The Great Gatsby Message Analysis

Gatsby doesn't exactly belong in the wealthy group and his outsider status is very important. Gatsby plays a person who does belong in the wealthy group. So, Nick's is surprised at Gatsby's ability make his dreams come to life making it seem so easy. Gatsby kind of just plays a part.

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

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

At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for

After Gatsby’s death, Nick sees how all the people who used to admire Gatsby didn't even care now, they weren't even seemingly bothered by it, showing Nick how much the world really cared. As the world showed Nick that it didn't have the correct morals and uniform ways that he wanted this just lead and caused for his

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.

Regarding Gatsby, Nick "had enough of all of them [referring to Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan]"(Fitzgerald 79) and he thought Gatsby was "despicable."(Fitzgerald 79) This is all just after the accident. By the end of the whole story though, Nick's sympathy toward Gatsby improved. He felt terrible that no one paid honor to this man or cared that he was dead.

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

In The Great Gatsby, Nick’s perspective on others is much different compared to how he responds to Gatsby. Nick sees Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Wolfshiem all self-centered and shady individuals who are lost in the time era. However, Nick is enlightened by Gatsby; he is interested in Gatsby and uncovering his inner realness since he recognized many characteristics that he wishes people would hold (Bevilacqua). In the first chapter of the novel, when leaving New York heading to the Midwest, he says that he has lost all hope for humans because they have seemed to have lost their morality (Will). Nick continues to say he is one of the few honest people he has met. When he meets Gatsby and starts to discover Gatsby’s emotions, he finds that Gatsby is different from all his other acquaintances; he’s true to his word and proves it all throughout the story.

Nick’s behavioural changes are one the most evident changes that the reader is able to notice after he is invited to Gatsby’s house. These changes could be regarded as either negative or positive depending on how the reader interprets them. “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”(pg. 59), this is one of Nick’s quote from the beginning of the story before he meets Gatsby, he states that he is very honest to himself and to others but the reader soon finds out that is not the case. Nick is not an honest individual because after Gatsby is accused for Myrtle Wilson’s murder he does not speak up and tell Tom Buchanan and George Wilson (Myrtle’s husband) as to whom committed the crime. This misunderstanding ultimately leads to the death of  Jay Gatsby as he shot my George at his Mansion. These series of events are important to Nick’s behavioural changes as the reader to notice how being in Gatsby’s mansion had affected his honesty. Another behavioural change the reader is able to notice is Nick’s drinking habit as he starts to drink more when he first enters one of Gatsby’s parties. Chapter two of “The Great Gatsby” is where the

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

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.

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

Nick and Gatsby’s relationship becomes especially clear at the end of the novel. In life, Gatsby appeared to have it all - wealth, status, an innumerable amount of friends, judging by the attendance of his parties. But in death, he was no one.