Gatsby : Nick Carraway Flashcards
“I’ve been turning in my mind ever since”
• conflicted
• doesnt like the split of people due to money, class, race and status
• doesnt completely trust his fathers advice
• unreliable narrator
“In my younger and more vulnerable years”
• he believes he is wiser now and knows better
• nick narrates the story as a recollection of his time with Gatsby
• these “younger years” are his time with Gatsby
“Whenever you feel like critiquing anyone”
• Nick is a naturally judgmental person
• judges often without considering context or circumstances
• doesn’t properly understand what others are going through
• criticism of Nicks behaviour by his father
• separates Nick from the rest of the world because of his advantages
• old money
• sense on morality Nick calls the *”Fundamnetal decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth”, implying he is ethically above most people
Nick
• finds regular life boring
• from old money and is educated (Yale)
• doesn’t like to get involved in drama
• judgemental but reserved
• appears like a good listener and non judgemental
• people confide in him (he doesnt like it)
• out of place wherever he goes
• not rich enough for the rich, not poor enough for the poor
• unreliable narrator
• arguably the only person who genuinely likes Gatsby
• still resonates with his fathers advice
• nostalgic
“In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”
• Ironic as the whole novel is him talking about others and also describing them
• Because of his tendency not to judge, people tell him all of their secrets
• Hence him saying that a few people have bored him with their secrets
“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.”
• Gatsby is so amazing that Nick doesn’t reserve all judgements
• Gatsby is new money and Nick is old money, so Nick shouldn’t like Gatsby but Nick can’t not like him
• This ‘unaffected scorn’ is most likely passed down from his family
“I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War.”
• Nick is portraying the war as something that isn’t a big deal
• Calling it a ‘delayed … migration’ is very vague
• Maybe because his family is old money he didn’t have to play a massive part in WW1 (i.e. not on the front lines)
“I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon.”
• Nick offers this reflection on the first page of the novel, and his words have an important foreshadowing function
• The entire story that Nick is about to relate arises from his having become a confidante for 2 opposing men, Tom, and Gatsby
• The antagonism between these men has disastrous effects, and Nick finds himself caught in the middle of it
• This experience explains why, as he observes in the second sentence, nick now goes to any lengths necessary to avoid the confidences of others
