Breathing Under Water Analysis on Nick Andreas

The opening lines of the book, give the audience an idea of how we are going to understand Nick’s descriptions of everything that happens throughout the novel. Nick presents himself as a wise, and intelligent young man. Over the course of the novel, we learn that Nick is not always the smart and “wise young man” he wants to be portrayed as. Nick sometimes comes across as snobby to the audience, and may have begun his narration with a childhood lesson, from his father, so that the audience would think that he is a nice, young gentleman, who loves his family.

As a main character we may get a different impression of Nick since we are now analysing his personality and how he interacts with the other characters in the story. We read numerous pronouns in the first chapter, ‘I’, suggesting that he is self-indulgent and pompous. For instance, once at Gatsby’s party, Nick only kisses Jordan Baker because he ‘had no girl’, conveying he only kissed her because there was no one else there. This makes Nick seem selfish and arrogant as he is only thinking of himself. To the reader, we

To begin with, because Nick is merely another character in the unfolding tragedy readers can never see into

Nick, the narrator throughout the book, experiences changes but not as many as other characters. Nick was a shy

Where was Nick? Nick was out in the cold, smoking weed in front of his school’s art building, having the time of his life because he finally earned the right to smoke greens with the other guys. Nick was having a good time, being stupid,

Nick later introduces the readers to the rest of the characters and what he thinks of them (story is told through Nick when he was younger the mid-20s in

character but is vital in the role of the novel. It is later that Nick realizes that he becomes twisted and that he finds no desire to associate himself with careless people like Tom, Daisy,

No character change can happen after his fatal shot to the head. Before the novel even starts, he is dead. The reader can also see that Nick has not changed throughout the novel, because Valerie goes through periods of flashbacks where she remembers his thoughts and actions. Whenever Valerie is being interrogated by the police, e-mails that the two shared are read aloud. In Nick’s message, he proves that his suicidal thoughts are omnipresent whenever he says this, “I think I would prefer gas over anything. You know, like go into the garage and turn on the car and just lay down on the seat and get high and get dead. That would be totally intense, man…” (p. 150). It is also important to note that his email address is “cadaver@gmail.com”. Nick was not making an attempt to hide his suicidal tendencies. Instead, he was openly displaying them to the world; to the universe. Evidence that Nick was planning a shooting was also displayed throughout the novel. During Valerie’s flashback, he talks to her about the possibility of a shooting: “So what do you think? Think you could do it?” and “But I could do it. I could totally blow those people up. It just wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.” (p. 100). Nick having the idea to shoot and kill his classmates was nothing new. In fact, it was so common that Valerie laughed him off. Nick does not change throughout the story; his ideas were not in the heat of the

Many people break down when handling adversity, but Nick in fact wielded a different approach to adversity. “ My encouragement to you is that what lies ahead may be far better than you have ever thought possible. But it's up to you to get over it, get up, and show up” (21). He takes adversity head on with a positive attitude. This is how the author answers the question over and over throughout the novel, he always stresses the importance of the role of attitude.“... By changing our attitudes we can change our lives” ( 91). The theme of adversity resurfaced again and again. Nick was telling about why he’d been so successful, and why other famous people had become successful despite their treacherous moments in life. “Pick any true life hero,

Nick is still, however, an honest and good man. He is not extravagantly rich, but unlike Gatsby he earned all of his high social connections fairly. He is rather disgusted with the East and it’s empty values by the end of the book. But he is still intrigued by it all, as he demonstrates through his relationship with Jordan Baker. He holds an almost subconscious

Nick is far from the neutral bystander that he appears to be at first glance and his decisions and presence absolutely impact the other characters. The most notable impact that he has deals with him being the connection between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby lived in his mansion across the bay from Tom and Daisy’s house for several years, planning about how and when he was going to talk to Daisy but never actually doing it. That is until Nick moved in as his next door neighbor. Nick became the link that Gatsby needed to work up the courage to talk to his long lost lover. They even went so far as to meet for the first time at Nick’s house. Without Nick, Gatsby may have never confronted Daisy and none of the events that followed in the novel would have happened. Myrtle Wilson would not have been killed, Tom and Daisy would have just gone on with their lives, and Gatsby would not end up getting murdered by Wilson. Another impact that Nick has is simply his presence. The other characters always seem to want Nick with them. Gatsby insists that he come with Daisy and him for a tour of his mansion, Tom takes him to New York when he meets with Myrtle, and Nick accompanies the whole group to New York when things start to get heated between Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy. Even if Nick does not speak aloud in these scenes, he does affect the atmosphere of the

Before one can learn, one must be confused. It’s no surprise that a coming of age character starts out naïve and inexperienced. When Nick first introduces himself, he appears very innocent. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice,” he says. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick naively claims that he is a man

     We next see Nick and his reactions to relationships. In “The End of Something” Nick breaks up with his girlfriend Marjorie. He expresses to her that he is bored with his life and that they cannot stay together. This shows that due to Nick’s past, he is not ready for relationships with women. He does not want to live his life in the traditional manner that Marjorie expects him to. Due to his lack of development, he cannot communicate

How hard is it to do the right thing? In the article, “The Man in the Water”, many people did the right thing right until the end. “The Man in the Water” takes place in Washington D.C., where there was a blast of winter. It was a chaotic disaster that caught the nation’s attention. In reality, not everyone is willing to be the “good guy”. Everyone have once, thought of themselves more than others but, in this article, not everyone was selfish. Not being selfish, showed heroism and bravery. In the article “The Man in the Water”, Roger Rosenblatt uses conflict and setting to develop moral courage.

The teenage years are ones full of emotion. It is the best time of some people’s lives and it needs