Confidante In The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, there is no question that Jay Gatsby, West-Egg nouveau riche and mysterious host of frequent, extravagant parties, is wealthy; nevertheless, few of his guests understand how he became so. Preoccupied with the festivities, other newly-rich party-goers neither know much about their host nor appear interested in finding out. Nick’s sincere request to meet the man who sent him the invitation is met by amused replies that Gatsby does not exist. In large part, this statement is true; for Gatsby hardly exists beyond his guest’s fantasized perceptions of him. Because of Jay Gatsby’s ambiguous past, Rumors prevail as a common theme of conversation among Gatsby’s guests, as they speculate how he acquired such material wealth. Almost everyone seems to have their own gossip about Gatsby. Catherine assumes he is a relative of the German Kaiser Wilhelm, while Lucile believes he operated

Nick is the only character in the story who Gatsby formally converses regarding his rumors. He explains to Nick that he does not “want [him] to get the wrong idea…from all these stories [he] hear[s],” so Gatsby certainly is not apathetic to public opinion. During this exchange, however, Gatsby never indisputably confirms or denies such rumors, only presenting allegedly valid evidence of his past in the form of pictures. From Gatsby’s exchanges with Carraway, readers are able to better understand Gatsby’s point of view when it comes to what is being said about him. Besides Daisy and Gatsby, Nick is the only other character in the story who knows the truth about Myrtle’s death. Because the novel is told from Nick’s own perspective, readers are not only able to view the full picture behind the rumors surrounding Gatsby, but also able to see the truth behind these rumors from the eyes of Nick