In what ways do you find the opening to The Great Gatsby effective?

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In what ways do you find the opening to “The Great Gatsby” effective

The opening to “The Great Gatsby” is undoubtedly effective as it successfully introduces both the main protagonists, Nick Carraway, a traditional and open minded narrator who comes from a “prominent, well-to-do” family” and Gatsby, an elusive and as yet, un-introduced character who is undoubtedly the main subject of the book, and the ideas and concerns that are prominent throughout the novel, such as the relationship between geography and social values. This opening also allows the reader to gain a clear sense of the writers’ style and Fitzgerald employs a narrative hook of the mysteries surrounding Gatsby to entice the reader to continue the novel.

Fitzgerald uses lots of exposition in this opening which is a necessity as for an effective opening of a novel you need to have the setting clearly defined and a sense of who the characters are. We are introduced to Nick, a highly moral and open minded man who moves East beacause his experiences in the War have broadened his perspectives and he couldn’t settle in the West and he joins the bond business in order to make money. We are also introduced to Tom Buchanan, a selfish and arrogant and ridiculously wealthy man who is married to Daisy. At Yale, Tom was “one of the most powerful ends that ever played football” but his sporting success at college makes everything else feel like an “anti-climax”. He is physical and always likes to be control, “Turning me around by one arm”.
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Fitzgerald uses a narrator, Nick Carraway, to tell the story retrospectively. Instead of writing as an omniscient narrator, Fitzgerald uses a narrator who doesn’t know all the facts. In this way, he sketches Gatsby as a shadowy figure that the reader can only glimpse through Nick’s memories. Nick has all of this knowledge at the time of writing, but he chooses to order the narrative so that the reader only learns about Gatsby’s life before West Egg bit by bit. This makes Gatsby seem more mysterious as Nick hides parts of Gatsby’s identity until he chooses to let ...

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