Nick Carraway In The Great Gatsby's The Outsider

Throughout The Great Gatsby readers only receive the limited first person point of view from Nick Carraway, the narrator. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Nick’s character in order to influence the reader’s interpretation and perspective of the novel; it also affects how the reader is positioned to respond to other characters in the novel. The reader, as only receiving Nicks review of other characters, has to believe that this is indeed what these characters are like and must accept that Nick is correct when it comes to judgments of events. Although Gatsby’s name is in the title it can be seen that Nick is by far the utmost interesting character and unlike most of the other characters throughout the novel Nicks character changes immensely.

Nick as demonstrated in the novel, moved East in order to work in the bond business in New York City. He gives some background into his family life as he even starts The Great Gatsby with some advice his father told him ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all
This allows the reader to question whether or not there are links between Nick being an outsider and Meursault in The Outsider. Both Nick and Meursault seem to be detached and simply view and describe what occurs around them from a removed position. Both characters also seem to have a love interest with in the book, Meursault having Marie and Nick having Jordan Baker. Although there are still some differences between the two, Nick is socially accepted, and is more engaged with his own beliefs and views than Meursault. Both Meursault and Nick are outsiders due to the different personalities they have compared to others in the novels. Although there are similarities and links both characters do have various characteristics that position the reader to feel differently about each