Is Jay Gatsby Reliable Essay

Everything readers learn about Jay Gatsby and the other characters’ lives, behaviour and personal stories throughout the novel is explained from Nick Carraway’s point of view, from what he is able to experience with them. However, Nick’s tale may not include all the details about the events of the story, it is altered by his feelings towards others and in fact, readers doubt whether it is reliable or not since they are not able to have another perception of the story because he is the only one telling it. Nevertheless, there are some reasons why readers can say that Nick’s version of the events is not sincere at all since he cannot avoid relating what happens in a very personal way, mentioning what he wants and avoiding what he does not want to be known.
First, neither Nick nor the text prove to be reliable. He affirms in the beginning of the novel, that he is not inclined to make judgements and also, that he is one of the few honest people he has ever known. As long as readers analyse the text, they realize that by the end of the story, he has not been that honest since he constantly judges people (except for Gatsby) and also, he does not have an honest behaviour because, for instance, he knows his own cousin Daisy is
being cheated on and he chooses to remain silent.
Besides, readers can appreciate that he is completely biased to Gatsby since everything about him seems to be right, even the illegal ways in which he makes his money; and the other characters are constantly criticized by Nick since he really cares about Jay and wants everyone to know that Gatsby is the nice guy and the others are just mean people.
Readers cannot fully trust on his version of the story because he is totally influenced by his feelings towards others and speaks about them in the way he considers convenient for him. They can also deduce that maybe Gatsby was not so innocent and Daisy was not careless or insensitive but as they can only see the events from Nick eyes, they will never know, just doubt whether it is all as Nick says or
not.
It can be said that Nick Carraway’s version of the story is rather dubious since everything he says is inevitably affected by the way in which he sees things, his appreciation of the events and also by his friendly relationship with Gatsby. Nick tries throughout the text to makes us like Jay as he does and see the other characters as the bad ones just because he does not like them.
In conclusion, readers are not able to fully believe Carraway’s version of the story since they learn that he allows feelings, emotions and favouritism to form part of his narration. Moreover, they cannot fully believe what Nick says about the characters and events because there he is the only narrator and maybe he avoids some details about reality, so readers doubt whether everything is actually as he describes it.