Nick Carraway is a 29-year-old from Minnesota who spends the summer of 1922 living in a small house next to Gatsby. Nick is the narrator for our story, and everything is told from his point of view. He is a good narrator as he apparently reserves all judgments, and tells the story with no bias.
“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 From this quote, we can see that because Nick ‘reserves all judgements’ he learns many exciting things, and many boring things as people see him as someone to talk to. Because people see him as someone they can trust, he hears many stories, some boring and some more interesting.
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. “ When Nick returned from his adventures in New York with Gatsby he wanted a much quieter life than what he experienced in East and West egg. He didn’t particularly enjoy the constant parties and crazy shenanigans.
“…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.” This Quote reinforces the fact that Nick is more of a submissive character that is sometimes being pushed around and in this case the much stronger more powerful man Tom is doing just that.
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” Nick both enjoyed and was disgusted by some of the antics that occured in the upper class, and sees himself drifting between the two. He is enchanted by some of the wealthy lifestyle, but is also repelled from it.
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…” This quote contradicts the notion that Nick is an honest person as he states he had a short affair, but it seems to have stopped after receiving “mean looks” from her brother, and returning to his normal ‘honest’ life.
“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” This quote supports that Nick still thinks he is one of the few honest people he has ever known, which may not be entirely true as he is states in the beginning of the book that he will reserve all judgements, but as we see later, he certainly does judge the other characters.
“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.” Nick tells Gatsby this near the end of the book, and it shows how Nick has been the closest thing to a friend Gatsby has had since Dan Cody years ago. Nick says that everyone involved in the story was a “rotten crowd” as they are all powerful individuals who can do what they want and get away with it. However Nick still values Gatsby higher than the others as he believes he still had good intentions just didnt always have good actions.
I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.” In this quote Nick sees Tom as an immature child who makes rash decisions, which contradicts the statement he made earlier that he would reserve all judgements. Nick thinks
“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” In this quote Nick is reflecting on the big contrast from his old life which is almost unknown now, to what has happened over the summer as its extremely different. Nick sees how he has changed from the beggining of the book, and how he has changed since the “old unknown world” he used to live in.
At the start of The Great Gatsby, Nick was a seemingly innocent non-judgemental person, but as time progressed, and he spent more time with the upper class, he became more judgemental and less submissive, sometimes voicing his opinion rather than keeping them to himself like he used to do. Nick experienced many firsts over the summer and changed his perspective on life and society, which led him to the man he was at the end of the novel. Nick was sort of molded into this new person after the events that occured, and had to leave to remember and embrace again his roots and values he came with.
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