The Great Gatsby All Right At The End Analysis

As the narrator of the story, Nick Carraway relates his observations of the people and events surrounding his summer’s stay during the 1920s in the West Egg area of Long Island, especially those involving his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Although Nick has been taught by his father to reserve judgement on people, he does admit that his tolerance “has a limit” (Fitzgerald 13). This limit would normally have been crossed by Gatsby, “who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn,” but Nick somehow still reaches the conclusion that “Gatsby turned out all right at the end;” however, Nick’s sensitivity to Gatsby runs too deep to allow him to see things clearly enough to make a correct evaluation of him (Fitzgerald 13-14). Nick’s point of view that Gatsby is all …show more content…
Nick claims that Gatsby “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” (Fitzgerald 127). Indirectly, Gatsby’s apparent winning of Daisy causes Gatsby to, in death, join the fallen leaves in his pool. Despite Nick’s statement, Gatsby is not “all right at the end” (Fitzgerald 13). Nick does have a partial basis for his feeling this way though. Gatsby does turn out all right in that his basic character, personality, and spirituality enable him to construct and preserve a vision for so long and to work so tirelessly towards its fulfillment, even with the “foul dust” that rests on his dream (Fitzgerald 14). Despite Gatsby’s vulgarity and self-delusion, Nick respects him for his strength and for the unselfish nature of his idealism. Unlike the Buchanans, Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson, and the many guests who attended Gatsby’s parties, Gatsby does not use his wealth in a selfish way. His sole purpose for gathering his wealth and lavish lifestyle is centered on the attainment of his vision of winning the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. That makes him spiritually better than the materialistic society in which he