Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story. He is tolerant and listens and observes what other people tell him. He doesn’t judge people. He became one of the closest friends of Jay Gatsby and is the cousin of Daisy. He lives next door to Gatsby.
“I am inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” Nick doesn’t judge people. Because of this, people open up to him about themselves. He gets trapped in situations where the person talking is boring or talking about something boring and he is too polite to stop them. He is tolerant and lets things happen. He listens and observes. This quality still doesn’t make him the best narrator for the story because everyone has their own judgement and point of view on how they see things.
“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.“ This means that he wanted everything to be organised and stay the same. He wants everyone to see things the same way and not have different opinions on everything based on how they see things. He wanted the world to be organised and stay the same with only one point of view and not many wild different opinions from every person.
“…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.” He lets other people control him and show him where to go and what to do. He is a bit of a pushover and lets others tell him what to do. They play him. He doesn’t stand up for himself and he just lets everything happen.
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” This means that Nick feels like he is a spectator in the scene and he doesn’t really any input on what is being said and what is happening. He is both fascinated and put off by never ending diversity of life. This quote shows the duality of Nicks role as the narrator. He is both a passive observer guiding the reader, but also engaged in what is happening with the other characters.
“Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” People can trust him and become friends with him. This shows that he is someone that many people can talk to and get on well with. He can have a normal life without the thought of things like what people like Daisy, Tom and Gatsby think about.
“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” He is honest and he doesn’t know many other people that are actually honest. This quote makes him seem a little bit arrogant and think he is better than others.
They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.” Nick believes that Gatsby was better than everyone else even though he disapproved of him. Nick is a very contradicting person. He doesn’t always live up to his word.
“I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.” Nick doesn’t like conflict or being on the bad side of people, so when he shakes hands with Tom, he is making sure that he doesn’t start anything. He just let what he thought of Tom go. He doesn’t say what he thinks of people. He sees Tom as immature when he refers to him as a child and he thinks that he is better or more intelligent.
“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” This shows that Nick was thinking deeply about the world. It makes him sad, angry or worried about what people see as the most important things. This also shows that Nick is a thoughtful, deep thinking person.
Nick changes throughout the story. At the start of the story he is just in the background and observing everyone from a distance. As the story goes on, he gets caught up in the relationships between Daisy and Gatsby and Tom. He is there when everything happens between all of them. Nick starts out as a person who doesn’t seem like he would judge people but at the end he has his own opinions of everyone that he strongly believes are true. I think he changes like this because of the kind of people he is hanging around with. They all seem like very judgy people.
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