“I was within and without”– an analysis of the role of the narrator in the Great Gatsby

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“I was within and without”

– an analysis of the role of the narrator in the Great Gatsby

Markus Göransson, IB1A

”I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life”(p.28). Thus Nick Carraway, the intriguing narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby, describes the position he has in the novel. His description relates much of how Nick narrates the book, both with a stranger’s impartial view, and the inevitable subjectivity of somebody involved.  

        An understanding of Nick’s character is essential for comprehending the way the Great Gatsby is narrated. Nick is the hard-working, virtuous and socially reserved pioneer from the west who “decided to go East and learn the bond-business”(p.2). The son of “well-to-do people”(p.2), he has preserved the moral values of a family who might just be descended from the “Dukes of Buccleuch”(p.2). Although not wealthy, Nick is noble and well-mannered, his thoughts and actions well-anchored in a consistent set of beliefs. He is also reserved, and sincere in an inobtrusive way.

On the isles of New York, where “white palaces(…) glittered across the water”(p.4), and where wild parties are attended by the “staid nobility of the countryside”(p.35), Nick interacts with the other people but is always casually observing and registering. So, he is both “within and without”. This way, this “single man…looking purposeless and alone”(p.33) suits perfectly the role of retelling the story, as he, in spite of his experience from the inside, is able to keep himself from being drawn into the events emotionally. Even at Gatsby’s wild parties does he remain at the edge of events, not dancing nor mingling with the unknown guests; nevertheless Fitzgerald is able to, through Nick’s eyes, convey the dreamlike party atmosphere, with “floating rounds of cocktails”(p.32) and a “sea-change of faces and…colours”(p.32).  It is much thanks to his narrator’s lack of self-identification with the materialistic universe of East and West Egg that Fitzgerald is able to let this world reveal itself to us mostly undistorted.

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Nick’s detachment from the New York life as well as his down-to-earth and unostentatious personality, attract attention. The use of a narrator who is also one of the characters in a novel often limits the access to the other characters, but by giving Nick the personal qualities mentioned above, Fitzgerald is to some extent able to by-pass this obstacle. By standing out as a third party, seemingly indifferent as to the intrigues and conflicts between the characters, Nick attracts people to confide in him. Even Tom Buchanan’s mistress Myrtle, a wild stranger to Nick, unprompted tells him “the story of ...

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