Nick's Relationship In The Great Gatsby

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Think about the last time you performed a random act of kindness for a stranger. Was it a true effort to change the course of someone’s day, or was it an attempt to raise your own self esteem knowing that you helped someone unfamiliar to you? The question, are Gatsby and Nick truly friends, or did they secretly hate each other the whole time, looms in the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald. Nick and Gatsby have a love/hate relationship because Nick and Gatsby are outsiders in West Egg, Gatsby is a user, and they both want other things in life than what they have. Because Gatsby and Nick both differ from the rest of West Egg, they are considered outsiders and they grow to love each other over time. Since Nick values hard work, he …show more content…

Gatsby takes advantage of Nick to reunite with Daisy. When Gatsby tells Nick to invite Daisy over for tea, he uses Nick to rekindle his previous relationship with Daisy. Comparatively, Gatsby uses Nick again when he tries to make it seem like Nick, Gatsby and the Buchanan’s are all friends. Gatsby clearly sees that Nick is his only way to socialize with the couple, and he uses that to his advantage. By hesitantly letting Tom drive his car he has yet another way to hang around with Daisy later that day in the hotel room, where he tries to make Daisy confess that she never loved Tom. Obviously, the only reason Gatsby gets the chance to talk to Daisy is because of Nick’s connection with the Buchanan’s. Additionally, Gatsby uses Nick to make himself feel better and raise his own self esteem. Apart from any other guest, Nick is invited to the first party he attends at Gatsby’s house. Because he receives an invitation, it makes Gatsby seem as if he has no friends and is trying to comfort himself by having “a friend” he could invite. It is apparent that Nick does not even know who Gatsby is at the party because of what he says while he talks to Gatsby. He has no clue who Gatsby is or even that they are neighbors. Fitzgerald writes, “‘I’m Gatsby’ he said suddenly. ‘What!... I beg your pardon’” (48). All of these reasons combined makes Nick hate Gatsby and the morals he stands

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