Explore the presentation of Nick as a narrator in the first three chapters of The Great Gatsby

by aleexw (student)

Explore the presentation of Nick as a narrator in the first three chapters of ‘The Great Gatsby’

Nick comes across as an unreliable narrator throughout the first three chapters of ‘The Great Gatsby’, especially during Chapter two at the party, where his use of ellipses suggests to the reader that his knowledge is distorted. Also, nick is unable to give an accurate account of what has occurred in the society he has become acquainted with before he moved to West Egg and therefore his insights into events are based on hearsay and rumours. Jordan has become a source of Nick’s intelligence, and he demands information from her at Gatsby’s party – about Gatsby himself – however he then goes on to describe her as ‘incurably dishonest’, casting doubt on everything she has said previous to this. Furthermore, Nick does not confirm whether the information he has been told is truthful or not, he merely states what he has been informed without expanding on this, thus it is unclear to the reader if Jordan is a reliable source of information.

Nick himself is going through an internal conflict, implying that he cannot give an accurate, unbiased account of what is going on in other people’s lives. It is clear that he is struggling between two contrasting lifestyles – the pleasure-orientated, fast-paced life of New York and the conventional, fairly nondescript background he came from where, he believes, morality is still valued. This suggests that he is so concerned with his own problems that he cannot afford to think through the events of other people. Despite this, Nick seems drawn towards the garishly ostentatious lifestyle that he is introduced to at Gatsby’s party and appears to forget his morals and ideals – ‘on my way to get roaring drunk’; this story is set whilst prohibition was in place, and so to get ‘roaring drunk’ was to go against the law. This contradicts his earlier statement, ‘wanting the world to be in uniform’ which implies that he wants the strict discipline and uniformity of society during the Great War back, despite him participating in many activities that would strongly go against this – for instance, his drunken fiasco at Myrtle’s apartment. Incidentally, the morals he so strongly believes in are questioned through his meeting with Myrtle – she is Nick’s cousins husbands mistress and yet he seems to have no objection to their affair, despite the seemingly close relationship he has with Daisy. Furthermore, the ease at which he has adapted his characteristics is similar to the ease that the disciplined society of the Great War changed at its sudden abrupt end; although he is being critical about the changes that have happened since that point in time he is actually changing in the same way, thus emphasising his hypocritical mannerisms.

Nick seems to have been caught up in the moral decay of the society; the only mention of his engagement is from Daisy in Chapter 1, and in the form of the ‘certain girl’ that played tennis at the end of chapter three, but the lack of detail given about her suggests that he doesn’t believe that fact to be entirely important – especially considering that Nick is writing about past events. Based on the romantic imagery that he uses – ‘one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance’ – and the romantic ideals he appears to ...

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Nicks character portrays something different to what Nick as a narrator thinks. Nick believes he is ‘inclined to reserve all judgements’, however he immediately contradicts this by stating he has been made ‘victim of not a few veteran bores’, reiterating his obvious hypocrisy. This is the narrator’s attempt to make the reader aware that although many opinions are not voiced, they are still there and various techniques are used throughout to novel to allow the reader to draw their own conclusion – especially symbolism.

Whilst Nick realises that Tom, Daisy and Jordan are dishonourable people, he still spends a great deal of time with them, choosing to neglect their faults; it is more important for him to fit in with these rich, sophisticated people that to risk his friendship with them by pointing out their imperfections. It is this reservation of the truth that leads the reader to question Nick’s reliability and honesty, and it is also this that makes him conform to the majority of society; most people are dishonest and they sacrifice their honesty to fit in with the rest of society.

Nick seems to be a bit of a wallflower throughout the first three chapters in that he doesn’t get involved in the events that are happening all around him and appears to blend in with the background. This is especially apparent in Chapter Two; whilst Nick is at Myrtle and Tom’s apartment he merely sits and watches everyone else in the room. It implies that he doesn’t have a mind of his own – he would rather sit and watch from the side-lines than actually get involved – and this is emphasised when Tom drags him off the train to meet Myrtle, ‘I followed him’.

The valley of ashes appears to intrigue and repulse Nick almost simultaneously – this is made apparent through his use of imagery, ‘spasms of dust’. This is perhaps because, whilst Nick thinks that he has seen the ‘real world’ he has in fact only seen a shaded version of reality as he comes from a reasonably well-off background – implies through his great-uncle being able to send a ‘substitute to the Civil War’ in his place, which was something that only the rich could achieve.

Part of Fitzgerald’s skill in ‘The Great Gatsby’ shines through the way he cleverly makes Nick a focal point of the action, whilst simultaneously allowing him to remain sufficiently in the background, thereby being able to comment on what events were unfolding; throughout the novel, Nick functions as Fitzgerald’s voice.

Alex Wright 12DEW