Foil Characters In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is the story of the idiosyncratic millionaire Jay Gatsby. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner from Long Island who later moves to Manhattan. Gatsby’s life is organized around one desire, Daisy, the woman he loved. This desire leads him on an expedition from poverty to wealth, reuniting with his old love, and his eventual death. In his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to portray the American Dream where people seek out self-gratification and pleasure. He captures the romance of the roaring twenties with the cars, money, illegal alcohol and the wildest parties one could imagine. Much like the character, Jay Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), wasn’t born into the upper class. While Gatsby is from the lower class, Fitzgerald from the middle class, both end up becoming exceptionally rich, fall into the wildest and reckless life, and use their fortunes to win the love and approval of the women they once loved.

Fitzgerald uses Gatsby's parties and the way in which Nick views them to reveal that whilst Gatsby is surrounded by shallow and vulgar people, he is above this. Fitzgerald also uses these parties to expose Gatsby's isolation which leads us to feel sympathy toward Gatsby. Despite the amount of people at the party, Nick observes Gatsby's seclusion and loneliness, "my eyes fell to Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps". This evokes a great deal of sympathy from us as although Nick describes Gatsby in a warm and friendly way, "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", we now can see that Gatsby is a lonely figure. This sympathy is accentuated when Nick is the only person to turn up to Gatsby's funeral, as we know that Gatsby is a decent and honourable character and thus our sympathies are emphasised by Gatsby's isolation. When Nick first meets Gatsby, he reveals Gatsby to be a fascinating character that we would like to know more about. The warm and assuring smile that Nick describes is in antithesis to the

The real contradiction to Nick is The Great Gatsby himself, Jay. Jay and Nick share a similar small town upbringing but Jay was able to parle his stolen trades into the corrupted version of the American Dream. Most of what Nick knows about Jay is based on his reputation and it’s not until they actually meet and Nick sees the “quality of distortion” in Jay’s New York lifestyle that Nick sees for himself the illusion that Jay created. Nick is attracted to the high life that Gatsby has created in the valley of ashes. Who can blame him with all the lavish parties, cars, mansions, women and other temptations. It’s like Fitzgerald has placed Nick in the Garden of Eden and the two characters; Nick and Jay, represent the good

Fitzgerald chose Nick to narrate the text because his perspective creates a multifaceted view of the world Fitzgerald portrays. He is an outsider to the wealthy materialistic world in which he lives. His similarity to Gatsby in that respect helps us gain an appreciation for Gatsby’s character, but although Nick and Gatsby are both outsiders Nick fails to fully understand Gatsby. This appreciation but lack of full understanding gives the reader a very different perspective than a narration from Gatsby’s point of view or that of anyone else in the novel. Nick is caught between the perspective of the man “looking up and wondering” (35) and the man in the party. Gatsby is neither; he holds the party but then scarcely shows up. Far from being an outsider to the world of wealth and materialism, he seems to embody it. Gatsby and Nick both disdain the world of vacuous wealth, but they do so from different perspectives. Gatsby has everything he needs to be part of it and chooses not to; Nick is caught on the edge, unsure whether or not he wants that world, but ultimately he cannot have it. If Nick is an outsider unsure about trying to become an insider, Gatsby is an insider trying, studiously, to make himself an outsider.

We look back in history in order to learn from our mistakes and to help society progress in the present and in the future. “The Great Gatsby” was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Fitzgerald wrote this piece during the 1920s after WWI and it perfectly replicates the time period. The narrative captures the essence of the Jazz Age by depicting characters, showing power struggles and by defining the societal conflicts of the time. The novel tells us about different influences on the 20’s such as the Prohibition Act, the success of Wall Street, and aspects of the American Dream. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald possesses the social constructs and ideas of the Roaring Twenties.

The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal activities, love affairs, and dishonesty. Nick Carraway is the busy narrator of the book, a curious choice considering that he is in a different class and almost in a different world than Gatsby and the other characters. Nick relates the plot of the story to the reader as a part of Gatsby’s circle. He has hesitant feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s wonderful ability to hope. Using Nick as an honorable guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to show the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve

After World War I ended, America appeared to be a promise land of opportunities for people who are willing to work for it. However, for some, it corrupted them as they set to reach the American dream by acquiring wealth for the only purpose to pursue pleasure. The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald showing that no one is unaffected by the corruption. This novel is seen through the eyes of Nick Carraway, who moves from the mid-west to west-egg to chase his American dream. He observes the people and events around him as he follows the attempts of his neighbor Jay Gatsby, to gain back Daisy Buchanan’s love. Through the novel, characters appear to enjoy the freedom of the 1920s, but it comes to an end as characters are

Nick's role in F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "The Great Gatsby" was to give a "outsider's" perspective. Nick is originally from the Midwest yet moved to the west egg in hopes of being a bonds dealer. Being a part of this elegant and fake lifestyle is new to Nick causing his reactions and feelings to be more like the reader than someone else from the story like Daisy or Gatsby himself. Also, this is the reason that Fitzgerald makes it a first-person narration novel to give you more emotion towards those actions. Out of everyone in the story, Nick would be the most trustable.

Nick was a victim to the society around him. He was found ignorant to the society he was put in. When he rented this house in the upper class he suddenly found himself pressured by his cousin, Daisy, and Jordan. “I found myself on Gatsby’s side and alone” (164) Throughout the story Nick was found on the outside of things mostly knowing what was going on within arguments and discussions. This is why Nick was such a great narrator because of him not being included with the main arguments and dilemmas.

Previously, it seemed that Nick was somewhat skeptical of Gatsby. It could also be said that Nick was in a state of awe over Gatsby. He repeatedly mentioned his observance of the lavish mansion and massive parties and constant guests. Considering Nick’s personal living situation, which was much less extravagant than what he was surrounded by, leading to his feelings of mesmerization. Additionally, over the course of the book, Nick gained a sympathy for Gatsby after gaining an understanding of his background and what he has gone through and accomplished.

Nick finally gets to know Gatsby on a more intimate level and sees how he is so full of hope and dreams and a need to create this back story of his life and how he went from war hero to a self made millionaire. Nick can see that he is only self made in his mind but that Gatsby is so desperate for him to believe him. But there is something inherently sincere about him even though he lives in an illusion he has created. When it’s all boiled down, the real reason he had done all this and his main motivation in life is to win a girl back-Daisy. He needs Nick because of his relationship with Daisy and that he can be the conduit for him to see her and win her back.

One thing that surprises me about Nick is that he was loyal to Gatsby who seemed likeable enough but empty inside. He seemed like the picture was more important than the real person. Nick was interested in person and would put himself in a bad light to help a friend. “I didn’t want to go to the city. I wasn’t worth a decent stroke

He is a young man from the midwest who didn't like his life in the west. Nick moved to New York because of his attraction to the Eastern lifestyle. He also got a job as someone who sells bonds. Fitzgerald portrays him as the most honest character in the book. He is the main cause of Gatsby and Daisy reuniting and having a relationship together and Daisy having an affair with Tom. He is the only character in the novel that has some affection towards Gatsby (¨The Great

Although to Nick, Gatsby seems at once completely unoriginal, extremely knowable, being with him, he notes, was "like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines” (Fitzgerald 55). Gatsby, in Nick’s point of view, was disruptive. He is unable to trust Gatsby, for a fear that he would just vanish at the moment in which a promise leans toward its fulfillment.

Similarities can immediately be drawn between Fitzgerald and the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. Both Fitzgerald and Nick grew up in Minnesota and would later attend Ivy Leagues; Nick would attend Yale, while Fitzgerald attended Princeton. The men are also similar in age. Nick turns thirty in chapter seven, while Fitzgerald was twenty-nine the year of The Great Gatsby publication. The most striking similarity, however, between the two men is their desperate obsession with telling this story: for Nick, telling Gatsby’s story, and for Fitzgerald, telling his own life story. For striving to aid Gatsby even in his death, Nick is characterized as a loyal, honorable friend to Gatsby; in comparison, Fitzgerald appears shallow and self-centered to write a whole novel based on his own life, especially when considering the characters he writes to resemble him are the heroes.