Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story. He is Gatsby’s neighbor in West Egg, New York, he is also the cousin of Daisy Buchanan. Nick works as a bond salesman in New York and he went to Yale University. Throughout the book Nick becomes good friends with Gatsby and helps him try to win back Daisy.
“I am inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”- Chapter One
Nick is nice and quiet, he doesn’t care who the person is or what others are saying about them, he will make his own judgments about them after he has spoken to them. He will start to talk to someone but he will let them do all of the talking and he will just listen. He is passive.
“When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. “ – Chapter One
Nick is saying that he wants everyone to not think they are a moral person whilst doing something that others think is wrong. It shows that Nick is caring as he doesn’t want others to get hurt by someone elses actions.
“…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.”- Chapter One.
Nick is again being passive as Tom is moving Nick forcefully from one room of is house to the other.
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Chapter Two
Nick is amazed about the party but he is disgusted at the sight if Tom cheating on Daisy with Myrtle.
“Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” – Chapter Three
Nick was dedicated to his job and he was starting to make friends at his work, he also like to fool around with girls outside of work and by this stage he is becoming less passive compared to when he first moved to New York.
“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”– Chapter Three
After Nick meets the people from his neighbourhood such as Gatsby, Tom, Daisy etc he thinks that he is nothing like them. They lie all of the time and Nick believes that he is the only person that is honest out of all of them.
“They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”- Chapter Eight
What Nick meant by the complement that he gave Gatsby was that he was disgusted by the others in the story and he thought Gatsby was a better person then all of them. Nick is unreliable and he doesn’t hold the same morals for different people.
“I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.”- Chapter Nine
Gatsby became delusional after Daisy said that she wanted to stay with Tom and as Nick was talking to him he thought that Gatsby was acting like a child. This still shows that Nick is a nice person as he is comforting Gatsby in a very tough time for him. Nick thought that Gatsby was being childish so to bring back the maturity pf the situation he shook his hand.
“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” –Chapter Nine
Nick was thinking about his summer in New York and how weird it was. It is unknown to him as it was very unusual compared to his normal life.
Nick changes a lot throughout the story. At the start he seemed to be very quiet and not very confident to speak out his mind. By the end of the novel Nick had changed into someone who is confident and is nit afraid to say what is on his mind. A cause for this change may have been because of the unusual situations that he got into with Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and the others. He had gotten into the middle of a fight for Daisy’s love and he obviously was not enjoying it.
Recent Comments