Chapter One Essay Questions

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Lisa Wade 12B

Chapter One Essay Questions

  1. What do we learn in this chapter about what kind of person Nick Carraway is?

From the opening lines of the novel, it can be derived that Nick Carraway comes from a rich family and enjoyed a good relationship with his father (good enough to be advised in the ways of life. “Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had”. The general tone of this advice tends to indicate a certain degree of arrogance and a lack of consideration for the less fortunate on Nick’s behalf merited it. However, Nick reveals that it has “been turning in my mind ever since and this shows he takes his father’s advice to heart and tries to abide it, showing high regard for his father in general.  Similarly this can be seen due to the high precedence the advice takes in the novel; it is right at the beginning and indeed, the reader learns this before the name of the narrator.  A large amount of the chapter is based on Nick as a person, and he introduces himself before any other character indicating high self regard. His name seems to be backtracked and delayed; as if Fitzgerald wants to avoid the reader’s judgement of Nick as a person until they have learnt more about him.  This links in with one of the most important points Fitzgerald reveals through Nick, that he is “Inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores”. There is a certain degree of arrogance in declaring that people bore him, and this in itself seems to be rather contradictory!  

Additionally, we learn that Nick has recently moved back home after a spell in Eastern America and due to his experiences there; he seems to crave a sense of order and direction, but want s to avoid human interaction. From this we can see the profound effect events he experienced there had on him as a person. A certain degree of trauma must be involved to cause a person to want to become devoid of love and emotion. “When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever”. We later learn that Nick fought in the Great War. The original readers of the novel would have known all about the experiences of men involved with the war and Fitzgerald has taken advantage of this by elaborating very little on the point. Juxtaposing with this is the revelation Nick enjoyed “the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless”, but in context this would have been the case as it gave many men the opportunity to have a stable job and an adventure.

 It is also revealed that Nick was educated at an Ivy League university (Yale), again reflecting his upper class standings.  It is mentioned several times in the chapter that Nick “went to college” and can be interpreted as rather boastful. The descriptions that Fitzgerald’s uses from Nick’s point of view, seem to be mainly focused solely on appearance, indicating Nick is somewhat shallow. His opinion of women seem to be very chauvinistic and of low opinion – especially when he describes the Finnish woman who “Made my bed and cooked breakfast”, indicating he regards females and homemakers.

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  1. Write about the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in this Chapter

The chapter starts in a somewhat chronological way at first, with Nick revealing advice his Father gave him. Form the way the advice is phrased it can be assumed that Nick was still young when he was given it. The use of Nick as a first person observant/participant narrator gives the story reality. Additionally, the way Nick acts as both an observant and participant narrator is effective as it appears at points, to be telling the story from the view of the reader as if they were watching ...

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