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How Did Nick Carraway Achieve In The Great Gatsby

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Meaningless Pursuites
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is a man who, like many in the 1920s, is searching for meaning and purpose in life. Nick leaves his hometown in the Midwest and moves to New York City, hoping to immerse himself in the glamorous world of the wealthy elite. It is there that he meets the charismatic figure Jay Gatsby, who embodies Nick's desires and aspirations for love and wealth. In this essay, we will explore Nick Carraway's dream of finding meaning and purpose in life, how he achieved that dream, and what the author was trying to communicate through Nick's pursuit of his dream. Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, pursues his dream of finding meaning and purpose in life by moving …show more content…

He decides to return to his hometown in the Midwest, recognizing that the true meaning and purpose in life lie in more simple and authentic experiences. For example, Nick realizes that this meaningless mission has destroyed the natural beauty and wonder of the land around him, "I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." (Fitzgerald 182) He recognizes that he has become caught up in this pursuit, but that it ultimately leads to emptiness and a loss of meaning. This realization is a key turning point for Nick's character and sets him on a path of self-reflection and contemplation. Additionally, Nick realizes that the extravagant and artificial lifestyle of the East, centered around wealth and status, is ultimately hollow and unfulfilling and decides to return to his hometown in the Midwest. "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all - Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life." (Fitzgerald 177) In contrast, he sees the Midwest as a place of authenticity and simplicity, where people lead meaningful lives based on genuine connections and relationships. This realization marks a significant shift in Nick's perspective and values and signals his rejection of the superficial and empty world

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A young man named Nick Carraway who is immensely impressionable and taken advantage of narrates the Great Gatsby. Throughout the book, you learn that Nick is a follower. Nick follows Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby around like a lost dog. He is obviously obliviously impressionable and lost within himself. For Nicholas to improve himself and his lifestyle he should do all of the following things: make boundaries, build his self-confidence and esteem, find out who his real friends are, and not let other people take advantage of him.

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Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, although the title of the story bears the name of Gatsby, we hear the story from Nick Carraway, making him the most important character in the story, through his growth, his beliefs and opinions, and his relationships. F. Scott Fitzgerald puts Nick Carraway in the center of the story, rather than Gatsby, through Nick’s narration of the story. Nick grows to understand the people around him more, and grows in his narration. Because he is constantly around people, he comes to understand them more and he comes to ‘mature’ over the course of the story. When we first are introduced to Nick, we see some advice that he got from his father a long time ago.

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Nick seems not to be oblivious to his sadness, although he lacks knowledge about the cause of the emotion, for he admits that dinner alone at the Yale Club is, “for some reason [,]…the gloomiest event of [his] day” (62). After dinner, Nick studies in the library, which he considers a quiet and “good place to work”, although he does mention that “there generally a few rioters”, which contradict Nick’s purpose for studying there, because if Nick really didn’t want to be disturbed he would go home (62). After studying for about an hour, “if the night [is] mellow” Nick restlessly “strolls around” the avenues and although among many, he still “[feels] a haunting loneliness” and can “[feel] it in others”(62). However, Fitzgerald relates Nick’s loneliness to that of “young clerks”, who “wast[e] the most poignant moments of night and life” “loitering” and waiting around for people to come and provide work for them, which parallels Nick’s own method of wasting time and waiting for people to provide him with something to

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Fitzgerald writes, “After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction” (188). He uses negative connotated diction such as the words “haunted” and “distorted”. Nick reflects over his experience in the East, feeling a sense of despair and sorrow as a result of the events and his interactions with the cast of characters. By choosing to pursue the American Dream, he ultimately got entangled with the other characters and unfortunately Gatsby. With Gatsby’s demise, the American Dream perished along with him, eliminating the possibility of happiness and success for everyone who was involved with him.

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Nick’s American Dream was the opposite of Gatsby’s; he always strived to see and do new things every day, constantly reaching for the future, while Gatsby only wanted to relive his past with Daisy. Once Nick feels like there is nothing left for him to discover in New York, he moves back west to rediscover the lost excitement after Gatsby’s death. Nick also believed that Gatsby was foolish in his American Dream because it was unattainable. Nick uses imagery to illustrate the appeal of West Egg before Gatsby’s death, describing the illusions of “those gleaming, dazzling parties”, stating that he could “still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant” (Fitzgerald 179).

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The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald shows the depths that wealth and passion goes to in lives that follow the American Dream. Nick Carraway, our narrator of the book, speaks to the main character, Jay Gatsby, as if he lives everyone's dream with all of the wealth he has. However this “dream” that America symbolizes, becomes unobtainable U.S citizens. Though some find the American Dream attainable with hope, wealth and love puts a halt to the American Dream. The Great Gatsby shows the hope that the characters have for their American Dream.

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