The electricity, which surges through the glowing lights of New York City, serves as the primary power source of emotion, inspiration and motivation, for each of the beloved characters in F. Scott Fitzerald 's classic novel, The Great Gatsby. It 's within the city 's walls, where all the characters are united in their times of darkness, yet tension also arises in the novel, as each of the characters uses the city to escape from reality and fulfill his or hers deepest desires. As a result of the city’s power our narrator, Nick Caraway finds himself lost in the drama of others and ultimately ends up alone struggling to find his own place in the world. At the beginning of the novel it 's revealed, that Nick Carraway has moved to Long Island, …show more content…
Through Nick’s stream of unconsciousness in the following lines: "Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life,” (p. ) the reader learns how Nick is completely lost as he cannot identify himself apart from the others. Nick continues this idea as he says how he “felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others.” This line shows how Nick justifies his lifestyle as he suggests other have it too. However, by then end of the novel Nick realizes he’s not only lonely but empty. As he knows more about the drama around him than himself. This can bee seen in the hotel scene when Tom and Gatsby are auguring, and Nick makes the small comment to himself, that he “ just remembered that today’s [his] birthday. [he] was thirty. Before [him] stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.” Yet, he had nothing to show for it. As his social life was filled by the secrets of others and his one potential romance, something Nick deeply dreams about, fades away by the end of the novel as Jordan leaves
His duplicity continues, as he meets Tom’s mistress, and later arranges Daisy and Gatsby’s meeting, even going as far as to say “don’t bring Tom” (85). These are clear deceptions and violations of trust, which both reveal that Nick is not the honest and forthright man he wants the reader to believe he is; on the contrary, in many ways he is the opposite of honest and forthright. However, Nick’s most clearly professed lie is in protection of Daisy, when Tom insists that Gatsby had killed Myrtle, and Nick remains silent, forgoing telling Tom about the “one unutterable fact,” - that it had not been Gatsby who was driving the car when it had hit Myrtle, but Daisy - in favor of protecting Daisy (178). Once again, Nick mischaracterizes his traits and even fails to recognize his deceptions and violations of trust as being dishonest, failing to evaluate his own traits. By highlighting Nick’s opinions of and interactions with life amongst the rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald crafts Nick into a complex character whose contrasting thoughts and actions create a many leveled, multifaceted character who shows the reader that one’s appraisal of one’s own traits can often be incorrect.
Lionel Trilling claims that, “Gatsby, divided between power and dream, comes inevitably to stand for America itself.” Trilling is essentially correct when one considers that America itself is divided between power and dream, and when he states that Gatsby is divided by power and dream, but his argument fails when he states that Gatsby comes to stand for America itself.
In a nation, two communities can often differ from each other. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his writing to contrast the morality described by Nick Carraway in the Midwest, to the corruption and inhumanity that is quite starkly present in the East.
As much as generous and honest Nick Carraway is, he still needs a few important improvements in himself. Nick went to Yale, fought in world war one and moved to East of New York to work in finance. After moving to New York, Nick faces tough dilemmas throughout the story such as revealing secrets, and witnessing betrayal. His innocence and malevolence toward others was beyond his control. He did not have the ability or knowledge to know what he should have done in the spots he was set in. He seemed lost and having no control of what went on- almost trapped- but indeed, he had more control than he could have ever known. Because of the situations he has experienced and the people he has met, such as Gatsby, Tom, Jordan and Daisy, his point of view on the world changed dramatically which is very depressing. Trusting the others and caring for them greatly has put him in a disheartening gloomy position.
Among the first indicators of Nick’s unreliability as a narrator is shown through his extreme misunderstanding of his father’s advice. When Nick’s father told him that “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (1) he most likely meant not all people have the same opportunities in life. However, Nick perverted his father’s meaning and understood it as “a sense of the fundamental decencies us parceled out unequally at birth” (2). Nick’s interpretation of his father’s advice provides insight into his conceited, somewhat supercilious attitude, as he believes that not all people are born with the same sense of manners and morality.
4). Nick’s assessment and criticism toward Jordan, Tom, and Daisy also show his skeptical and logical outlook on others around him. This tone shows Nick’s struggle between being like the emotionless and careless people around him (like Tom) or to be his own hopeful and romantic man (following
Nick’s ever-present jealousy is introduced during the first chapter of the novel. Nick describes the location of his home in order to allow himself a way to denounce his neighbor’s, because he is jealous of their luxurious homes. Nick begins the novel by saying that he “lived at West Egg, the—well, the least fashionable of the two” (5). Nick prefers the “East Egg” status, showing that the location of his house is obviously very important to him. Nick has a hard time affording the cost of West Egg land, even though he denounces it as less “fashionable”. Nick chooses t...
The two main characters presented in the novel are Gatsby and Nick. Gatsby is shown as a very mysterious individual, many people do not know whom Gatsby is. However he is a well-known individual who has many rumors going around about him and his background such as “Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once” (Fitzgerald, 45). There are not many physical description of Gatsby but Nick described him as “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself” (Fitzgerald, 49) from what Nick said it shows that Gatsby has a trustworthy appearance. We learn that Gatsby’s parents were farmers who were very poor but Gatsby was still very ambitious and he wanted to live “THE AMERICAN DREAM”. Gatsby whole purpose in life after loosing Daisy due to going to the war was to get Daisy back and live a perfect life with her. Nick is the narrator of the novel who reflects on his experience with Gatsby. Nick often views himself as a “Well rounded man” (Fitzgerald, 10) because he thinks he is open minded, tolerant, and a good listener because of this Gatsby reveals his true identity and tells Nick about his past and personal affairs. Nicks main purpose in the book was too guide Gatsby in getting Daisy and being by his side. As a friend Nick tries to tell Gatsby that his idea of getting Daisy back is foolish this also shows that Nick was a true friend by looking out for his friend. In comparing the novel to th...
To begin with, after the party from the city returns to Tom’s home, Jordan invites him inside, but he responds, “‘No, thanks…’ I’d be damned if I’s go in; I’d had enough of all of them for one day, and suddenly that included Jordan too” (142). By refusing to enter Tom’s house, he symbolically declines the acceptance of the upper class; something he, Gatsby, and Myrtle all avidly desired and worked towards up to this point. Rather than value those material characteristics that had appealed to him before, he chooses his moral principles instead. His relationship with Jordan perfectly symbolizes his primary choice . Later on, after Gatsby’s death, Nick “found himself on Gatsby’s side, and alone…it grew upon me that I was responsible [for Gatsby’s funeral], because… [Gatsby deserved] that intense personal interest to which every one has some vague right at the end” (164). Once again, Nick favors his personal beliefs over following societal expectations. He stands by the mysterious figure of Gatsby, who possessed “an extraordinary gift for hope”(2) that Nick admired, while everyone else keeps a safe distance and watches, as onlookers in a zoo does to the animals. By admitting his part in the events that took place, primarily Gatsby’s downfall, Nick shows he is not the same careless person as Tom and Daisy who leave their mistakes for others to fix . Whether Nick’s belief that everyone should have a living person stand by h im/her after death is a universal truth or not, he follows his heart rather than the crowd. Finally, before he leaves to the Midwest, Nick “wanted to leave things in order and not just trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away” (177). Particularly, Nick wanted to end his relationship with Jordan, supporting his original belief that a person should only have one
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.
As depicted by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the 1920s is an era of a great downfall both socially and morally. As the rich get richer, the poor remain to fend for themselves, with no help of any kind coming their way. Throughout Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the two “breeds” of wealthier folk consistently butt heads in an ongoing battle of varying lifestyles. The West Eggers, best represented by Jay Gatsby, are the newly rich, with little to no sense of class or taste. Their polar opposites, the East Eggers, are signified by Tom and Daisy Buchanan; these people have inherited their riches from the country’s wealthiest old families and treat their money with dignity and social grace. Money, a mere object in the hands of the newly wealthy, is unconscientiously squandered by Gatsby in an effort to bring his only source of happiness, Daisy, into his life once again. Over the course of his countless wild parties, he dissipates thousands upon thousands of dollars in unsuccessful attempts to attract Daisy’s attention. For Gatsby, the only way he could capture this happiness is to achieve his personal “American Dream” and end up with Daisy in his arms. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is somewhat detrimental to himself and the ones around him; his actions destroy relationships and ultimately get two people killed.
The light bulb is the way we see in the dark, the way we find our way, the way we know when to go at a stoplight. How did Thomas Edison achieve this invention? Knowledge. Knowledge of electricity and the needs of those around him. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan claims that she wants her daughter to be “a beautiful little fool.” In other words Daisy is saying that ignorance is bliss. Some others believe that knowledge is power. The advancement from candles to light bulbs changed the culture entirely. People could easily do the work they needed to after sunset, and it even led to more inventions. We need knowledge to advance, and for this reason powerful knowledge is more valid than blissful ignorance.
The novel takes place during the summer in New York as Nick Carraway has just
... Nick makes a small funeral for Gatsby and Daisy does not attend it. He took the blame for her, and he is dead all because of her, he sacrificed for her. She and Tom decide to travel and take off. Also Nick breaks up with Jordan, and he moves back to Midwest because he has had enough of these people, and hates the people that were close to Gatsby and for bareness, emptiness, and cold heart they have of the life in the middle of the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick realizes, and reveals that Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was ruined by money and un-loyalty, dishonestly. Daisy all she cared about is wealth, she chased after the men that have a lot of money. Even though Gatsby has control, influence, and authority to change his dreams into making it into real life for him this is what Nicks says makes him a good man. Now both Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream are over.
Nick shows evident signs that he feels isolated and, at times, lonely; the way in which he feels out of place in both East Egg and West Egg supports this. In Chbosky’s novel, Charlie is captivated by his own world of books; he is incapable of participating in school life and is hooked on the habit of writing letters to his “friend”. This shows how this theme is also prominent in my partner text. Both writers explore these themes through a variety of characters, and show that despite a person’s social class or wealth, the feeling of loneliness and isolation can affect us all. Nick states his view on life to the reader when he says, “Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window after all”.