The Great Gatsby By F. Fitzgerald

As a witness to everything that happened, the character Nick is a well rounded man who cares much about the close people in his life. He is good friends with Gatsby and looks up to him only to be disappointed by his actions, but this never changes there friendship.

Nick’s morals are noble and this was ingrained in him from a young age. His father brought him up in a way that would help structure his future. His father said, “just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” (Fitzgerald 1)This means that

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

Nick is an unreliable narrator. He seems, from the beginning, to be level headed and wholly observant. However, he blacks out when he gets drunk, and we lose time. Also, he is deeply embedded and prejudices us against Tom and for Gatsby.

Donaldson is correct for establishing Nick as an unreliable narrator. Donaldson describes Nick as a “snob”, someone who is “not entirely honest about himself” (Donaldson), regardless of Nick’s claim of being “one of the few honest men [he] knows” (Fitzgerald 64). Nick is very arrogant, as no reliable person would run on self-proclaimed titles of “honesty”. He “dodges emotional commitments” (Donaldson), such as when he ran away from a “girl out West” (Fitzgerald 24) whom he was rumored to be engaged with as well as when he ended his relationship with Jordan “over on the telephone” (Fitzgerald 186). Nick, proves, however, to have a special connection with Gatsby who

Honesty is one of the most pivotal traits for a narrator to portray. Nick is a very honest man and he often, through the novel is not afraid give his opinion. As he was introducing the novel to the readers he gives and honest assessment of Gatsby, Nick says “Gatsby , who represented everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2) This displays that Nick is willing to bring forth his opinion on Gatsby and shows that he will be honest if it is necessary. Nick is exclaiming that his first reaction to Jay was off-putting, and he rejected his lifestyle. Nick honesty fuels him into a friendship with Gatsby and lets the story flourish. Nick also seems to be in the thick of things whenever something went wrong. He gets insider information throughout the story and

Why would such an honest character feel the need to remind the readers of his morality? Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is not honest in the way he depicts other characters and feels the need to intensely assert his honesty in order to place himself above the other characters in the book. Nick tries to be neutral by being “Inclined to reserve all judgments”(1). He is found to emit information that could give the reader a better perspective to the story. Nick Carraway tells the story by putting himself in a better light. The Great Gatsby is told from a biased perspective and is limited as a result of Nick's opinion.

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.

As the famous saying goes, “actions speak louder than words.” Through Nick’s narration, more can be learned about him through his actions opposed to his descriptions of himself. Nick begins his first impression by advocating himself as “inclined to reserve all judgement.” Yet, Nick promptly constitutes judgement after judgement upon his peers. Nick disdainfully criticizes Daisy and Tom Buchanan for being people “who smash-up things and

(Fitzgerald 177) Throughout the story it’s apparent that Nick is exceptionally unreliable due to his extreme bias of the many characters in the story. An example is “Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty, with a rather hard mouth and supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward.” (Fitzgerald 7) Nick is inebriated throughout certain parts of the story which could mean that his recollection of occurrences aren’t guaranteed to be

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

Some people go through many obstacles to meet their dream, only to find out in the end it was all for nothing. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, focuses on the life of Gatsby and how he spent his entire life reaching for his dream and never met it. Nick, who is Gatsby 's neighbor, thinks that Gatsby is above the rest of society because he comes from new money and devoted his life to Daisy. However Gatsby is not superior; he ended up not getting the one thing that he wanted most and wasted his life away for Daisy. Through Gatsby Fitzgerald is showing even though you work your whole life to attain a goal, it might not end up working out.

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.

By providing Nick’s first-person narration rather than having an omniscient viewpoint allows the reader to see the story as someone who is not accustomed to the society. Thus, achieving a fresh perspective on the transpiring events. Furthermore, if the narrator were Tom or Gatsby all their wrongs and immoral activities would have been justified in their heads or go unannounced to the reader. However, Nick has somewhat of a moral compass a very firm one compared to the other characters in the story. Nick notices all the dreadful occurrences and horrendous people at Gatsby’s extravagant Parties. Nick is also shocked to discover that one of Gatsby’s friends had fixed 1919 the World Series, a fact that Gatsby informs Nick of like it is something

Nick says "Though I was curious to see her I had no desire to meet her – but I did. I went to New York on the train one afternoon and when we stopped by the ashheaps he jumped to his feet and, taking hold of my elbow, literally forced me out of the car," (Fitzgerald 24). Nick is making it sound as if he is being forced to meet Tom's mistress, though he has already agreed to meet her by getting on the train in the first place. Nick is so caught up with the excitement of it all, that he looks past how unethical the situation is. He chooses to not see anything wrong with meeting the woman Tom is having an affair with, because it is not as though he is the one having an affair; he is just a bystander. What he doesn't understand is that he is being just as dishonest as Tom is, because he doesn't saying anything. In his own eyes, Nick considers himself "one of the few honest people that [he has] ever known," (Fitzgerald 59). But Nick doesn't realize that being honest is not only, not telling a lie, but it is also telling the truth even when one's not being asked to tell the truth.