What does it mean to reserve judgment completely? In The Great Gatsby, written by Scott Fitzgerald, Nick claims he waits to form an opinion until he fully knows them. The novel is set during the 1920s in New York. Nick Carroway and his new neighbor Jay Gatsby live in the West Egg. While Nick’s cousin Daisy and her husband Tom live in the East Egg, directly across from Gatsby. Gatsby tries to rekindle his and Daisy’s old relationship by trying to relive the past while Tom is out having an affair. Nick is a people watcher, he observes anyone and everyone and gets to know them before he feels inclined to make a judgment. To start, Nick reserves judgment in multiple situations but the first example is when he meets Gatsby and is at his party. Nick was the only person invited but at the party, he heard rumors about Gatsby …show more content…
Rumors that stated, “...he’s a bootlegger…” or that,”...he killed a man.” (pg 61). With this information, he could have easily judged Gatsby and viewed him differently. But he didn’t and waits until he knows him and then at the very end makes the decision that Gatsby is great. Nick wanted to have all the information he could have because he did not want to judge someone on something untrue. Moving forward, Nick reserves judgment again with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom. After Daisy killed Myrtle in Gatsby’s car and then found out Gatsby died she and her husband fled the city. With that information and everything else Nick had learned over time by being with them, Nick concluded that “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy-- they smashed up things” (pg 179). Nick did not make this judgment on them until after they came back. He had known the couple for a while before he came to this decision because he did not want to judge them until they came back and he had a conversation with the two. Nick was