What does Nick Carraway symbolize? Nick symbolizes the outsider's perspective of the way things were in the 1920s. He is not as wealthy as the other characters in the novel and thus recognizes how morally corrupt they are.
The first and last names of the narrator, Nick Carraway, have been subject to interpretation. His first name evokes a character in Petronius's Satyricon (Drennan 145) or—for those who regard him as an unreliable or duplicitously selective narrator—it may suggest “Old Nick” or Satan, the archetypal liar.
Nick is the narrator, but he is not omniscient (he can't see everything), and he's also very human and flawed. In other words, he's an unreliable narrator, sometimes because he's not present for a certain event, other times because he presents the story out of order, and finally because he sometimes obscures the truth.
Nick can therefore be seen as the moral compass of the story. He refuses Gatsby's offer of a dubious scheme that could make him a nice bit of money . When he meets Jordan, nothing happens between them at first because of the interior rules that act as brakes on my desires… .
This is at the very end of the novel. Of the late Gatsby, Tom says, “That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust in your eyes just like he did in Daisy's….” And that's why it matters that Nick is gay and in love with Gatsby: because Tom's assessment is spot-on, but Nick will never admit it.
Nick serves as the novels' source of moral guidance. At the start of the novel, his gestures and judgements mark him as a character of moral integrity; he states that he is "full of interior rules that act as brakes".
Nick is particularly taken with Gatsby and considers him a great figure. He sees both the extraordinary quality of hope that Gatsby possesses and his idealistic dream of loving Daisy in a perfect world.
Most claims of Nick's dishonesty as a character build on arguments made out of placing Nick's ambiguous actions in contrast to each other, i.e. making Nick a hypocrite.
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” “I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.” “Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.” “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”
Throughout the novel, Nick is the vehicle used to gather all of the pieces together to learn about Gatsby. Nick is the only character that changes in the novel from the beginning to the end. Nick is the literary device that is employed to learn about Gatsby, which ultimately tells the theme of the story.…
Nick Carraway is another character who fought for his American Dream and finally failed. After he graduated from Yale and came back from the World War I, he wanted to experience a more fashionable life in the East and to make more money by selling bonds.
The narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick describes himself as "one of the few honest people that [he has] ever known." Nick views himself as a man of "infinite hope" who can see the best side of everyone he encountered.
Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets.
Nick's bias becomes clear in the earliest pages of the book, when he tells us that “there was something gorgeous about him [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.” We are inclined to see Gatsby as a sensitive genius and to side with him in the romantic triangle between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom.
What were Nick's final words to Gatsby? Why is this a fitting goodbye? "They're a written crowd, you're worth the whole damn bunch put together"- Gatsby realizes Nick was the only person who genuinely cared about him; this is the only compliment Nick ever gave Gatsby.
Nick's relationship to Gatsby is an example of irony because Nick tells the story about Gatsby but he does not like the man. He says, 'Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, (...) represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. ' As readers, we wonder why Nick wants to talk about Gatsby.
Nick's selectiveness makes him an unreliable narrator because he is selective with regard to the information that he includes in his account of the events.
Why does Nick almost laugh when Gatsby is telling him about his personal history? A: Nick thinks it is funny that Gatsby considers what he went through any kind of hardship.
In general though, Nick is more honest than all the other main characters. He's just got a blind spot when it comes to being honest with himself and when evaluating Jay Gatsby, whom he adores despite Jay's gaping flaws of character.
Nick says he's among the most honest people he knows, but at this point in the novel the reader only has his word to go on. Although Nick hasn't given much indication that he is an unreliable narrator, how can the reader be sure? Throughout the novel, we aren't even sure if Nick is being honest with us.
Over the course of the novel, Nick prides himself in possessing a quality he thinks is extremely important: honesty.
Nick finds that letting things work themselves out on their own is more beneficial for himself. The laziness Nick shows is another reason that he is ambiguous. He has the ability to be trustworthy to others and yet play a factor in the destruction of characters and their marriage.
Answer and Explanation: Nick Carraway does not play a main role in The Great Gatsby, but his narration helps the reader understand what the author is trying to impart. Carraway is only a visitor on Long Island Sound, so he has an outsider's perspective.
She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money.