Character Analysis of Nick Carraway
Nick Carraway
A cursory glance of the beginning of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby leaves only a vague impression of the narrator Nick Carraway. At the surface, he seems unassuming and straightforward. Upon closer inspection, the irony and connotative diction, used denote duplicity, cynicism, traits he might not even be aware of thanks to a self-assuredness of his own ‘fundamental decencies’. Altogether, Nick’s characterization lends itself to Modernist ideas.
It is not so much what Nick tells the readers, but rather how he presents information that is a clearer indication of underlying characteristics. Indeed, the disparity between the persona Nick builds through what he says and the persona revealed through linguistic devices reveals his duplicitous nature. Nick opens with some advice from his father to “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had,” whenever he feels like criticizing any one and by consequence, “[he is] inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to [him] and also made [him] the victim of not a few veteran bores” (1.1). Given his father’s advice and what he says, Nick, upon first impression is a tolerant, open-minded individual. But for someone self-proclaimed to be nonjudgmental, he in fact is still very condescending; he makes underhanded judgments about people with derogatory diction, calling others “veteran bores.” This irony highlights Nick’s hypocrisy.
Nick’s duplicity is only compounded by the condescension he has for others. He claims “the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions” (1.2). “Plagiaristic” implies theft and questions the morality of the young men. “Marred” as in tainted or spoiled is a harsh and condemnatory description. The negative connotation of his diction, “plagiaristic” and “marred” only serve to emphasize his derision of
A cursory glance of the beginning of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby leaves only a vague impression of the narrator Nick Carraway. At the surface, he seems unassuming and straightforward. Upon closer inspection, the irony and connotative diction, used denote duplicity, cynicism, traits he might not even be aware of thanks to a self-assuredness of his own ‘fundamental decencies’. Altogether, Nick’s characterization lends itself to Modernist ideas.
It is not so much what Nick tells the readers, but rather how he presents information that is a clearer indication of underlying characteristics. Indeed, the disparity between the persona Nick builds through what he says and the persona revealed through linguistic devices reveals his duplicitous nature. Nick opens with some advice from his father to “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had,” whenever he feels like criticizing any one and by consequence, “[he is] inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to [him] and also made [him] the victim of not a few veteran bores” (1.1). Given his father’s advice and what he says, Nick, upon first impression is a tolerant, open-minded individual. But for someone self-proclaimed to be nonjudgmental, he in fact is still very condescending; he makes underhanded judgments about people with derogatory diction, calling others “veteran bores.” This irony highlights Nick’s hypocrisy.
Nick’s duplicity is only compounded by the condescension he has for others. He claims “the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions” (1.2). “Plagiaristic” implies theft and questions the morality of the young men. “Marred” as in tainted or spoiled is a harsh and condemnatory description. The negative connotation of his diction, “plagiaristic” and “marred” only serve to emphasize his derision of