The Cause of Nick Caraway’s Inability to Adapt to Eastern Life We all have dreams that we fantasize so much that they may be in contrast to reality. We have all experienced the utter disappointment of having the harsh reality of the world make itself known to us. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald presents us Nick Caraway, a meek Midwesterner both intrigued and repulsed by the roaring extravagance of the East in the 1920s. Nick’s enthusiasm and confidence to establish a successful life in New York is betrayed when he experiences the underlying emptiness and moral corruption of the upper class forcing him to reconsider his adaptability to this modern lifestyle. Fighting in World War I has caused Nick to become numb to the
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This is illustrated to us through the cynicism, greed, emptiness, and unhappiness of the upper class. Daisy is a perfect example of this: “‘You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow’… ‘Everybody thinks so – the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything’” (Fitzgerald 13). Daisy is Nick’s distant cousin who has always been well off. The lavish lifestyle that she lives does not satisfy her deep longings for happiness. She becomes very cynical towards life. How could someone who possesses everything anyone could ever want be so incurably unhappy? Another example of the decay of dreams would be Gatsby’s obsession with the green light on Daisy’s dock, across the bay. This light represents how close he is to reliving his past with Daisy; indeed, at one point in the novel, Nick remarks to Gatsby that you cannot repeat the past, to which Gatsby is quick to reply, “why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 70). Unbeknown to Gatsby, that dream was “already behind him” (Fitzgerald 115). Nick must come to the realisation that the American Dream is nothing but a fantasized reality that does not …show more content…
Even though he is “inclined to reserve all judgements” (Fitzgerald 3), Nick is appalled and driven away by the absolute indecency of, specifically, Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Each one of them plays with people’s emotions: Daisy with Gatsby, and Tom with Myrtle, and both offenders retreat when vulnerability arises. Nick describes them as: “careless people” (Fitzgerald 114) who: “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 114). When Gatsby is killed, Daisy and Tom leave town without so much as an offer of condolences. It is clear to Nick that the East was full of people who do not care how gravely they harm others. He decides that he no longer wants to be part of such a mentality, so he goes
This is illustrated to us through the cynicism, greed, emptiness, and unhappiness of the upper class. Daisy is a perfect example of this: “‘You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow’… ‘Everybody thinks so – the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything’” (Fitzgerald 13). Daisy is Nick’s distant cousin who has always been well off. The lavish lifestyle that she lives does not satisfy her deep longings for happiness. She becomes very cynical towards life. How could someone who possesses everything anyone could ever want be so incurably unhappy? Another example of the decay of dreams would be Gatsby’s obsession with the green light on Daisy’s dock, across the bay. This light represents how close he is to reliving his past with Daisy; indeed, at one point in the novel, Nick remarks to Gatsby that you cannot repeat the past, to which Gatsby is quick to reply, “why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 70). Unbeknown to Gatsby, that dream was “already behind him” (Fitzgerald 115). Nick must come to the realisation that the American Dream is nothing but a fantasized reality that does not …show more content…
Even though he is “inclined to reserve all judgements” (Fitzgerald 3), Nick is appalled and driven away by the absolute indecency of, specifically, Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Each one of them plays with people’s emotions: Daisy with Gatsby, and Tom with Myrtle, and both offenders retreat when vulnerability arises. Nick describes them as: “careless people” (Fitzgerald 114) who: “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 114). When Gatsby is killed, Daisy and Tom leave town without so much as an offer of condolences. It is clear to Nick that the East was full of people who do not care how gravely they harm others. He decides that he no longer wants to be part of such a mentality, so he goes