets Tom’s mistress, and later arranges Daisy and Gatsby’s meeting, even going as far as to say “don’t bring Tom” (85). These are clear deceptions and violations of trust, which both reveal that Nick is not the honest and forthright man he wants the reader to believe he is; on the contrary, in many ways he is the opposite of honest and forthright. However, Nick’s most clearly professed lie is in protection of Daisy, when Tom insists that Gatsby had killed Myrtle, and Nick remains silent, forgoing telling Tom about the “one unutterable fact,” - that it had not been Gatsby who was driving the car when it had hit Myrtle, but Daisy - in favor of protecting Daisy (178). Once again, Nick mischaracterizes his traits and even fails to recognize his deceptions and violations of trust as being dishonest, failing to evaluate his own traits. By highlighting Nick’s opinions of and interactions with life amongst the rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald crafts Nick into a complex character whose contrasting thoughts and actions create a many leveled, multifaceted character who shows the reader that one’s appraisal of one’s own traits can often be incorrect.
Jay Gatsby is a man of great fortune and power, with only one unobtainable dream. The dream that Gatsby is chasing is Daisy, his love from before the war. Gatsby and Nick are two contrasting characters; this is because while Nick also has one goal his is obtainable in that he wishes to earn his own wealth (albeit on his influential father's dime). Gatsby and Nick contrast in another fashion, and that is that Gatsby believes that if he works hard enough he can relive the past, and erase the past five years of Daisy's life with Tom; Nick on the other hand has, for his infinite amount of hope, the voice of truth that the past is past and only the present and future can be lived in.
...d Nick of being dishonest I agreed with her. In the beginning I thought Nick would be the most honest character, but he wasn’t. I think the environment and people around Nick changed him. Especially when everybody in the book was being dishonest (Jordan by cheating at golf, Tom by having an affair with Myrtle) which influenced Nick. Nick portrays how not only the city but the enviroment you live in can change you. It is hard to relate to stories that happened in the earlier days, because it is like two different worlds. Fitzgerald uses societal developments of the 1920’s to build the story, for example Gatsby’s automobile and his stories from the past. In conclusion Nicks change of character and development is displayed throughout the Great Gatsby. Nicks opinion of Gatsby changes as well, showing how Nick Carraway is maturing, and he’s leaving behind his innocence.
... Nick makes a small funeral for Gatsby and Daisy does not attend it. He took the blame for her, and he is dead all because of her, he sacrificed for her. She and Tom decide to travel and take off. Also Nick breaks up with Jordan, and he moves back to Midwest because he has had enough of these people, and hates the people that were close to Gatsby and for bareness, emptiness, and cold heart they have of the life in the middle of the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick realizes, and reveals that Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was ruined by money and un-loyalty, dishonestly. Daisy all she cared about is wealth, she chased after the men that have a lot of money. Even though Gatsby has control, influence, and authority to change his dreams into making it into real life for him this is what Nicks says makes him a good man. Now both Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream are over.
Nick Carraway is a special character in Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The fictional story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway who is deemed to be unbiased, impartial, and non-judgmental in his narratives. At the top layer, he appears to be a genuine and great friend, who seems to be the only true friend and admirer of Great Gatsby. As the story unfolds, readers get glimpses of internal issues that Nick Carraway has that show him as more of a flawed character than previous thought of. The first issue that readers see and challenge in the novel is Nick’s attempt at being an unbiased narrator.
Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
Like his house, Nick is not showy, this characteristic allows people to easily trust him, which supports his role as the narrator of the story. Despite the fact that everything revolves around him, Nick is never actually involved in the events of the story, he simply acts as a vehicle for the other character’s wants and needs. Nick describes his house as "an eyesore” (Fitzgerald 11) compared to the mansions around it and say that “it had been overlooked" (Fitzgerald 11) in the presence of such glamorous homes. Similar to Nick himself, his house is strangely out of place among the mansions that are beside it, but is small enough that people overlook how much it does not fit in. Fitzgerald uses Nick 's house in order to show how Nick fits in, in Gatsby’s world, similar to his home, he is overlooked in the presence of such wealthy people. Nick 's House serves as a meeting place where Gatsby and Daisy meet up. Parallel to how Nick serves as an object that allows Daisy and Gatsby to reunite. Nick is unfamiliar with the world of the extravagantly wealthy, though he begins to adapt throughout the novel, he is generally out of place in the world of the rich, and blends in to the
Nick explains to the reader how Gatsby got his name and what his childhood was like on
Ultimately, although readers portray Nick as an honest and unbiased narrator, through the above evidence combined with the fact that the 2 years have passed for Nick, his narration point is inherently bias. Since he has such a close friendship with Gatsby, Nick manages to overlook Gatsby’s illegal activities, and portray him unjustly as a virtuous man. The portrayal is unjust because Nick doesn’t account for his flaws, and he highlights his positives.
Indeed one of the unique features of this novel is the mystery surrounding it’s main character ‘Gatsby-the man who gives his name to this book’ This sense of inscrutability which is omnipresent with Gatsby is cleverly achieved through the narrative techniques which Fitzgerald employs. The most obvious, and also most effective of which is the narration from Nick’s perspective. Throughout this novel it is Nick’s views of Gatsby which we read, not Fitzgerald’s and not anyone else’s. Only Nick’s. And even Nick seems to be some what in the dark as to Gatsby’s character, he often switches tact throughout the novel on his impression of Gatsby. This seems to insinuate that he has been ponderous over Gatsby for some time. The reader gains the impression that Nick has made calculating decisions throughout the novel, in terms of what he allows us to know about Gatsby. He is after all writing in retrospect. The very fact that Nick still has an ambiguous attitude towards Gatsby even after his death, endorses the readers opinion of Gatsby as a character who can not be categorised. He is uniqu...
From the beginning of The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is developed as a reliable narrator. His honesty and sense of duty are established as he remarks on his own objectivity and willingness to withhold judgment. However, as the book progresses and Nick’s relationship with Jay Gatsby grows more intimate, it is revealed that Nick is not as reliable as previously thought when it comes to Gatsby. Nick perceives Gatsby as pure and blameless, although much of Gatsby's persona is false. Because of his friendship and love for Gatsby, his view of the events is fogged and he is unable to look at the situation objectively.
Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and close friend, considers Gatsby to have achieved greatness. Nick sees greatness in Gatsby that he has never seen in any other man; unfortunately, all great characters do not always have happy endings. Gatsby’s ambition from a young age, along with his desire to please others, pave the road to his prosperity, but, ultimately, his enduring heroic love for Daisy, steers him to his demise. Several individuals mark Gatsby as a man of great wealth, with a beautiful estate, and an abundance of friends.
At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...