An Honest and Reliable Narrator in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

His philosophy, ‘I’m inclined to reserve all judgements…’ suggests he won’t take any characters sides, and that he will think twice before ‘criticizing anyone’. Although at the beginning we seem to put our trust in Nick that he will be a detailed narrator, we can begin to question his reliability near the end of chapter 1 when Nick says, ‘I was in and without’, highlighting inconsistent narrating skills (he won’t be fully involved in all the events that go on), and therefore, we can assume that sometimes he will step back in the novel and let the inevitable unfold. One example of Nick being reserved is in Tom Buchanans house, when he is being invited over for dinner with Daisy Buchanans and Jordan Baker. He seems to withdraw in passing conversations and ‘avoid all eyes’. This either suggests he can be unsociable and shy at times, or he is merely observing certain situations without contributing to them.

Nick Carraway is a prime example of how an unbiased and trustworthy narrator can change a book. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is told in first person point of view, through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a 30-year-old man living in West Egg, New York. Carraway tells the story as it is happening and lets the reader know what is to come. Nick seems to be an “invisible character” because he is involved in the story but not in the major conflict. Nick Carraway is the perfect choice of narrator because he is reliable, connected to the main characters, and has an amicable personality.

To be Nick Carraway is to be an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is a narrator, who, has little to no credibility and simply cannot be trusted. These narrators are often in first-person and “seem to have limited knowledge, to be mistaken in his or her understanding of people and events, or even to be deliberately misleading the reader.” (Margree par. 1). The well-known novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, introduces readers to a story where everything may not be necessarily true. The beauty of this novel is that the readers actually get to decide what they want or do not want to believe. This is all due to Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby. Nick is prejudice and has various faults like dishonesty and being oblivious to himself. A character/narrator like this during the 1920s in New York City seems to fit in just fine, after all it was an age of “vitality, sapping out genuine emotion in favor of the artificial,” (Wolok 1). However, Nick’s faults have a major effect on the background stories and events taking place in The Great Gatsby. He picks and chooses his narrations forcing readers to not get only half the story. Along with this, Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is an unreliable narrator because he constantly contradicts himself, is biased towards Gatsby, and attempts to use other characters as primary sources.

In his novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald had the main character Nick Carroway stand out as being overall, a decent person. Nick stands out especially when being compared to the other characters in the story. It is Nick's honesty with himself and toward others, his morality, and his unbiased, slow to judge qualities that make him the novel's best character.

In fact, nick is very trsutoehy and faithful and was with Gatsby until he died “The minister glanced sveerla times at his watch , so i tok him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasnt any use.Nobody came”(Fitzgerald 174). Nicks faithful to gatsby can be seen through this for he was the only one who presented to his funeral and valued his friendship and not his appearances like theother peopel. In fact evreybody went to his partys and liked him for his riches but Nick estemmed him for hsi chrcte and perosna. The audnice can also see Nick’s prinicples and morals through his family by his father teaching him “Whenever you fell like crtizing any one he told me jsut remeber that all the peopel in the wrold havent had the a vdantgae s that youve had”(1). Nick’s father taught Nick to be hubmle and to not be jugmental on peope on apperances but only character. In addtion hes become a reserved man As he saes it himself “ in consequence , I'm inclined to reserve all judgements “ (Fitzgerald 1). Not nly does Nick practice these good morals but he identifies himself as an honest perosn “Every one suspects himself of at least one cardinal virtues and this is mine : I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”(Fitzgerald 59). This statement is true for Nick is honest through the book and different from the other characters who lie or either

Nick is not the perfect and innocent character in this book. He is a manipulator and excellent liar (“Great”, Scott). Nick thinks that he is above every characters wrongdoing. For example, he feels he is superior to Tom’s infidelities, Jordan Baker’s lies, and Gatsby’s criminal acts. However, little does he know he takes part in some of those wrongdoings (Hays). Nick can also be confusing at times. There are moments in the book where Nick thinks Gatsby has something to hide and that Gatsby is mysterious. Then, there are other times where Nick believes that Gatsby is the only honest character (Roulston and Roulston). Therefore, one can conclude that Nick is not a very stable individual. He has switched up on the reader. He acts and says one thing but then later his actions are opposite.

“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”(p.59) as a narrator Nick Carraway was honest man for telling the readers all the facts about everyone, whether they were true or not. This is being a honest man because we know more truth about the characters than we should. We found out who Great Gatsby really was, more about Tom and Daisy Buchanan. If the narrator wasn’t so honest in his reading then we wouldn’t have known about all the facts and lies about the characters in the book. But as a character he was not honest.

In his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald recounts the life of a man named Nick Carraway, a privileged Yale graduate who moved from the Midwest to the East coast. He is the neighbor of a very wealthy but mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who is deeply infatuated with Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story follows the dreams of the wealthy individuals associated with Gatsby, and how a lack of morality an unrestrained materialism leads them to have evil intentions. Fitzgerald made Nick a character as well as a narrator, as he interacts with other people in the text but he is not the protagonist. The audience is only aware of Nick’s perception on various issues, his opinions of them, and thoughts that race through his mind during events.

He told us how it all started and how it ended, but what if it was daisy or tom maybe even Gatsby telling the story. Would we know more about the characters without having a biased view of them? In my opinion Nick is super biased towards many people but he’s more based on one particular person how can we trust someone who supposedly has been drunk only 2 times in his life but sounds like he's drunk or tipsy through the whole story , for example, Nick proves to be an unreliable person telling the story because he always has to describe the other characters in unfair thinking, specifically Tom, who he views poorly, and Gatsby, who he loves more over everyone else. Also, Nick is drunk during parts of his narration, which does not promise that something will definitely happen or that something will definitely work as described.

Nick Carraway is an unreliable narrator through various demonstrations he proves to be very sympathetic towards Gatsby, he views Tom negatively, and he constantly makes excuses for himself. First of all, Nick Carraway is a biased narrator is because he is very sympathetic towards Gatsby. In the novel Nick says “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It

Analyze the extent to which the reliability of the narrator can affect readers understanding of events in the texts you have studied. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a fictional twist to his real life situation. Fitzgerald grew up in Minnesota and studied at Princeton University which is illustrated in the novel by the subjective narrator, Nick Carraway, who grew up in Minnesota as well but studied at Yale University. The writer had a love story with a beautiful and rich young woman at military camp who was reluctant to marry him due to his lack of wealth.

The narrator, Nick, presents the story without subjective feelings, informs without influencing the reader and also leaves him a space for imagination. For example, he hears many different rumors about Gatsby’s origin of his wealth and he does not make any conclusion, he let you decide what you believe is true.

Nick Carraway the narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a biased (2) , dishonest (3) , easily influenced (4) , pretentious, contradicting, narrative device. I must say, this is an interesting way to create a character.

In the introduction to the story, narrator Nick Carraway describes Gatsby as he, retrospectively, perceives him. Immediately, Fitzgerald establishes Gatsby as an exceptionally romantic hero and a hopeful dreamer. The narrator tips his hand and reveals his favoritism for Gatsby. This quote is important because it not only establishes the essence of the Gatsby character but it also foreshadows the very nature of the story and its primary themes: idealism, aspiration, and

Nick is unreliable because he sees himself as morally better than everyone and that leads him to have a bias for himself. Having a bias for him is a problem because he is both the narrator and a character in the novel which means that he gets to choose how he presents other characters and how he presents himself; as a result, he makes himself look better, and other people look worse in certain situations. He makes himself look better by not telling readers details of what is happening back home: “I know that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home” (58). This passage is significant because it shows that he has a commitment or a relationship back home that he is running away from. He also writes letters home once a