The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway is the main character of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Nick is a Yale-educated, twenty-nine-year-old, from a prominent Midwestern family. Most importantly, he is the narrator of the story and it is through Nick’s point of view and through his relationships with the other characters that the story is told. At the beginning of the novel Nick is presented as being raised with solid values which make him “inclined to reserve all judgments” (p. 7). He is also someone who others feel comfortable confiding in and he is careful and tolerant. Nick also says of himself “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (p. 59). Throughout the novel we see Nick change and his ability to be completely honest is chipped away the further he is drawn into Gatsby’s and Daisy’s relationship and his relationship with Jordan. At the end of the novel, Nick realizes that even though he did enjoy the excitement of the New York life for a time it really is not for him and because of his Midwestern roots he is “inadaptable to Eastern life” (p. 167).

Passages:

1. “Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes-a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder (p. 171).”

This passage adds to the mood at the end of the story. The lights are dim and there is little activity. Nick is imaging what it would have been like for sailors discovering this land for the first time before there were homes. He is not thinking about the present or the future. He is looking into the past and to a time before the Island was spoiled. There is a feeling of sadness and a sense that Nick knows that what has happened since he met Gatsby has changed him forever. This helps wrap up the story up and finish it with reflections on the past.

2. "I wanted to get somebody for him. I wanted to go into the room where he lay and reassure him: "I’ll get somebody for you, Gatsby. Don’t worry. Just trust me and I'll get somebody for you–(p.156)."

The passage is appealing because it shows Nick's emotional side and that he really cared for his friend Gatsby. It is effective because we get a sense of how badly Nick feels that there is no one but himself there to mourn for his friend. It is clear that Nick is doing this not only out of duty, but because he actually cares that his friend is treated with respect. Nick is speaking to Gatsby in a way that would let him know that he was always on his side.

3. “There was music from my neighbours’ house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam (p. 41).”

This passage is effective because it adds to the sense that the activity at Gatsby's never stops day or night. The writing is simple, but very descriptive. It is easy to imagine the party guests moving around the grounds of the house at night under starry skies. The description of the motor-boats is graphic. The reader can picture the wake that the boats create and hear the hum of the engines and see people on boards being pulled across the water. The passage makes you think how much fun Gatsby allows his guests to have even though he might not join them.

Questions for the author:

Do you really think that people from the West can’t cope with the lifestyle of the East?

If Nick were to see Daisy again, what would he say to her and what would their relationship be like?