F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless classic The Great Gatsby gives readers a look at 1920s America through Nick Carraway’s narration of the events following his move into the West Egg village of Long Island, New York. Nick chronicles the occurrences that happen amongst specific members of the American bourgeois - his second cousin (once removed) Daisy Buchanan, Daisy’s husband Tom Buchanan, and Daisy’s best friend Jordan Baker and a member of the “new rich” Jay Gatsby.
Nick Carraway is a reflective Midwesterner who travels to New York to partake in the bond business. He comes from a prominent family that descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch. A graduate of Yale University, Nick Carraway is certainly a member of the upper class. However, although born and raised in the American bourgeois, Nick Carraway experiences alienation from the rest of the American society. Alienation is defined as the separation of a person from an object or position of former attachment. This is present in The Great Gatsby, particularly in the character of the narrator Nick Carraway. Alienation experienced by Nick Carraway can be seen as social isolation which is also known as segregation from one’s community and social alienation as a returning war veteran since Nick served during the Great War.
At the beginning of the novel, important text is presented to the reader which reveals the disposition of the narrator Nick Carraway.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice