How Does Carraway Create Tension In Chapter Three In The Great Gatsby

Towards the end of chapter three in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway explains his daily routine, sharing that he spends most of his time at work, and after hours he studies followed by wonders the streets alone at night with nothing to do. Fitzgerald highlights the conflict between Nick’s desire for friendship and his complete inaction to apply effort into gaining a companion.
In this section, Fitzgerald portrays Nick as excited about having friends at work, although the lack of details about Nick’s work friends imply that Nick doesn’t care about who they are, only that he has an interaction with someone and that the interaction takes little effort. The first thing Nick mentions about his job is that he “[knows] clerks and young bond-salesmen by their first names”, although he gives no real description of his co-workers, instead he goes on to add that he has “lunched with them in dark crowded restaurants” (61). Nick’s apparent excitement about his simple and generally common interactions with co-workers lends the idea that he isn’t often in the

While wandering about Nick reviles that he has an eager for companionship, for he picks out people from the crowd and “imagine[s] that in a few minutes [he] was going to enter into their lives” (62). Not only does Nick think of initiating social interaction with someone as something only to daydream about he’s intrigued by people not “know[ing] or disapprov[ing]” of his actions (62). Nick continues, admitting that he envisions himself “follow[ing] them to their apartments”, entering into the “warm darkness” of their homes after being invited in with a smile tossed over one shoulder (62). Nick’s fantasy isn’t overtly of sexual nature, many aspects of it relate to having somewhere to go where he is wanted and