The Great Gatsby - Student Writing

Response by: Emma 8T

'Nick cannot be placed with Gatsby or the Buchanans. He stands alone and above them.' Discuss.

Nick Carraway is the story teller. Everything that happens throughout the book, we see through his eyes. Although the story is about Gatsby, we learn a lot about Nick. This is because, as he tells the story, we have to identify with the way he thinks, reasons, and understands. We learn about his different relationships with all the people around him, and we discover that, although Nick seems to be in a very involved position concerning what is going on, he is a character that doesn't fit.

Probably the major reason that Nick stands out, is that he is very different to the Buchanans and to Gatsby. Unlike him, they are rich and extravagant. He is a very ordinary man. The wealth and luxury of Gatsby and the Buchanans' way of life contrasts with the simplicity of Nick's life style. But further on in the book, we discover deeper differences between the characters, differences like their values. The Buchanans are selfish, superficial people, they value materialistic things like money, and they care about nothing much but themselves. Gatsby cares about Daisy and he is loyal to his dream, but he is a selfish person too. The reason he wants Daisy is to make his life better, happier. He doesn't value anything except Daisy. Nick instead values less materialistic things. He values honesty and respect in people, but there are no honest people in the book except for him. Nick actually says at one point;

'I am one of the few honest people I know.'

His honesty separates him from everyone else, because there are no other honest people.

Nick may seem more like Gatsby than the Buchanans because of the friendship they have, and because they are both 'good guys', but he is not. Gatsby is a fantastic, romantic dreamer, and Nick is a plain, down to earth person. He admires Gatsby greatly; his '...extraordinary gift for hope....' his '...romantic readiness...' and his '...heightened sensitivity to the promises of life...'. But he knows that he could never possess any of Gatsby's amazing qualities. He is not at all like either of the two sets of characters.

Being such a person; different to everyone else about him, he is never truly involved in any of the events that take place. At Gatsby's first party, Nick doesn't feel he really belongs. 'I felt purposeless and alone....'

At that party he stands apart from all other guests because he is '....one of the few guests actually invited...'.

Then at Myrtle's party, in New York, he is almost like an outsider looking in, and although he receives a lot of information from Catherine, Myrtle's sister, he is not a part of anything that is going on.

'I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled.....'

 

People like Nick attract others. Everyone confides in Nick. This is how his involvement in the story increases so steadily. When Jordan explains about Tom's affair with 'a woman in New York', Nick is irreversibly involved. Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan, Wolfsheim and many other characters share what they know with Nick. Gradually, these little bits of information build up to form his images of all the characters, which he then describes to us.

 

Although Nick starts off being detached from everything, he soon gets seriously involved in the whole story. In the end, Nick is at the heart of the catastrophe. But getting himself involved has not changed the fact that he stands alone. He is the only one who has changed after the whole scene. He has evolved, matured........he has gained wisdom. On his own, he undertakes the job of organising Gatsby's funeral, and in the end, he is the only one to attend it. He is the only one who stays loyal to Gatsby and returns some generosity to him. Generosity was a virtue which Gatsby had, and let everyone benefit from, but when he died, got none in return.

 

Throughout the book, Nick stands alone, and also above the other characters. He is good, loyal and respectful, and although all the others are in a higher social position, as a person, Nick is above them. He is a decent person and he takes into consideration people's feelings and never betrays them. Nick is more reasonable and sensible than Gatsby. Gatsby is actually a selfish man in a way; the reason he wanted Daisy was to better his life, to make himself happier. Nick is definitely above Gatsby and the Buchanans.

 

Nick could be suspected of twisting the story, manipulating it in some sort of way, maybe in favour of some characters. The structure of the novel places him above everyone, but still in contact with everyone, and enables him to tell the story. You could compare him to a puppeteer; standing above his puppets and deciding when and what his puppets shall say and do. But judging from his character, Nick is not the sort of person who would do this. He does not make quick judgments or give false impressions about anyone and although he may choose to reveal some things in a different order from which they happened, we do not believe him to be someone capable of manipulating the story.

'I am inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me.....'

Nick is at the heart of the story, yet his detached nature enables him to see things clearly. It is like autobiographies, they are never accurate because people see themselves in a distorted way. If any other character involved in the story had written it, it would surely be inaccurate, they are too much part of the story itself.

 

The fact that Nick is honest and non judgmental together with the fact that his is involved yet in another sense detached make Nick the perfect character to tell the story, and place him alone and above all the other characters. Emma Doherty 8T