Nick Carraway Archetype In The Great Gatsby

A Transparent Eye Have you ever felt like a transparent eye, separate from society and yet still there to observe its happenings? In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator, Nick Carraway, experiences this very feeling. Although not a major player in the plot line, he is a major observer and because of his position in the story he is the best character to tell it. As a “transparent eye” Nick Carraway is a classic example of the archetype of an outsider because of his social class, his morality, and his position as a third person narrator In this novel all the key characters are either rich or famous, Nick however, is of the working class and living in a small house among the millionaires; he is out of his setting.

However, growing up he wasn’t disadvantaged, he was well-off and able to experience many things, but much unlike the people of his present life, he doesn’t take this wealth or experiences for granted. In the beginning of the novel he recalls something his father had said, “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had’”(3). His morality stemmed from the statement that his father left with him. His father meant for him to not judge people by their social situations, as well as accept everyone for who they are. This differs greatly to the characters of this novel. Everyone, besides Nick, had a completely different view; Make money and live with as much material goods as humanly possible. The reader begins to see this when Nick begins to describe the immenseness of Gatsby’s house, “We went up-stairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and pool rooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths—intruding into one chamber where a dishevelled man in pajamas was doing liver exercises on the floor”(98). Gatsby’s goal in life was to become wealthy and famous; he bought a big house and filled with as many things and people as possible to fill the whole that Daisy had left. Instead of going out in the world and getting her, which he eventually does, he stays in his mansion surrounded by all the money and material goods he could possibly buy. Nick on the other hand has always dreamed of a typical life, never wanting to much, always suffice with who he was and what he had, trying his best to be the best he can to the people around him. Because of this difference Nick is