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The Greaty Gatsby

Essay by   •  July 12, 2012  •  Essay  •  574 Words (3 Pages)  •  1,222 Views

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Nick Caraway has a personality that brought forward all those secrets and unspoken words from the other characters to him. In the beginning of the chapter, Nick mentioned that he was "inclined to reserve all judgment", meaning that he could take in all those judgment that were made by people around him with tolerance. He claimed himself to be "one of the few honest people" in his world. Even though he seemed to be exaggerating his remark about himself, his personality, an aspect of his character, did actually help him get all the secrets and information and made him an effective narrator.

In the Great Gatsby, no one seemed to hate Nick; most of them trusted him. Gatsby trusted Nick and told him about his past and his dream of getting Daisy back and "fix everything just the way it was before". Jordan told Nick that "Tom's got some woman in New York", and Tom showed him Myrtle, his mistress without any doubts about whether he would spread the truth around or not. Nick's personality definitely made him seemed honest and reliable.

Nick, the narrator has distant and close relationships with all the other characters in the story. As mentioned by him; "Daisy was my second cousin once removed", "I'd known Tom in college", and "This Mr. Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbor". Jordan was his "girlfriend" later on in the story. Knowing Gatsby linked Nick Carraway to the mentioning of Wolfsheim. Gatsby was his neighbor, so he lived fairly close to him and definitely knew him better than the other characters. His relationships with the other characters definitely made him a reliable narrator.

Every time Nick had made a point, he would either foreshadow the reason or back it up with the exact words that he heard about. Nick first mentioned that Jordan moved her ball from a bad lie in the semifinal round then stated that "she was incurably dishonest". Nick told us that Daisy wasn't happy about Gatsby's party and seemed "appalled by West Egg". His remarks were then back-up by Tom's quote:" Did you notice Daisy's face when that girl asked her to put her under a cold shower?" and Daisy's sudden words of "They simply force their way in and he's too polite to object."Nick's way of being not judgmental, which allows readers to judge the story themselves, reflected his role of being both a reliable and an effective narrator.

However, Nick Carraway's alcoholic issues made him seem less reliable. In chapter two, the narrator mentioned that "I've been drunk just twice in my life, and the second was that afternoon". That afternoon was when Nick went up to Myrtle and Tom's apartment. Being drunk definitely could add to the account that Nick's descriptions and his views were unreliable. Since he had only been drinking

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