Here, Nick's descriptions of the Gatsby's smile reveals how this smile allows him to build an outsider persona and is different from his inside persona. 2. "I was able to do the commissioner a favor once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year." (p.68/3) This quotation simply explains a further understanding of Gatsby's inner life, where he has connections with people in authorities like the commissioner.
Nick’s impression of Gatsby
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick’s extravagant description and fascination of Gatsby shows his curiosity of Gatsby’s mysterious character. This is seen in the first actual description of Gatsby’s character on pages 48 and 49. The first detail that Nick points out about Gatsby in this passage is his smile. Nick uses a great amount of descriptive words to describe Gatsby’s smile. He starts off his lengthy description by saying that Gatsby’s smile is one of those “rare smiles” that “you may come across four or five times in life” (48).
“Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over” (fitzgerald 7). The next character Nick described was Gatsby. Nick favors Gatsby the most out of all the characters. Nick describes Gatsby’s smile for a long time.
Nick is saying the smile would understand you and reassure you. It is all about how the smile makes you feel and not about how it affects Nick because he seems to be unfazed by Gatsby’s smile. Fitzgerald uses parallelism and repetition to emphasize the point that the smile does not affect Nick himself. The
According to www.psychologytoday.com, physical looks, charm, and wealth are features that make a man attractive. All of these components of attractiveness were possessed by Gatsby. “He smiled understandingly --- much more understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal resistance in it, that you may come across four or five times in your life” (Fitzgerald 48). This is the narrator, Nick, explaining how Gatsby’s smile is an extremely charming physical feature.
In the story, “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays an idea that Nick’s personality is being changed throughout the story along with his emotional state by the rich and powerful people he is around. The progression of Nick throughout the story shows a man who wanted to live a simple life at home but then turns quickly into a person who he himself couldn't recognize. In the beginning, the story begins through the eyes of Nick. It’s describing how he lives in West Egg in a small house in New Jersey. He is surrounded by rich people in mansions with one of them being an old friend that he went to Yale with who lives across the bay.
Nick describes meeting Gatsby for the first time at one of his parties and one thing that strikes him is Gatsby’s smile. The smile is personified in that it is said to concentrate on the one it is directed at and have prejudices. Fitzgerald may be characterizing Nick with this smile. Nick may see what he wants to see in the smile. Having recently moved to West Egg to try his hand in the bond business, Nick may be in search of the understanding, assurance, and support that the smile is providing.
At first glance, Nick described his smile as, “...one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.” (Fitzgerald 48). He feels that his smile feels safe and welcoming. He thinks that Gatsby is someone he would want to be around.
The last few pages of the novel focus on Nick’s view of Gatsby’s life and the way that his dream with Daisy has ultimately failed. It’s a powerful and emotional moment that uses symbolism and imagery. It reminds us of the fragility of life and the importance of pursuing dreams when they seem impossible. Nick’s attitude in this passage shows pity and admiration toward Gatsby. “Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left– the grass on his lawn had grown as long as mine”(179).
Sacrificing everything he once knew, he ventures into the unknown and becomes an unconscious version of himself. For Nick Carraway, this is when he meets Jay Gatsby, a man with the power to alter his life forever. Immediately, Nick is affected by the man’s smile, “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it.” (Fitzgerald 53) This moment signifies Nick’s passage into the unknown, into the corrupt world of materialism.
Nick describes his smile as “...one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life…” (The Great Gatsby, 73). It all starts with Gatsby’s smile. The smile immediately draws Nick in and that’s when he first begins to wear a set of rose colored glasses. “‘They 're a rotten crowd,’”
Gatsby throws a large extravagant party with many guests including Nick who was invited. As Nick observes everyone and the party he notices "Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes"(50). Gatsby throws a huge party every week that he probably puts a lot of money into. This image of Gatsby watching as everyone is having fun symbolizes Gatsby's unhappiness. He can't even enjoy his own parties because he believes Daisy will just walk in
This relationship was fascinating in terms of its state, it was brotherly in some instances, fatherly in others but overall it possessed a romantic and breathless characteristic of hope. This is evident as we witness Nick’s immediate curiosity and admiration for Gatsby. Nick’s fascination began at the start of the novel as he wonders, “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him (Gatsby)”. (Fitzgerald 3). Gatsby made Nick feel hopeful and magnificent, this kind of hope was romantic and orgasmic in a sense, because of the way in which he
In the story "The Great Gatsby" Nick has a favorable opinion of Jay Gatsby. In the first chapter of the book Nick states "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction- Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. " The book gives many examples of Nick thinking of Gatsby as the "Great" such as Gatsby 's smile, what Gatsby was willing to do for Daisy, and what Gatsby did for himself.
