Nick Carraway And Jay Gatsby Similarities

In The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a wide array of seemingly different characters came together through a series of wild events. While these characters all seemed very different on the outside, and clearly represented different ideas, some of the characters had startling similarities that at first may have gone unnoticed. This was especially true between the characters of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. While they appeared to be opposites at the beginning of the story, as their lives unfolded many similarities began to appear, and differences became more clear. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby were similar because both were captivated by another person, and both were outsiders in the worlds they lived in, however, they differed
Gatsby may be rich, but he doesn’t fit into the old-money world that Daisy lives in. Nick resides in the new money world, a society in which he doesn’t really belong either, as was evident when he said: “My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places...The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard...it was Gatsby’s mansion” (5). When Nick said this in the novel, it highlighted the fact that not only was Nick new here, but he was an outsider that didn’t fit in. His house was out of place and was shadowed by the larger mansions, and Nick himself was the same, shadowed by the wealthy around him. Throughout the novel Nick remained this way, and although Gatsby was rich, he was an outsider because he didn’t fit in with Daisy’s life. Nick observes Gatsby one day, and explains, “But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone- he stretched out his arms to the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling” (20). In this quote, Nick describes Gatsby as he reaches out to the dock light at Daisy’s house across the bay. Here, the reader could see that Gatsby was so close to Daisy, yet so far. The only thing separating them was her vast wealth of old money and his wealth of new money. This quote simply pointed out to the reader the one crippling situation between Gatsby and Daisy: they were from two different worlds. Gatsby clearly didn’t fit into the world he desired to live in, and Nick didn’t fit in the society he lived in either, thereby providing another similarity between Nick Carraway and Jay