The Great Gatsby Character Dev

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In a novel the narrator is the vehicle, the one telling the story to the reader. Laying out critical information, describing the setting, creating mood and atmosphere, and generating information upon which we create our opinions on characters and events in the novel. These are classically what we associate the narrator with regard to the novel and its progression. The characters that the author describes are the major focus of the novel. Characters change and develop over the course of the novel, if there were no kind of change in any of the characters the novel would be almost pointless. Stories need to have rounded characters, whether they change for the better of worse, if nothing happened the novel wouldn't be much to read and wouldn't leave the reader satisfied one way or another in the end. What is interesting is when the narrator takes on a different type of role in a novel. He is no longer used merely as a device to incorporate information; instead he plays an important and active part in the development of the plot.

Traditionally the narrator is usually outside of the story, but in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway (the narrator) is much more than that. Nick in this novel is an active member of the story, being only second in importance to the main character Jay Gatsby. This novel takes a very different approach in its development of the characters. Having the narrator change more than any of the other characters, this thesis will explain Fitzgerald's unusual development of the characters and their greater significance through the novel. For although we would expect a certain, standard technique in telling a story, Fitzgerald uses a much different method.

The first person to discuss is the main character of the story Jay Gatsby. A self made man, who amasses a great amount of wealth, he is a romantic idealist trapped in his own world. Though we would initially expect this character to have the most profound and recognizable change for no other reason than he is the main character, he doesn't. Not only does he not change but he in fact he is incapable of change. He cannot, because his life is dedicated to the fulfillment of a romantic dream. A dream so powerful he becomes blinded with this self-delusion that no matter what happens, what the turn of events, it will come true.