1. Nick Carraway is a 29 year old Yale graduate from Minnesota, who spends the summer of 1922 living in a bungalow beside Jay Gatsby. He acts as the narrator of the story, Nick is a fitting narrater because he is acquainted with all the main characters in the story and is a likeable person.
“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.” – Nick being a person who is nonjudgemental gets people telling him things because they believe he will not judge them on what they say. This means Nick has to put up with many unwanted conversations. Nick being not quick to judge and inclined to keep his opinion of people to himself makes him a good person to narrate the story.
“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 to the midwest after the summer he wanted things to be uniform because of the amount of riotous parties, people and places he had come to know. Nick wanted to return to being a simple man with a simple life.
“…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 shows how Nick is being moved around by a force out of his control and much more powerful than himself, he felt like one checker on a much bigger game, in no control of himself or very much around him.
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Nick witnesses the unforgiving life that the upper class live, he feels as if he is a part of the situation as well as being an observer from afar. He sees part of the lifestyle that he enjoys and is enchanted by but then also the cheating, horrible nature of the people he was with, which repelled him.
“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 starts to show how Nick maybe is not the honest man he claims to be as he is having an affair with a women, but then as soon as the brother of the women throws him looks he cuts it and returns to being the ‘honest’ man he so strongly believes he is.
“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” – Shown in this quote, yet again Nick thinks of himself as this man who never lie and is always truthful. Nick states at the start of the book that he is not judgemental but the story is based on his judgements and he does not shy away from being very harsh.
“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.” – When Nick said this it really proved to Gatsby that Nick was a true friend of his and Nick wanted Gatsby to feel that way. This quote also shows how Nick is judging all the other characters by comparing them to Gatsby.
“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 speaks of Tom as a child, Nick is again being judgemental and not holding back on sharing his opinion. It also shows how Nick does not think Tom would understand the situation.
“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” – Nick is thinking deeply about how his world has changed over the course of the summer. Nick’s deep thinking nature proves to the reader that he doesn’t just take things as they look, he thinks on a deeper level about things.
At the beginning of the novel Nick is a nonjudgemental honest person, but as he spent more time on the east coast he becomes more upfront about his opinions and judgements. Nick experienced a lot of riotous things happening over his Summer and this impacted him turning him into the man he is at the end of the novel
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