“Comment on the way Fitzgerald communicates Gatsby’s character to the reader. How important is Nick as narrator to this process?”
From the beginning of the novel, our views and opinions of Gatsby are refracted through Nick. We know very little about Gatsby, and we are unable to find out anything about him, without the information being filtered by Nick. Nick is very important to us, as readers, as we get all our information through him. We are led to believe that our narrator is a trustworthy character, “I’m inclined to reserve all judgements.” However, what we actually get is a biased view, especially as Nick had become such a good friend to Gatsby, “Gatsby turned out alright in the end.” He said. Nick hated everything that Gatsby stood for, so it is naïve for us to believe that we would get a truthful account of Gatsby’s nature and lifestyle. However, even though originally Nick disliked what Gatsby stood for, he fell in love with his disposition, “ – it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such that I had never found in any other person and which it is likely that I shall ever find again.”
