How Does Nick Carraway S First Person Narration Impact On The Way Readers Understand Characters And Events In The Novel
“How does Nick Carraway’s first person narration impact on the way readers understand characters and events in the novel?”
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, the author presents to the reader the narrator of the story Nick Carraway. Carraway’s first person narration gives the reader an inside view to the characters that as a third person narrative the reader would normally not have. Nick’s personal relationship with each character makes him biased towards them all in some way. When the reader is first introduced to Daisy and Tom Buchanan at their home, he put the reader in a position to take in all the grandeur of the wealthy pair’s lifestyle. When Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle, his mistress Nick takes it shockingly in his stride, making the reader question his morality and whether he is socially pressured or not. Nick is also very biased towards Gatsby, Nick himself describes him as “gorgeous”, how is the reader to be trustworthy of someone who is a criminal? Nick himself says that “[he’s] inclined to reserve all judgments”, but he rebuts himself a few sentences down the page, which could make the reader judgmental of what he is saying.
Nick is the only character in the novel that would be best suited for that role. His relationship with everyone and his positioning in physical relevance and psychological relevance to each character also makes him the perfect voyeur to the other characters in the novel. But while driving down to their house in East Egg he describes them as “Two old friends whom [he] scarcely knew at all”. By this he inadvertently describes himself as not very reliable, and admits to the reader that he had “no sight into Daisy’s heart” someone who he had know for years. He romanticizes the scene that he walks into with Daisy and Jordan lazing on the couches while the curtains are blowing about. Both Jordan and Daisy are wearing white and the scene takes Nick aback. Nick has a clear liking to Daisy and describes her
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, the author presents to the reader the narrator of the story Nick Carraway. Carraway’s first person narration gives the reader an inside view to the characters that as a third person narrative the reader would normally not have. Nick’s personal relationship with each character makes him biased towards them all in some way. When the reader is first introduced to Daisy and Tom Buchanan at their home, he put the reader in a position to take in all the grandeur of the wealthy pair’s lifestyle. When Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle, his mistress Nick takes it shockingly in his stride, making the reader question his morality and whether he is socially pressured or not. Nick is also very biased towards Gatsby, Nick himself describes him as “gorgeous”, how is the reader to be trustworthy of someone who is a criminal? Nick himself says that “[he’s] inclined to reserve all judgments”, but he rebuts himself a few sentences down the page, which could make the reader judgmental of what he is saying.
Nick is the only character in the novel that would be best suited for that role. His relationship with everyone and his positioning in physical relevance and psychological relevance to each character also makes him the perfect voyeur to the other characters in the novel. But while driving down to their house in East Egg he describes them as “Two old friends whom [he] scarcely knew at all”. By this he inadvertently describes himself as not very reliable, and admits to the reader that he had “no sight into Daisy’s heart” someone who he had know for years. He romanticizes the scene that he walks into with Daisy and Jordan lazing on the couches while the curtains are blowing about. Both Jordan and Daisy are wearing white and the scene takes Nick aback. Nick has a clear liking to Daisy and describes her