Almost every critic of The Great Gatsby has emphasized the importance of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick acts as the moral measurement tool of the novel, letting the reader know of the uneasiness of substantial preliminary events, and of a finale of ultimate doom. Carraway’s greatest contribution is his ability to sometimes observe and other times participate in the events in Gatsby’s life.
In the first three paragraphs of the novel, Nick introduces himself to the reader. In the fourth, he introduces the subject of his narrative, Jay Gatsby. The vivid scene of Nick’s role in the novel. That would be one of spectator, critic, and narrator of action within Gatsby’s domain.
Also, at the outset of the novel, Carraway tells of the values that his father had supposedly instilled in him. His father warned of the difficulties of moral judgement, an interior conflict stemming from the circumstances of origin, values, and money. He was also advised to reserve judgement of others because they might not have had the same advantages as he.
Nick’s clear memories involving his family life urges the reader to have a similar detachment and suspension of judgement. Nevertheless, any portion of his inner self stands apart from any immediate situation, making observations and slight judgements all the while. Nick Carraway also suggests his deeply felt uncertainty of the nature of endless possibilities in life. Sometimes he seems hopeful about future endeavors. In other settings his human vulnerability overshadows his own confidence, therefore he retreats from the world around him, in hope to re-establish a sense of order.
As a character, Nick is simultaneously attracted or repelled by either an immediate scene, or life itself. These contradictory impulses further complicate his narrative view of events. In a paradoxical mindset, Gatsby is both scrutinized and rejoiced. As the narrator however, Nick is able to fully understand these paradoxes.
In the narration of Gatsby’s confessions, Nick strategically uses three distinct forms to convey Gatsby’s ideas. The first is the rather straightforward quoting of Gatsby’s own words. This helps emphasize Gatsby’s clumsiness with language. He then adds his own comments to show just how absurd or poor the “rich man’s” ideas are.
Another way Carraway translates Gatsby is through the paraphrasing of his speech. This keeps the action flowing, with Nick’s constant insight. He just substitutes Gatsby’s words with his own more precise descriptions.
Finally, what Nick cannot make verbally clear is the testament that the two men share a dream that transcends either one of them. Nick, like Gatsby, cannot circumscribe its energy, the vitality of it all, within the boundaries of language. Instead, he suggests the dream’s deeper importance.
Nick promotes the greatness of the dream by providing no container on it. Nor does he craft it comprehensively into articulateness. Instead, by summoning the dream through language, he succeeds where Gatsby fails. Nick translates the ideal into the medium of this world, affirms its value, and retains it.
Nick uses the retrospective narration to tell his story. At the start of the novel, he informs the reader that one year has passed since Gatsby’s death. At the end of the classic, he tells that two years have elapsed. The difference in time here is presumed to be the time that it took Nick to communicate his story.
Nick states that he’s not a quick learner. His slothfulness in learning gives an added touch of plausibility to his narration. This makes the experience much more dramatic for the reader, who attains knowledge that Nick is gradually coming to a realistic view of what his experience taught him. Nick Carraway was the perfect narrator for The Great Gatsby, proving true that Fitzgerald’s greatest technical achievement in the novel was to have the narrator co-exist within and without the action.
