Good Qualities
Honesty
Nick openly discusses his honesty. In the beginning of the novel he tells the audience that he reserves judgement and that he is trustworthy. Later on he adds that he is the most honest person he knows. He is also honest to himself and tells Jordan that he is "five years too old to lie to [himself] and call it honour" (177). Impartiality Nick's impartiality allows the characters in the novel to be open with him which is a good quality for a narrator because he has their confidence, “Listen, Nick; let me tell you what was said when she was born. Would you like to hear?” This proves that he is the ideal listener. Open-minded "We were close friends" (176). This quote is important because at the beginning of the book Nick describes Gatsby as the embodiment of everything he hates in the world. At the end of the book, he tells Gatsby's father that they were close friends showing that he is willing to change his mind about people. Empathy Nick is empathic towards Gatsby and is one of the only people to feel that way. While he is calling up several of Gatsby's old friends, Nick "felt a certain shame for Gatsby" (169) because none of his friends care enough to attend his funeral, including Meyer Wolfsheim. |
Bad Qualities
Untrustworthy
It really doesn't make sense for readers to totally trust Nick. He drinks with Tom and Myrtle. He sets Daisy and Gatsby up. He doesn't come forward with the true killer of Gatsby. He is, by what he admits in his own words, the silent, collaborative partner-in-crime to the immorality to all of the crucial characters. Conceals his emotions When speaking as a character in the novel, Nick does an excellent job of concealing his emotions, leaving the reader reliant on his narrations to determine what he truly thinks and feels. Nick gets to the point where he begins to suppress his emotions from even himself leaving him blinded as to how he actually feels. Nick hides his emotions so far away that not even he could relocate them. |
Nick - Role in the Novel
- Nick Carraway has an unusual place within The Great Gatsby as he is both narrator and participant. Fitzgerald cleverly makes Nick a focal point of the action while at the same time allowing him to remain hidden in the background. Nick is also the only character who changes substantially from the story's beginning to its end. Nick, although he initially seems outside the action, slowly moves to the forefront, becoming a portrayer of the novel’s message. Fitzgerald uses Nick in the novel to bring out the flaws and shortcomings of the American Dream. On several occasions throughout the story Nick makes reference to how aspiring to live the American Dream by striving for wealth and status can lead to moral corruption. When Nick says, "It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams" (2), he displays his dislike for how Gatsby lives his life with the single purpose of reuniting with Daisy and achieving what he sees to be his American Dream. As he looks back on how Gatsby died without reaching his ultimate goal, he realizes that even a rich man who devoted his entire life to achieving the dream could not manage to do just that. At the end of Nick’s story he is able to conclude that not everyone can escape their socio-economic background through hard work and dedication. He says we are "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"(180). Boats against the current never go anywhere because the current is pushing back against them. Nick is saying that humans are hopeless and can never push past the obstacles that prevent them from graduating out of the social class into which they were born. If we are "borne back ceaselessly into the past," then we will always repeat old bad habits that we will not or cannot stop. He is basically saying that no matter how hard you work and how long you strive to achieve the American Dream you simply will never get there. Nick is not a believer in the American Dream and rightfully so as he is able to recognize how everyone around him continues to search yet continues to fail to attain their interpretation of the dream.