The Outsiders In The Great Gatsby

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 realizes that life of the high-class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby?s time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an enormously wealthy family, ?seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind.?(Lehan, pg.60) Nick describes Tom?s physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a ?hard mouth and a supercilious manner?arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face?always leaning aggressively forward?a cruel body?his speaking voice?added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed? (Lehan, p.61)

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

Nick's opinions and criticisms are accepted by the reader as impartial which greatly influences the reader's interpretation of wealth and the wealthy. Nick is the only major character who is not preoccupied with money or power or belonging to a particular class. This sets him apart from the characters he and the reader are observing and allows him to be used as a measure for other characters. Nick further sets himself apart by being the only person who does not form relationships based on class and money. All around him, people are carefully choosing whom they will be 'friends' with based on how much money they have and if they belong to the right social class. When Nick first goes to Gatsby's party he feels 'uneasy' because he has never met his host however most of the people there were not even invited and they don't feel uneasy at all. By distancing himself from this corrupt upper class Nick comes across as the most honourable person there and

Before this rereading of the Great Gatsby, I had never considered why Fitzgerald chose for Nick to tell this story. I really liked Nick as a narrator because in an odd way I related to him, but I didn’t consider how much would have changed had any other character narrated it. If Gatsby had narrated it the story would not have gone on after his death or the ending may have even changed. Would Nick have even been included in the story? What if Daisy had been in Nick’s position? I imagine I would have been much more confused by the story and it definitely could have been either a much lighter or much darker novel. So why Nick? What about him fit exactly with the story F. Scott Fitzgerald told?

The difference of views between Gatsby and Tom is very blatant in Nick’s portrayal of them. When Nick describes Gatsby, he uses phrases such as “unaffected scorn,” “gorgeous,” “flabby impressionability,” and “romantic

Fitzgerald begins his novel, The Great Gatsby, with a resounding bang as he pulls his readers into the world of the 1920s when the narrator, Nick Carraway, begins to set the scene for the story and the characters are introduced. Firstly, the readers encounter Nick, the seemingly unbiased and conscientious character who leads the readers through many different frames of time and settings in the first chapter. He first introduces Gatsby, the intriguing and classically romantic main character who will be seen more in chapters to come. Then, Nick introduces himself more thoroughly to the readers, as he explains that he entered New York to learn about bank bonds and moved into a small house in close proximity to both Gatsby’s house on the West Egg

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby tells the story of a nouveau-riche man chasing his dream in the midst of the prohibition. The story is told from the perspective of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick recounts the summer he spent with Gatsby as Gatsby tries to attain the American Dream, which he has personified in his past love, Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald presents two contrasting responses to the American Dream through his characterization of Nick as cynical and Gatsby as hopeful.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about the so-called glamourful life of rich 1920 New Yorkers, although it symbolizes the entire United States. The book is narrated by a middle class man by the name of Nick Carraway. The events of the book are told as previous events that are recalled by Nick, who is trying to tell the tale of “The Great Gatsby”. Nick who lives next door to Gatsby is from the midwest and believes he is very moral, as opposed to the rich citizens of New York who he believes are the opposite. By lounging around with people from both the East and West egg, Nick begins to learn more about these people and the truth about their lifestyles.

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 his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald recounts the life of a man named Nick Carraway, a privileged Yale graduate who moved from the Midwest to the East coast. He is the neighbor of a very wealthy but mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who is deeply infatuated with Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story follows the dreams of the wealthy individuals associated with Gatsby, and how a lack of morality an unrestrained materialism leads them to have evil intentions. Fitzgerald made Nick a character as well as a narrator, as he interacts with other people in the text but he is not the protagonist. The audience is only aware of Nick’s perception on various issues, his opinions of them, and thoughts that race through his mind during events.

Nick Carraway, the story's narrator, has a singular place within The Great Gatsby. First, he is both narrator and participant. Part of Fitzgerald's skill inThe Great Gatsby shines through the way he cleverly makes Nick a focal point of the action, while simultaneously allowing him to remain sufficiently in the background. In addition, Nick has the distinct honor of being the only character who changes substantially from the story's beginning to its end. Nick, although he initially seems outside the action, slowly moves to the forefront, becoming an important vehicle for the novel's messages.

Fitzgerald starts off by portraying Nick’s lifestyle that was influenced by Gatsby. He grasps Nick’s sentimental attitude by using imagery on how “those gleaming, dazzling parties” were always with him and would instead “spend [his] Saturday

Nick Carraway, perhaps the only person in the novel who has not fallen victim to this corrupt set of values, ironically comments on his surroundings when he moves across Gatsby’s mansion. He describes his own house an “an eye-sore with a partial view on his neighbor’s lawn in the conforming proximity of millionaires “(Fitzgerald 22). The fact is that to him the proximity of wealthy people is not comforting at all, in fact it makes him even more anxious. In a way, this is because Nick just recently comes from the West, and he has not yet been much influenced by the corrupt society in the East. He still represents the old, traditional values which lost all of their meaning in the age when the size of one’s bank account and the number of cars a person owned became the principal things according to which success in life was measured. Nick’s dream is closer to the original American Dream, which was focused more around family than wealth and an unending quest for success. Nick represents the opposite path that Gatsby could have taken from the

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.