Character of Nick Carroway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Character of Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby In his novel, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the character of Nick Carroway as a decent person. Nick stands out when being compared to the separate characters in the story. It is Nicks h binglesty with himself and toward others, his morality, and his unbiased, slow to judge qualities that make him the novels best character. The chain of events that issue forth in the story begin with Nick meeting Jordan Baker at Gatsbys party. It was this meeting that causes Nick to mention the topic of franky. Nick learns about Jordans fraud in a golf tournament, and he realizes how dishonest Jordan really is. She was improbably dishonest, (Page 58) Nick said, adding, Dishonesty in a woman is a subject that you can never blame deeply. (Page 59) Jordan seemed to contrast her own dishonesty with Nicks honesty. On the night of the party, Jordan leads Nick to say, Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine I am one of the few honest people I have ever known. (Page 60) He supports his words with his actions as a narrator, as well as his role as a character in the story. As the narrator, he was honest with himself, one physical exercise being Nick admitting to himself that Jordan was not only dishonest, but selfish and misanthropical as well, but he loved her regardlessly. As the novels main character, he was the only one that did not feel the need to mislead other people. All of the other characters would use an impressive, unreal facade in differentiate to attract people and make a good first impression. For example, Daisy acted all different around company from when she was with Tom. However, this happened while Nick would always allow his honest, true character show through the entire time. Nick also seemed to be The Great Gatsbys only uncorrupted, unmaterialistic character. Every other character, including Gatsby himself, seemed to think that mone y could buy happiness. Gatsbys though process is a prime example of that he thought that he could win over Daisy by impressing her with his extravagant parties. The particular is, Daisy, being materialistic herself, probably would have been won over, had she not been already married to a rich man. That materialism is what leads to the characters corruption.