He imagines Gatsby as what he wants himself to be- a wealthy, gregarious man who needs no other way to impress people because he is nearly famous. It is clearly understood that Nick has a desire to be a more socially active person which is why he invented Gatsby in the first
From this quote, the reader can see that Nick finds Gatsby to be a unique and once-in-a-lifetime type of person. This explains Gatsby’s uniqueness and Nick’s immense interest in Gatsby. As Nick continues describing Gatsby, he personifies his smile and mentions that it “understood you”,
Nick does not speak to Gatsby until chapter 3 and Nick didn’t really notice who he was speaking to when he first met Gatsby. At first glance at Gatsby, it seems like he is someone who is innocent and is also someone that seems charming. However, Nick has a negative perspective towards Gatsby: “Precisely at that point it vanished- and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” (Fitzgerald 48).
Despite the stories that went around about Gatsby, Nick looked past them to learn who he truly was. “He smiled understandingly… it was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced… the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself… I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (Fitzgerald, 49).
Nick oftentimes evaluates the happenings of the story, helping the readers understand to a greater detail of what happened. He also acts as someone to keep Gatsby in check, yet also support his ambitions. As many people confided in Nick, he had a larger perspective of what exactly was happening. Using this, he was able to offer an overarching view and opinion, and using this he conveyed a sort of “insider 's view” at everything that was taking place during the story.
“unaffected scorn” Gatsby has escaped the judgment of Nick. Nick still holds him highly. Hold disdain for the other members of society. • Diction- “unbroken series if successful gestures,” “gorgeous,” heightened sensitivity,” Gatsby has a genuine character which is an attractive
Significant quotes from “The Great Gatsby” “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, P. 35), this quote is effective, as being placed in the beginning of the book, it demonstrates that the narrator is not attached to either of the worlds that he is speaking about, thus, the reader knows that the narrator will stay objective throughout the book. This technique stands true for the fist chapters of “The Great Gatsby”, where Fitzgerald, by multiple lines, shows that the narrator is trustworthy. This particular quote shows that Nick likes to observe different lives and reserve his judgments, as if he wanted to collect “the inexhaustible variety of lives” in his mind and then process them later.
Towards the end of the novel, Nick really confirms his stand with Gatsby and his dreams instead of the snobbish ultra wealthy which demonstrates how readers should do the same. Nick begins to foster “a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and [himself] against them all” which shows how although Gatsby isn’t perfect he is much better than the likes of Tom and Daisy (Fitzgerald 165). Nick’s feeling of “defiance” shows how strong this feeling is as he isn’t just advocating for Gatsby, he is standing up “against” the ultra wealthy. Nick feels a “solidarity” because he is united with Gatsby for his work against the shallow ultra wealthy, work which was done through his dream and pursuit of that dream. And while this solidarity
’”(48) This gives off the impression that he thinks Gatsby is a fine man, one of the better even. Most of the characters seem to have a weird relationship or opinion about him, whereas this line gives a sense of comfort, provoking the thought that Gatsby is a good man. If Nick were not the narrator, we wouldn’t have gotten this inside opinion. If Gatsby had been narrating and we heard things about him being a fine man it would be harder to believe considering people tend to talk highly of
Throughout the book, Nick seems to be Gatsby’s superego, as he gives him many warnings and judgements in an attempt that what seems like to teach Gatsby how to behave properly. As Nick says, “…Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.” (2). Fitzgerald comes right out and says this and more at the beginning of the book, almost as if to clearly explain the reader that Nick is a very good judge of people and is a near-perfect narrator to this story.
This passage is taken from the first chapter of the classic novel The Great Gatsby. During this part of the novel Daisy Buchanan is talking to Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway about when her daughter was being born. She discovers that her baby is a girl and states that she “hope(s) she’ll be a fool” because “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world.” This quote shows how Daisy perceives what it is like to be a girl during the 20s. Although this quote does not relate directly to the themes presented within the novel, it is significant because it gives insight for the reader towards who Daisy is as a character.
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.
Throughout the novel, Gatsby is regarded as a self-made gentleman who doesn’t drink at his own parties due to his morals. However in this passage, through the descriptions and reflections of Nick the reader discovers how Daisy’s love had corrupted his morals. Before coming to the East, Gatsby’s aspiration was to achieve the American Dream but in this passage we discover the fact after his love with Daisy, all he ever wanted was to win Daisy as if she was an award of excellence. He keeps trying blindly as “he did not know that is was already behind him, somewhere in that vast obscurity beyond the city”. This quote supports the claim as Gatsby is being ignorant to the truth as he is not willing comprehend the fact that he could not accomplish his only goal in life.
In the last passage of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the reader gains insight into Gatsby’s life through the reflections of Nick Carraway. These reflections provide a summary of Gatsby’s life and also parallel the main themes in the novel. Through Fitzgerald’s use of diction and descriptions, he criticizes the American dream for transformation of new world America from an untainted frontier to a corrupted industrialized society. In the novel, Fitzgerald never mentions the phase “American Dream,” however the idea is significant to the story.
