Nick And Gatby In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Nick was just an average person just trying to work his way up to the American dream. If no one came to say goodbye to Jay Gatsby after his death, what was in store for him when he died. This emphasized his fear of growing older and being isolated.

The line of attack we use in order to identify individuals around us is an intriguing thing. Our perception is forever shifting, forever building, and affected not only by the person’s actions, but by the actions of those around them. In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Nick Caraway’s perception of Jay Gatsby is always changing. All the way through the novel, Nick’s perception of Gatsby changes from him perceived as a rich chap, to a man that lives in the past, to a man trying to achieve his aspirations but has failed.

Since he died for taking the wrath of something he did not do. Gatsby is a man who struggled to get what he wants and who much reach a certain status before marrying the woman he is in love with. He was basically an outsider who comes from an uncertain past. Gatsby was able to win the hearts of many of the people around him with his tales of adventures and showing off his wealth. Yet, there is not a view that shows the success of Gatsby. He tries to convince Nick about his upbringings and his heroic exploits. Gatsby’s stories seemed extraordinary to the point where people questioned it but they still believe

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

Gatsby’s head is a complete mess. Nick says of him “Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies [...] these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality” (100). Gatsby is always dreaming of changing to the point of letting years go by stuck on the same illusions.

The novel The Great Gatsby is an interesting tale of two cities really. Nick Carraway; the narrator, represents all that is good an wholesome in the great midwest. He is a well-educated man who aspires to be a bond broker. His character is conflicted internally and externally throughout the novel but really culminates into a loathing for all things eastern. Carraway’s farmboy charm and doe-eyed innocence is put to the test when he meets The Great Jay Gatsby. Gatsby represents all things Nick is unfamiliar with and is curious about. Nick, being from the midwest, has no real street smarts so when he meets the “wicked” east, his lack of experience is proof positive that he really does not belong

When Nick is describing Gatsby he uses this bold comparison between Gatsby and Jesus Christ to illuminate what Gatsby has created himself to be. Jesus is described to be “faithful to his self-created dream but scornful of the factual truth that finally crushes him and his dream”—an appropriate description of Gatsby. Though the comparison between Gatsby and Jesus is not an important event in The Great Gatsby, it is nonetheless a suggestive comparison, as Gatsby transforms himself into the image that he envisioned for himself as a youngster and remains committed to that idea, despite the obstacles that society presents to the

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.

This shows that Gatsby seems to strangely disappear from Nick’s view, and with Nick unaware of who Jay Gatsby legitimately, this gives the character an aura of mystery. Gatsby is a mysterious unique character that many people seem to guess who his true identity is, for example when Nick and Jordan attend on of Gatsby’s great parties Nick begins to ask Jordan questions about Gatsby “‘where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?’ ‘Now you’re started on the subject”” (Fitzgerald 53). This shows that nobody fully understands who Gatsby truly is, and that although many people participate at his parties, no one really knows who the host actually is, making Jay Gatsby mysterious as ever.

Nick is the narrative reader in The Great Gatsby. Gatz was a poor person that changes his name to Gatsby. Tom was a cheater and was unfaithful to Daisy. Daisy was a flirt and rich. Myrtle is a poor women that lived over her and her husband’s garage shop. Myrtle would let Tom push her around because he was a rich man that would let Myrtle forget that she was poor.

Nick seems compassionate when he said that Jay invented the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would invent (Fitzgerald 104). I think it would have to be a desperate and miserable seventeen year old boy to invent a person and take on that new identity. Nick supports me on this idea when he says: "But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot" (Fitzgerald, 105). Nick goes on to say that Gatsby's thoughts of him himself haunted him in bed at night. The dreams Gatsby had were a beautiful hint of the unreality of reality they were "a promise that the rock of the world was found securely on a fairy's wing" (Fitzgerald 105).

The character of Gatsby has a religious entity that brings him closer to the vision of the Son of God. “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby is the “American Adam” throughout the novel. He acts as the biblical Adam while fulfilling the spot of the American dream. Gatsby is described as having “a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life” (Fitzgerald 6). Like the Son of God, Jesus Christ, he has promises for the coming life in order to live out his greatness apart from his own senses. Gatsby brings life to the others around him, bringing out the best in people, giving the rare smile of admiration; nevertheless he is the incarnating God (Mellard 12). Nick describes Gatsby when watching him upon first meeting as "he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I

Gatsby’s activities got rid of his reputation with Nick and the others he knew after he died. The way Gatsby looked at things was a major part of his downfall. He always hoped things would go right. He was in a

During the 1920's American culture was centered around status and wealth, especially in the east, in hopes of living the true "American dream". Although most people became shallow, empty, and careless in their paths to wealth, often hurting those who have less then them, and making them pay the consequences of their immoral actions. But Jay Gatsby was unlike every other hollow person in the East, because he had something to live for, fight for, and dream for; Daisy Buchanan. His love for her gave him the strength to keep believing in the American dream and the drive to accomplish it. Gatsby restores Nicks faith in the people of the 1920's by showing him that not everyone is shallow and selfish, and that in order to live the American dream, hope and determination can not be lost.

The great Gatsby book started with a man telling us his father advised him never to criticize anyone , he said his father told him he should remember that all this people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had and his father thought him how to be reserved. He also have good manners and a well honourable character. Nick just graduated from yale university and he moved to new york. Nick stayed in west egg a long island in new york, he describes his house as less fashionable and he compares his house with Mr Gatsby his neighbour, he described his house as a Gatsby mansion, nick says his house his an eyesore