F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story of lost love, mystery, and an exciting tale from the “Roaring Twenties”. While considered a notable piece of literature in American history, perhaps the plot is not all it seems. This is because the narrator, Nick Carraway, is an unreliable one, based on his continuity errors, general racism, biased judgement, contradictory nature, and assumptions of others, all which blind his ability to effectively convey the true story to the reader. First off, Nick Carraway’s ability to keep continuity in line is revealed when he tells the reader things he could not have possibly seen, based on the account of how he was sitting, looking, or even what his own sobriety level. For example, Carraway tells us that during the confrontation with Gatsby, “Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his unbelief. But we were all looking at Gatsby” (Fitzgerald 129). He said that Tom was looking for similar visages, but yet in the very next sentence says they were looking at Gatsby. Unless he turned to look at Tom without telling the reader, there’s no way he could have looked at Tom too. Also, after drunkenly conversing with Owl Eyes, Nick suddenly jumps in narration to “lying half asleep in the…Pennsylvania Station...waiting for the four o’clock train” (Fitzgerald 38). Nick makes no attempt at all to explain how he might of got there, how he left Owl Eyes, and after that never explains how he got home. Along with his continuity, one can tack on racism, ignorance, and biased judgement to the laundry list of narration flaws Nick has. In Chapter 4, Nick describes the drivers as “...three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl” (Fitzgerald 69). Even in today’s age, referring to someone as a “buck” is v... ... middle of paper ... ...ncompetent to tell the story correctly and with as little bias as humanly possible. To further solidify this argument, at the beginning of Chapter 4, Nick wakes up, drunk again, of course, on Gatsby’s front lawn the night after the part that takes place in Chapter 3. (Fitzgerald 61). Again, his drunkenness impairs our ability to believe his account of the story, as alcohol clouds judgement and separates his conscience from his actions, making him subject to random and unrealistic narration. To put the nail in this part of the coffin, after waking up from Gatsby’s party, he obsessively “wrote down the names of those who came to Gatsby’s house that summer” (Fitzgerald 61). This compulsivity and obsessiveness further hint at the possibility that Nick might have a few screws loose upstairs . Works Cited Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.
Nick Carroway is not a very judgmental person, in fact, he himself states that he withholds judgment so that he can get the entire story out of the person to whom he is listening. To say that Nick is both approving and disapproving is not suspiring, for Nick rarely looks at things from only one perspective. Nick finds Gatsby to be ignorantly honest, in that Gatsby could not fathom the idea of saying something without really meaning it. He respects Gatsby for his determination to fit in with the East Egg crowd, though Gatsby does not realize that he does not really fit in with them. On the other hand, Nick sees Gatsby to be excessively flashy and, in the words of Holden Caulfield, 'phony.' Gatsby's whole life is a lie from the moment he left behind the name James Gatz and became Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lies about his past to try to have people perceive him as an 'old money' guy when that really is not necessary. Gatsby's valiant efforts to lure Daisy are respectable, yet they show Gatsby's failure to accept reality and give up on his long lost dream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a tragedy filled with love, loss, and betrayal. Fitzgerald paints us a beautiful picture of the events in this tale through complex wording. While his story and word usage may be complex, his character are not as complex as they appear. Their outward appearance may fool a reader because deep down they fit many popular archetypes. From the narcissistic jock type to the outsider, each one of Fitzgerald’s main characters can fit a certain archetype.
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby's neighbor in West Egg. Nick is a young man from a prominent Midwestern family. Educated at Yale, he has come to New York to enter the bond business. In some sense, the novel is Nick's memoir, his unique view of the events of the summer of 1922; as such, his impressions and observations necessarily color the narrative as a whole. For the most part, he plays only a peripheral role in the events of the novel; he prefers to remain a passive observer.
A soft breeze lifts off the Sound and brushes Nick Carraway’s face as he emerges from the shadows into the moonlight. His eyes first gaze across the bay to the house of Tom and Daisy where Nick sees past the walls to people who “...smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together...” (Fitzgerald: 187- 188). Nick’s head then turns to his side where he views Gatsby’ s mansion. His heart swells for the man who was unable to let go of the past, and move toward his future. With the two houses juxtaposed in his mind’s eye, Nick ponders his experiences in the East, and enters the car to take him home with a new perspective on life. Nick’s maturity becomes evident as his perspective of society becomes more realistic as a result of his observing the consequences which occur in unhealthy relationships.
One example was how Daisy was so materialistic that she cried for an expensive shirt: “They’re such beautiful shirts……I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before.” (Fitzgerald, 89). Nick is a critic that contradicts himself very often just as most of the other critics are in this world. I have an excerpt from Professor Xenophon Zolotas’ speech, which explains how politicians are examples of these hypocrites: ”My diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatise numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices.” (Zolotas, bilibili.com). Fitzgerald used this idea strongly, creating Nick as a character that never realizes that he had been contradicting himself. No one in real life ever contradicts themselves so often like Nick does. This is why I believe Fitzgerald used exaggeration. I find this aspect of the novel
There is only one thing which every philosopher who speculates about the human condition can agree on, and that is the idea that humans are complex, imperfect beings who may not always understand themselves. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, attempts to reveal this idea about human character by fashioning the narrator, Nick Carraway, into a complex character. He does this by highlighting Nick’s contrasting opinions of and interactions with life amongst the rich, and showing that Nick’s character is not as infallible as he himself would like to believe. Through his contrasting judgements and actions,
Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.
Nick Carraway stayed out of the way when he sensed that there was going be drama coming. This kept him from losing his sanity and allowed him to witness the others as they went insane. Gatsby was one of the many that Nick had witnessed go through a mental phase. It all started when Gatsby met Daisy. That is where everything went wrong for Gatsby, is when he joined the wrong group of people. Everything could have been better if Gatsby would have just stayed away from Daisy. Daisy already had a husband, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby should have stayed away from a married woman and Daisy should have stayed away from having an affair with Gatsby. Mentally, this made Tom feel insecure and jealous but he knew that he could not do anything about it because he is doing the same thing. That would make Tom a hypocrite. G...
This novel is brought to life by narrator Nick Carraway who is a moral Midwestern man, infatuated, much as Fitzgerald was, by the parties and pizzazz of the east. Gatsby is a mysterious rich man, taken by love, but caught up in the deviant nature of the days. The morals of the entire cast in this ballet are as whimsical as the sheets of Jazz music that emanated from the musicians of the day. This constant change of character was always more eloquently explained by the language Fitzgerald used, than the actual plot of the story. The language that Fitzgerald used within te story, was more indicative to the actual story than the plot itself. While the character analysis of many of the characters may seem incomplete, by simply analyzing the words that were used to describe the characters and their surroundings, one can derive an in-depth hypothesis about each.
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 which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby demonstrates what Marie-Laure Ryan, H. Porter Abbott and David Herman state about what narratology should be. These theorists emphasize the importance of conflict, human experience, gaps and consciousness, among many other elements, in order for a story to be considered a narrative. The Great Gatsby shows these elements throughout the book in an essential way. This makes the reader become intrigued and desperate to know what will happen next. The Great Gatsby is unpredictable throughout the use of gaps, consciousness and conflict.
“The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings, love affairs, and corruption. Nick Carraway is the engaged 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 member of Gatsby’s circle. He has ambivalent feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s magnificent capacity to hope. Using Nick as a moral guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to illustrate the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve this, Nick’s credentials as a reliable narrator are carefully established and reinforced throughout the story.
In The Great Gatsby, Nick does not have the supernatural ability to read the thoughts of the characters around him, or the ability to be in multiple places at once. Nick does have the ability to look at the expressions of the characters around him and to conclude a possible thought that the character is feeling, but Nick does not have the complete assurance that the expression seen is the feeling being felt. Also, Nick misses opportunities to be in many relevant conversations and events that could have greatly influenced the understanding of the reader. In chapter 5, Gatsby arranges a secret meeting for Daisy and himself at Nick 's home. As Gatsby breaks the awkward wall established between Daisy and himself, Nick leaves the scene. When Nick returns "Daisy 's face was smeared with tears [... and Gatsby was] literally [glowing]" (89). Since Nick left his home to leave Gatsby and Daisy alone, the reader has no idea what they said to each other and what they said to produce those kind of emotions. The reader can assume that the tears were produced out of joy, but the reader loses the opportunity to gain information that would later have been essential in the novel. Another instance where an all-knowing point of view would have been significant is when Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy is the one that was driving the vehicle that killed Myrtle in chapter 7. Gatsby had previously established himself as a dishonest man when he lied about his humble beginning. Therefore, since Nick was not in the same vehicle as Gatsby and Daisy, he does not know if anything that Gatsby said is true. The reader is only exposed to what Gatsby says that occurred in that moment and that may very well not be the truth. The reality is that Nick is not a God and does not have a clear picture of
Nick attempts to deceive the reader at the beginning of the novel by describing himself as a man who is inclined to reserve all judgments (3). But Nick actually evaluates everyone based off his own bias judgments. He describes Jordan Baker as an incurably dishonest (57) and careless person (58). Tom and Daisy are careless people who “smash-up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money or vast carelessness” (179), according to Nick’s description. He describes Mr. McKee as feminine (30). Nick also describes George Wilson as a spiritless man (25). He is effectively not reserving his judgments. This deception and lying from Nick is another reason why he is an unreliable narrator, which goes against how Nick generally describes himself as an honest man who reserves all judgments, showing his non-objective stance.
Narrator's Perspective in The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway has a special place in this novel. He is not just one character among several, it is through his eyes and ears that we form our opinions of the other characters. Often, readers of this novel confuse Nick's stance towards those characters and the world he describes with those of F. Scott Fitzgerald's because the fictional world he has created closely resembles the world he himself experienced. But not every narrator is the voice of the author.