How Does Nick Carraway Change Throughout The Great Gatsby

Both narrator and active participant, Nick Carraway is the character that shows us the world of The Great Gatsby. Although we are introduced to a hopeful young man, as we begin to see the high society of New York for what it is, and as the city and it’s life are revealed to the reader, the change in Nick became more and more obvious as the novel goes on. Though he is not the main character, he is the only one that has substantial change from our first introduction, till the end. In a city that so notoriously loved things in excess, and was full of people that were nothing but self-serving, he found a friend in Jay Gatsby. The death of Gatsby was the suffering that it took for Nick to really look at the world that everyone around him was living

From his first description of Tom Buchanan, it is obvious that Nick does not like him, describing him as being in search of the great feeling he once had in his youth, as the big man on campus. By the end of it, he speaks of the Buchanan’s as dear friends he barely knows, which really shows how superficial the relationship is between them. He doesn’t know a true friend, till he meets Gatsby, only then does he see someone that he believes to be truly good, someone who seems to be the most hopeful person. As his friendship with Gatsby grows, you begin to see him growing, rather than having to shrink around someone like Tom, so he could feel like the big man on campus once

Though the mood in the Buchanan house was tense, it only grows worse as they are in the car, “We were all irritable now with the fading ale and, aware of it […]” (Fitzgerald, 130) this shows that they were getting more and more aware of the situation, which made Nick and Jordan uncomfortable which irritated Tom. Along with their growing irritability, the weather mimics the events about to unfold; the heat is stifling and suffocating, much like the tension in the group. Through the exchange between Tom and Gatsby, Nick sees in full action how a man of Tom’s social standing feels no remorse cutting down his opponent, it is as if he has found another way to make himself feel like the alpha male. With Tom’s cutting words, Daisy’s fleeting behavior, and Jordan’s decision to stick around the Buchanan’s, Nick had come to find himself repulsed by them all, “They’re a rotten crowd, [...] You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald, 164). His parting words to Gatsby, were also his words of enlightenment, insight only deepened by how those that frequented his parties turned their backs on them. “After Gatsby’s death, the East was haunted for me” (Fitzgerald, 188), he suffered through the death of the only real friend he knew, to finally realize how toxic the social scene of New York was, with the rich only caring about