Essay On Nick The Narrator In The Great Gatsby

Cameron Kennison
Estep
English III
9 March 2017

Is Nick Actually Reliable? An Analysis of the Narrator of
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nick Carraway is the narrator in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and many may agree that Nick is a reliable narrator, but there is evidence throughout the book that suggests the opposite. A closer examination of Nick’s words may strongly suggest that he is not the neutral narrator he proclaims himself to be. Not always narrating from a neutral position, getting drunk and narrating during this episode, and lying about not being judgmental, all provide evidence to this effect.

One of the most apparent indications that Nick is an unreliable narrator is that he is not narrating from a neutral position. Specifically, he favors Gatsby over Tom. This is evident when right before Nick leaves Gatsby alone to lay out by his pool and think about what happened, he turns and yells out to Gatsby, “Your worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 154). When Nick yelled this out to Gatsby, it proved that he definitely favored Gatsby over Tom. Nick’s honesty as a neutral narrator is thrown into question as he seems to be telling the story with a slant towards the side favoring Gatsby, therefore making the reader realize he is unreliable
(regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with Nick).

Another interesting and strong indicator that Nick is an unreliable narrator is his description of the events during a time when he gets drunk in chapter 2. When Nick got drunk, there was a strange gap in the evening regarding Nick’s perception of time. Nick states, “It was nine o’clock – almost immediately afterward I looked at my watch and found it was ten.” (Fitzgerald 36). Additionally, there was even confusion regarding where he was. At one point during his drunken state, Nick states, “I was standing beside his bed… Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania station, staring at the Tribune, and waiting for the four o’ clock train” (Fitzgerald 38). Upon reading this, it’s very likely that the trust the reader might have had with Nick’s capability of narrating may have dwindled. Although others may argue that this just reflects a fatigued narrator, it seems more apparent that he has lost his reliability to the reader.

Yet another indication that suggests Nick is an unreliable narrator is when he claims to not be judgmental, but clearly throughout the novel that has not been the case. For example, in the book, Nick mentioned, “They were careless people. Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money…” (Fitzgerald 179). This indicates that he has just judged Tom and Daisy as people that destroy innocent things that he cares about, only to go back to their own world, which Nick seems to not respect, by calling it “their money.” Therefore, once again this shows how unreliable of a narrator Nick really is.

The book “The Great Gatsby” is told by a self-proclaimed honest and unjudgmental person named Nick.
So initially, readers are led to believe he is a reliable enough narrator to tell the story. But as the story unfolds, the reader begins to question this assumption through various pieces of evidence observed from the book. It becomes very apparent that he is in fact unreliable as a narrator. An unreliable narrator may leave the reader wondering if the story that is being told is really accurate or somewhat distorted, and of course this presents to the reader some unique and potentially interesting challenges, perhaps making a great book all the more
interesting.