What is Nick Carraway’s big secret?
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the relationship between the head characters Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. These two men develop a special friendship throughout the novel and despite it taking place during the 1920s the relationship gives both parts a significant meaning in life, especially for Nick. The development of the friendship is an obvious contribution to Nick’s odd change of behavior, are they just friends or does Nick have another intention with Gatsby? What specific quotes and actions can prove that Nick Carraway might be homosexual? Are the bi characters of the novel secretly inviting the reader to reveal Nick’s big secret?
As mentioned in the first paragraph one of
…show more content…
Spering refers to Nick’s description of Tom Buchanan as an important piece of evidence due to the strange way of describing a friend. Nick describes Tom as a very handsome and well-built man, but the way that he describes him sounds as mentioned before very suspicious. Despite them being close friends, the description can be seen as a sexual description of Tom instead of a friendly one.
Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body – he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage – a cruel body.
(F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
…show more content…
All the sentences, quotes, and motivations speak for a complex picture of Nick’s sexuality. The very first sentence of the novel reveals quite a lot about Nick, but the problem is that no one knows what the advice was about. But with further analysis of the novel the reader begins to understand what the advice was about and for that reason the conclusion about Nick’s sexuality can be made, he must be homosexual. The excerpts about Nick’s time with Mr. McKee also speaks for the complexity of his sexuality. Every single situation they are in is described as very odd which based on their behavior and actions. Why Nick might describe the actions and behaviors in a way that seems normal is because of the denial he lives in but also to not expose his mental illness as he calls