To What Extent Is Nick Carraway A Reliable Narrator In The Great Gatsby

Ashraf El­Khatib

El­Khatib 1

Ms Loebach
ENG­4U
2015­03­24 Nick as an Unreliable Narrator Nick Carraway can be seen as the best person to tell the story of Gatsby, he knows all of the main characters well being cousins with Daisy, going to Yale with Tom and being Gatsby\s neighbor. Although he is in the perfect position to narrate effectively his involvement with these characters has caused him to narrate otherwise. Due to his emotions and feelings towards other people in the novel and his social status Nick is out of touch with most of the characters, dishonest, and biased, making him an unreliable narrator. Nick does not earn as much money and is much more poor than all his friends in the book. Although he attends parties and dinners with the residents of East and West Egg Nick
often feels out of place, this is shown when he says he feels “within and without”(Fitzgerald 26) while at Toms apartment with Myrtle, Catherine and Tom. He never really feels like a part of their group and he doesn 't fully enjoy himself while at the apartment. Even though Nick is part of
‘New Money’ he doesn 't feel or act as if he is, this is shown in chapter 1 when Nick describes the way Daisy spoke saying that she “asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged”(13). This shows how Nick doesn 't feel as if he fits in

El­Khatib 2 with the rest of the ‘New Money’ crowd. Nick also doesn 't make nearly as much money as his friends in the book; Gatsby a rich criminal, Jordan a professional golfer and the Buchanans who inherited their money. This is shown when Gatsby is asking Nick for a favor and he says“Why, I thought ­ why, look here, old sport, you don 't make much money, do you?”(62). Again this shows how different Nick really is from the rest of his friends, they all live in enormous mansions while he lives in a small house. Because Nick is separated from this secret society other people in the novel who are part of it like Tom who is very elitist might not be so open to
Nick and might not tell him everything or how he really feels, because of this Nick is an unreliable narrator as he might not always get the full story.
Although Nick refers to himself as an honest man when he says “ I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known”(44) it is clear to the reader that he is not. From the beginning of the book Nick is aware of Toms affair with Myrtle and he does nothing about it. He does not say anything to Daisy or to George Wilson, if he was truly and honest person he would tell one of them. In the novel Nick refers to Jordan as “incurably dishonest” (43) but by the end of the book he meets with Jordan she calls him a bad driver and said “ I thought you were a rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride”(137). When she calls him a bad driver she means that he is someone who makes bad decisions and just as Jordan is a
“rotten driver”(43) because she is dishonest, she calls Nick a bad driver. Nick refers to himself as honest but to other people such as Jordan he might not be. Lastly, at Gatsby 's funeral Nick lies to

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Gatsby 's father. After seeing Gatsbys body, his father says that “If he’d of lived, he’d of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country”(130) in reply to
this
Nick says “Thats true”(130) awkwardly. Gatsby was a criminal and actually negatively affected the country but Nick, doesn 't tell him the truth about his son.
Nick says early in the book that he is honest but the reader sees that after the time he spent in the east he has been corrupted, Nick is narrating this story after it all happened meaning that when he is narrating he is dishonest person making him unfit to narrate the story. Nick begins the novel by reciting advice his father gave him when he was younger about judging people. Although he claims to not judge people, when speaking to Jordan in chapter three he says “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply”(43) this shows how
Nick is sexist and treats and judges women differently than he treats men, highlighting his biased towards certain groups of people. According to Nick the advice from his father has caused him
“to reserve all judgments”(1) but really, throughout the whole novel Nick is judging almost everyone who is a part of new money, except of course for Gatsby. Nick says that “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction”(2) this quote alone shows how Nick favors Gatsby throughout the novel. Nick also tells Gatsby that he’s “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (118) referring to the rest of the new money and old
money people. This doesn 't make much sense as Gatsby has done just as many bad things as everyone else, if not worse. He has participated in illegal activities and is trying to woo a married woman.
Nick saying this shows how because Gatsby is his friend, he choses to ignore the bad parts of

El­Khatib 4 Gatsby. This would cause him to narrate the story inaccurately, potentially leaving out important parts of the story that might make Gatsby look bad, making Nick an unreliable narrator. Although Nick refers to himself as a honest person with lots of integrity, it is evident that he has been corrupted by the East and is not who he thinks he is. Just as the idea of the american dream has been corrupted in the novel, Nicks idea of who he is has changed and he is corrupted himself. Due to him being out of place, dishonest and biased, Nick Carraway is not a reliable narrator. El­Khatib 5
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott.
The Great Gatsby
. London: Collins Classics/HarperPress, 2010. Print.