How Does Nick Carraway Change In The Great Gatsby

Improved Essays
F. Scott-Fitzgerald uses the secondary character and narrator of Nick Carraway, as his own voice in the story of the Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway is someone who believes he is open minded and a good listener, but Nick is easily influenced,causing him to become more judgmental as the book goes on. Our idea of Nick personality changes from beginning to end, when finishing the book, many question; who is the real Nick Carraway?
Nick never actually tells us anything about his personality, other than he is not a judgmental person. The reader assumes most of his characteristics from the way he acts and talks, for example, Nicks quiet and reserved ways, portray him to others as someone they can trust. Gatsby takes Nick into New York one day and on
…show more content…
In this chapter he goes with Tom to New York to meet his mistress, and attend a party at her apartment. We learn that at this party Nick gets drunk for his first time, “I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second…”apartment was full of cheerful sun.”(29) Nick shows signs of someone who is easily persuaded by wealth, and example would be the people who attend Gatsby’s parties. Nick has managed to convince himself that, by hanging around people such as Gatsby or Jordan, it makes up for his bleak lifestyle and “eyesore,” of a house. Although, Nick tends to mock himself by thinking like this, his constant self awareness puts him on the outside of the wealthy social group. Which isn’t a bad thing for him, in chapter 5 there is a giant list of people Nick creates regarding all of the people that visited Gatsby’s house parties that summer. “From East Egg, then came the Chester Beckers and the...All these people came to Gatsby’s house in the summer.”(60-63) This observant quality, is actually helpful for the reader, it;s helps them produce an image of the kinds of people who Gatsby surrounds himself with. And possibly people who Nick believes can change him, without gaining more

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Nick talked about how he tried to keep his distance from Gatsby and men like him, but in the end he ends up becoming one of Gatsby's closest friends and one of the only people there for him in the end. 2. “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.” (pg. 2) I read this quote differently than I did the…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan all invite Nick into a world of wealth by confiding in him. Nick moves in order to achieve a better life, and his connections with the important characters in The Great Gatsby allow him to live a more…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This allows Gatsby’s character to remain “perfect”, knowing that his past will not win Daisy over. He justifies himself and has to establish false happiness within. Nick is the the first one to pick up on Gatsby.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone lies. It is the truth, and it is explained with great depth in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay. She claims, “We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, and we conveniently forget, we keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy institutions.”…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Just like all of the people in the novel who are fixated on fame, Nick takes pleasure in noting that he has “a partial view of [his] lawn, and [a] consoling proximity [to a] millionaire”(5). Not long after, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby is alone in the dark trembling, yearning for something with outstretched arms, which is later discovered to be the companionship of Daisy. This shows a great contrast between Gatsby’s legacy and life, the first being rich and full and the latter being deficient and lonely. This idea is reinforced when nick meets Gatsby’s father ,“who’s pride in… his’s possessions was continually increasing”(173) and seemed to make a greater impact on him than the death of his son.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nicks last words to Gatsby before he died was “they’re a rotten crowd... you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (154). This quote links to a numerous amount of excerpts from the novel that all convey the shared theme of moral corruption. Nick is complementing Gatsby by saying that he is better than Tom, Daisy, Jordan, or any ‘rotten’ East Egger. This quote transmits a large amount of significance as it ties in Nick’s change in character. Nick is viewed by the reader as a non-judgemental individual who can be trusted.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the beginning, Gatsby shows it's absolute riches in where it attracts people to the massive parties, that he always attend. Nick was fortuante to get invited and therefore brings mysterious interest in where later on, his values were the obsessed love over Nick's cousin Daisy. Unfortuantly…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gatsby showed the desired to be the person he wanted to be "He was a son of god-a-phase which if it means anything means just that he has to be about his father's business" (pg. 98). Gatsby created his own identity to break away from his parent's lifestyle and be his own person. Gatsby also showed Nick even though he hangs out with people with obvious problems he still carries himself as if he has it together, he never lets people get in the way of his image.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We all remember that one day in fourth grade when the teacher asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Immediately, our imaginations started churning, thinking over the endless possibilities of jobs, and always trying to outdo the imagination of our friend sitting across the table. Some kids shouted out a firefighter, a nurse, a priest, a teacher. Yet, there was always that one kid who thought that he was the best. He would proudly say, "I want to be rich.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This, as we read throughout the book, is not completely true. Nick does judge people, even if he is not aware of it, and often lumps people into groups or compares people against each other, like when he said Gatsby was, "worth the whole damn bunch put together." (Fitzgerald, 269). He was lumping all of the upper class people Nick knew, mainly Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, and putting them up against the Great Gatsby. This fact is what makes Nick a biased and dishonest narrator and character.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He experienced a lot of change and different people around him. Which caused him to change a lot. He has learned that if you let certain types of people around you they will affect you and how you think. In The Great Gatsby By F.Scott Fitzgerald Nick Carraway (the…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being the narrator and attempting to cope and work with Gatsby, Nick Carraway presented himself to be the most admirable character in the novel. Throughout the plot, he shows his ability to cope with various social situations efficiently. For example, upon settling in East Egg in his new home, he receives an invite to a party by an entire stranger. Bravely, he attends the party, despite not having any previous knowledge of the host other than potentially erroneous rumors such as being a murderer. His aforementioned ability is shown through his mingling and his amiability when first meeting the mysterious Gatsby and other attendees of the party.…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Most people were not actually invited to the party in the first place as you see in the quote on page 41 "I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been requested to attend the party. People were not invited they went there.” The narrator, or Nick Carraway in this case, speculates about how almost no one is actually invited to Gatsby’s superb parties they just show up because they think that if they show up they will seem high class because they are socializing with the élite citizens of New York City around the West Egg area. People go to these parties and act like they belong there because they feel like they have to in order to be or become classified as part of the elites. The book shows another example of this on page 43 where Lucille says, “I like to come; I never care what I do, so I always have a good time.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nick here means that corruption of money, the way it led all the rich to become selfish and generally obsessed with their own interests to the point they were blind to everything else, is what preyed on him. Gatsby was representative of the lack of responsibility and disillusionment of the rich that Nick so strongly disliked. Gatsby tried too hard to create an image of himself that he believed would appeal to Daisy and became self-destructive with his desire for her. At the same time, however, Nick valued romance and hope, two forces that he felt were missing from his life. Gatsby chased Daisy simply because he loved her, and that innocence appealed to Nick; he never stopped supporting Gatsby, even through death.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Title of Work: The Great Gatsby Author of Work: F. Scott Fitzgerald 1. Significance of title: Be specific, making connections to author’s theme, important symbolism, etc. (7-10 lines) The title “The Great Gatsby” is displaying the significance of the character Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a delusional dreamer that achieved the American dream and used its purpose to impress his love.…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays