Examples Of Eyewitness In The Great Gatsby

Eyewitness testimonies in a court of law provide the most substantial evidence in a case; however, once that eyewitness’ credibility comes into question, the evidence he supplies also becomes unreliable. This is evident in The Great Gatsby, for the author writes the story in Nick Carraway’s narrative point of view and, thus, makes Nick the eyewitness to the events that unfold in the story. His perspective is naturally biased towards his own preferences as a human being, yet he manages to incorporate multiple viewpoints on conflicts in the story. Nick’s reliability as the narrator affects the reader’s understanding of events in The Great Gatsby because he is more favorable to Gatsby than any other character; moreover, Nick speaks of Daisy in a more flattering light than any other female character and he

For instance, Nick believes that “only” Gatsby “represented everything for which [he had] an unaffected scorn,” thus demonstrating bias towards Gatsby’s character as Nick judges every other character (2). The reader is then subject to only seeing the bright side of Gatsby rather than any negative action that would hamper Gatsby’s image. There are some instances where Gatsby displays unethical characteristics, yet Nick ignores them and only reinforces Gatsby’s excellence. For example, when Nick questions why Meyer Wolfsheim is not in jail for being the “‘man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919,’” Gatsby states that “‘he’s a smart man’” as if Gatsby admires the work of a criminal (73). However, Nick does not question Gatsby’s unethical opinion nor draw attention to Gatsby’s own illegal involvement in “service[s] to be rendered,” thus giving the reader a more favorable impression of Gatsby (83). Altogether, the reader only sees the positives of Gatsby and, therefore, favor him as a character who is just searching for