Preview

Great Gatsby

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
411 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Great Gatsby
Summary:

In this opening chapter of the book, The Great Gatsby, they introduce the Narrator, Nick Carraway, along with other characters. Nick opens the book reminiscing about his past upbringings and lessons his family taught him. Nick then visits his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom. Daisy and Tom are very rich and Tom is very arrogant, obnoxious, racist, and seems a bit uneducated. Tom does not try to hide his love affairs, and Daisy tries to set up Nick and her child hood friend, Jordan. At the end of the chapter, Nick sees his neighbor Gatsby stretch his arms toward a green light/ darkness and mysteriously vanish.

Character:

The character I am focusing on in chapter one is Nick Carraway. To begin the book Nick says, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my head ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all of the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’” (Fitzgerald 1). This describes him very well because it shows that he is now a wise man and he is not quick to judge. It also shows that he is “down to earth” unlike his friends that are introduced later in the chapter. Not judging and being down to earth are his best qualities shown at this point in the book.

Nick is the Narrator of the book. Being first person, the narrator is usually untrustworthy. This case is one of the few times we can trust the first person narrator. Nick unlike past narrators we read, is not mentally unstable, immature, or young. In fact, the author adds details about Nick in his “young and vulnerable years” hinting that he is now older and wiser. Nick comes from at least a middle class family that teaches and believes in moral justice which helps the cause that Fitzgerald is trying to support, he is a reliable narrator. The first chapter is set up to introduce the Narrator Nick, to show us that he is a reliable narrator that we can

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    1. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the book? Why do you think Fitzgerald chose him to be the narrator?…

    • 5320 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various aspects of narrative to bring the story alive and help the reader become immersed in it. In the duration of the first few chapters the reader is introduced to each of the main characters needed for the story and by Chapter 4 almost all of the plotlines have been opened, ready to be explored. Nick is the first-person narrator, telling the story in retrospective and we continue to learn more information about his self-conscious attitude and the way he views particular situations as the novel progresses. The structure of the chapter helps to slow the pace of the novel and this helps to build excitement and tension as the reader is slowly told pieces of Gatsby’s story.…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fitzgerald made Nick Carraway the narrator of The Great Gatsby. By doing this he was able to successfully capture the essence of Gatsby, all of the other characters, and all of the events in the story from an outside view that is for the first time being experienced by Nick. This is important to the story because it helps the reader relate to Nick, the readers having never experienced a “Gatsby party” or meeting any of the characters, like Nick. Sharing first time experiences throughout the story connects readers even more to the book and narrator. Also, Fitzgerald makes Nick describe everything with lots of details, amazement, and other feelings that are true to those who experience new people and events that affect their lives. He truly persuades you into viewing everything through his eyes and opinions. In a summary of the question being asked Fitzgerald achieves a connection between the reader and Nick.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fitzgerald allows the reader to think that Nick isn’t part of the stereotypical young men living in West and East Egg. However this idea is shattered as Nick interprets people through their class throughout the novel. He is racist and a classist. An example of this is when he describes driving past a funeral procession for an African American man on the bridge with Gatsby; ‘three modish negroes…I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled towards us in haughty rivalry” this statement would have had Nick arrested for racism in present times but in the era of the novel it was perfectly acceptable. Fitzgerald presents Nick profound racism as an example of how even though modernism was overtaking most of America, and many Americans perceptions of race and status were changing, the people of the upper class were not going to change anytime soon. The reader feels let down at this point as we realize that although Nick is against the way Tom treats Daisy and tries to help her escape to a better life with Gatsby, he fails to see the audacity of Toms violence towards Myrtle. Tom’s beliefs mirror his old money stature. He expects to be able to do what he wants, for example have Myrtle as a mistress and have Daisy as a wife. However the moment he suspects Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship he decides to move Daisy away. Tom’s medieval approach to their relationship highlights just how different he was to the modernist era that was developing across…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one’, he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, differs from the other characters in the book. “ I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” (Fitzgerald 59). Nick is real, nonjudgemental, and innocent. Fitzgerald can easily relate to people…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Turning away from Daisy’s side and fully backing Gatsby, was the turning point of Nick’s embodiment of Gatsby. Towards the end of the story, Nick realizes that “a new point of view occurred to me” (Fitzgerald 144). It was Gatsby’s, and though it did not present itself to him until the end of the story, he has subconsciously been on Gatsby's side for far longer. “In many ways, Nick is an unreliable narrator” (Edwards). Nick likely embellished the story to seem as though he was more on Gatsby's side when, in reality, he was not. Yet, it is easy to understand, as Nick remained obsessed with impressing Gatsby, even two years after his death. In the switch from Daisy’s to Gatsby's side, a single encounter with Gatsby summed up Nick’s new feelings. Nick told Gatsby “‘They're a rotten crowd… You're worth the whole bunch put together’” (Fitzgerald 154). In this one sentence, Nick sold out all his other friends to claim Gatsby as his only friend. He received the reassurance he was hoping for when Gatsby's “face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time” (Fitzgerald 154). This was the pinnacle of Nick's summer; though all of his friends’ lives were jumbled, Nick’s goal to be accepted by Gatsby had been reached, and that was all that mattered to Nick. Even when Nick found himself “on Gatsby's side, and alone” (Fitzgerald 164), he was proud to say that he was the…

    • 1879 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the classic novel, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young man discovers concealed secrets from his neighbor, relatives, and close friends. At one point in the book, located on page fifty-five, Nick, the main character who is on a journey of mysteries, shows a fond interest in the peculiar acts of his neighbor Gatsby. Questions arise in Nick's mind. Why was such a popular man such a loner all at the same time? On this particular page, Nick questions these ideas. The passage reveals to the reader a sad sympathetic story behind the so-called "Great Gatsby" using tone, imagery, and diction giving the reader a more obsolete and clearer vision of Gatsby.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Gatsby, has many different sides of his character, which are shown in different parts throughout the novel. The reader understands him to be a very versatile man who feels emotion deeply, but doesn’t show it on the outside nearly as much as he should. Gatsby meets a man named Nick who moves in next to him and becomes the narrator of Gatsby’s great story. Nick helps the reader understand what is happening and conveys the judgmental tone and social stratified theme through his detailed descriptions of Gatsby’s character using diction, detail and syntax.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, the narrator Nick Carraway's loss of innocence and growing awareness is one of the significant themes. Nick moves to West Egg, Long Island, an affluent suburb of New York City, where millionaires and powerbrokers dominate the landscape, from his simple, idyllic Midwestern home. In his new home, he meets Jay Gatsby, the main character in the novel. Throughout the novel, Nick's involvement in Gatsby's affairs causes him to gradually lose his innocence and he eventually becomes a mature person. By learning about Gatsby's past and getting to know how Gatsby faces the past and the present, Nick finds out about the futility of escaping from the reality. Nick also learns how wealth can corrupt when he meets the upper class people. Nick is aware of Gatsby's pursuit of the American Dream and the destruction that the dream has brought Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, Nick's loss of innocence and growing awareness is demonstrated through Nick's realization of how the upper class people are, his recognition of Gatsby's failure in facing reality, and the destruction that the pursuit of the American Dream has brought Gatsby.…

    • 1456 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In summary, Fitzgerald beginning with Nick Carraway telling us about his father’s advice serves a purpose to establish Nick as a credible and objective narrator. Nick comes off as a very likeable person unlike the characters introduced to us through the first two chapters. East Eggers and Camelot courtiers may seem alike physically, but morally they could not be more…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though he is the narrator of the book he does not have too big of a role in the storyline. Fitzgerald chose a great way to tell the story by using Nick as an observer of the story and also taking place in it at times. Nick gives the readers a better view on the story. However, while Nick is a spectator, his role is needed. Nick begins his story with an important point; that he has no bias in the favor of Gatsby when he says, “Gatsby turned out all right at the end, and it was what preyed on Gatsby...” Later in the book he admits that he believes every man to be worthy of some virtue and that Gatsby’s is honesty. Fitzgerald starts the book by giving us Nick's thoughts on the summer that the story tells. About a half of page long explains how Nick's experience with Gatsby and Daisy has ended his curiosity in the "abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men." (Page…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nick Carraway. Nick is the protagonist of the story and everything is told through his eyes. He has a very estranged outlook on life and on how he sees himself, Nick states about himself “Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”(Fitzgerald 59). In this statement Nick seems to be a bit over exaggerating because there is a difference between simply not telling and being honest. We are also told in the text that “He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments”(Fitzgerald 1). This…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    great gatsby

    • 2142 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Can chasing an ideal blind us and prevent us from seeing the truth? Sometimes ideals can become such a big driving force in our life that they cause us to overlook the truth and ignore reality. Reality and ideals are contrasted through the goals in life of the characters Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy. Through contrasting ideals and the reality of a situation, F.Scott Fitzgerald suggests that chasing an ideal without recognizing the truth will not allow an individual to attain their goal because reality is needed to see the possibility of one’s dream.…

    • 2142 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Gatsby

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, a selfish and careless woman, is the person with whom Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is infatuated. When Gatsby first met her, she was a rich girl and he was just any other guy. To him, she was a goddess, and amazing woman he felt was above his standing. He was willing to do anything for her. Daisy is not capable of measuring up to Gatsby’s expectations.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Gatsby Exegesis

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Nick's unavailing attempts to become disengaged in the prattle of his intoxicated company, Fitzgerald uses imagery of the internal struggle of Nick ultimately to manifest the underlying endeavor that the American society was dealing with. Fitzgerald describes Nick's failure to become unattached from the group as a result of ropes, tying him down to his chair. In reality, Nick himself is the only ropes that are holding him down to the group. Unlike the rest of the town, Nick has the ability to look through the glamour of the aristocracy and understand that although these people had almost all the luxuries of life, they were rather naïve and impoverished in the riches of the ideals and values that should have existed in a town filled with such "sophisticated" people. Yet, Nick longs for acceptance from the aristocratic and wealthy groups of society even though he realizes that the wealthy were only wasting away in their greed and self-absorption. Rather than elude this tainted society, Nick attempts to satisfy and gain popularity from those in it. Nick describes himself as a bystander in the streets lurking in darkness casually watching those above him while also being in the group of these people that was being curiously watched by the bystander below. Fitzgerald portrays this struggle of Nick in a high-class society to express his own views and opinions of the society he lived in. While Fitzgerald lived in the 1920's, a time of an American dream of discovery…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays