The Great Gatsby First Chapter Essay
Analyse F Scott Fitzgerald’s presentation of his first person narrator, Nick Carraway, in Chapter 1 of “The Great Gatsby”
Fitzgerald casts Nick Carraway as our narrator and guide throughout the Novel, The Great Gatsby. Immediately we discover that he is from an affluent socio-economic background and makes attempts to prove that he is from “good stock”, boasting about his family being descendant from “The Dukes of Buccleuch” illustrating the American obsession with lineage, and how it was often used to measure whether you possessed the “fundamental decencies” that made you a worthwhile member of 1920’s American society.
Contrastingly though, before we find out about his own heritage, Nick himself quotes his father on saying that; “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone – Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had all the advantages that you’ve had”
This really sets a standard of expectation that we have as readers for our guide; that we expect him to be impartial and indeed “inclined to reserve all judgements” upon the characters in the Novel. At first one can suppose that his narration would be reliable, from a non-biased stance, yet it becomes increasingly clear that due to his personal involvement with others, there is no way that Nick as an omniscient narrator could possibly detach from his predisposed views and biases.
To outline this, he talks of Gatsby as having; “Something gorgeous about him” and “a romantic readiness such as I have never found in a person and which is not likely I shall ever find again”
This is indicative of Nick over exaggerating to us as readers (or Fitzgerald using hyperbole to match Gatsby’s own eccentricity, channelled through the narrator). It is unlikely that Nick thought that Gatsby was especially gorgeous in the literal sense of the word, nor that it would be impossible to find romantic readiness in another person – which allows us to dispute his reliability once again. In
Fitzgerald casts Nick Carraway as our narrator and guide throughout the Novel, The Great Gatsby. Immediately we discover that he is from an affluent socio-economic background and makes attempts to prove that he is from “good stock”, boasting about his family being descendant from “The Dukes of Buccleuch” illustrating the American obsession with lineage, and how it was often used to measure whether you possessed the “fundamental decencies” that made you a worthwhile member of 1920’s American society.
Contrastingly though, before we find out about his own heritage, Nick himself quotes his father on saying that; “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone – Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had all the advantages that you’ve had”
This really sets a standard of expectation that we have as readers for our guide; that we expect him to be impartial and indeed “inclined to reserve all judgements” upon the characters in the Novel. At first one can suppose that his narration would be reliable, from a non-biased stance, yet it becomes increasingly clear that due to his personal involvement with others, there is no way that Nick as an omniscient narrator could possibly detach from his predisposed views and biases.
To outline this, he talks of Gatsby as having; “Something gorgeous about him” and “a romantic readiness such as I have never found in a person and which is not likely I shall ever find again”
This is indicative of Nick over exaggerating to us as readers (or Fitzgerald using hyperbole to match Gatsby’s own eccentricity, channelled through the narrator). It is unlikely that Nick thought that Gatsby was especially gorgeous in the literal sense of the word, nor that it would be impossible to find romantic readiness in another person – which allows us to dispute his reliability once again. In