"Nick's main attitude to East Coast society is fascination" - How far and in what ways do you agree?
Harriet Blair 12EM
“Nick’s main attitude to East Coast society is fascination” – How far and in what ways do you agree?
In “The Great Gatsby”, Nick is presented as having quite a complex attitude to the society of the East Coast of America, with this attitude often being quite ambiguous or hard to pin down at any one point. In many scenarios, particularly those around Daisy or at Gatsby’s parties, it can be read that Nick’s main tone could seem to be one of fascination, a word I am using in this essay to mean a positive admiration as opposed to a distanced interest. However, I believe that although this is partially the case there is another feeling beneath it which shows mockery and almost distaste for the East Coast society, and in this essay I plan to look at the parts of the novel where this society is presented and discuss how Nick’s attitudes are presented in these ways.
Fitzgerald uses the characters of Tom and Daisy very prominently in his portrayal of East Coast society and therefore the way in which Nick reacts to them can tell us more about his opinions, especially with Daisy. On first reading, I think that it is very easy to think that Nick is completely fascinated and entranced by her in a very positive way. One way in which this is done is by using many words associated with light, such as ‘white’, ‘glowing’ and ‘bright’ which give us the sense that Nick is almost dazzled by Daisy as you would be dazzled by a bright light. Words such as ‘white’ also are the archetypal language used to portray a type of purity or innocence about Daisy which further supports his fascination as they make it appear as though he is not only entranced by her on a superficial level but even on a more spiritual level, at least in his eyes. It could, however, be seen that perhaps ‘white’ is a less positive word to use in this situation as it is quite a cold colour, and in fact Nick mentions this in the description of the women’s light chatter which was “as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in all absence of desire.” This obviously is a reflection of Nick’s observations of the East Coast society and how the lack of needing anything has made conversation impersonal and lacking in substance. This type of more negative approach to Daisy is very rare with Nick; however I think fascination is not his only attitude towards her. In many places I think that it would be more appropriate to say that Nick is more amused with Daisy, perhaps even to the point of slightly mocking her, for example when she goes to Gatsby’s house for the first time and overreacts hugely to Gatsby’s shirts.
