What is revealed when nick says that people

Daisy's letters begged him to return, not understanding why he wasn't rushing back to be with her. She was missing the post-war euphoria sweeping the nation and she wanted her dashing officer by her side. Eventually Daisy moved again into society, feeling the need to have some stability and purpose in her life. However, Daisy's lack of principle shows when she is willing to use love, money, or practicality whichever was handier to determine the direction of her life.

She wanted to be married. When Tom arrived, he seemed the obvious choice, and so Daisy sent Gatsby a letter at Oxford. The letter, it turns out, brought Gatsby back stateside. It is as if now that Daisy was married he could return and not have to fear being found out.

He could carry his love for Daisy around with him, knowing full well that she was unobtainable. Although Gatsby isn't likely to admit it, in a way, Daisy marrying Tom was the perfect solution to his situation because now that she was married to another, she need never know how poor he really was.

After returning to the U. From this moment, he spends his days trying to recapture the beauty that he basked in while with young Daisy Fay.

Upon hearing Gatsby's true story, Nick cannot help but be moved and spends the rest of the day worrying about his friend. While in the city, Nick tries desperately to keep focused on his work, but can't seem to do so.

What he has realized through Gatsby's story and the events of the previous night , and part of what is troubling him, is that he has come to know the shallowness of "polite society. In fact, when Jordan phones Nick at work he is unwilling to speak to her, finding himself more and more irritated by her shallow and self-serving ways.

In rejecting her the first man ever to do so Nick has grown, not only seeing what dark stuff that socialites are really made of, but possessing the courage to stand against it. Midway through the chapter, Fitzgerald shifts focus to the valley of ashes and has Nick recount what had gone on there in the hours prior.

George Wilson has become overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his wife. Directly contrasting Tom Buchanan who is unable to experience a heartfelt emotion , George is devastated and overwhelmed by emotion.

His neighbor, Michaelis, tries to console him, but nothing seems to help. George lives in an effectual wasteland, void of spirituality, void of life, and when in his grief he tells Michaelis of his last day with Myrtle, he turns to the giant billboard above him.

In what is perhaps his most lucid statement in the whole book, Wilson explains the purpose of Doctor T. Eckleburg's enormous eyes. They are the eyes of God, and "God sees everything. Wilson's grief knows no bounds and while Michaelis sleeps, he heads in to town, eventually tracking Gatsby down and killing him while he floats on an air mattress in his swimming pool. Owl Eyes and another man climb out of the wrecked automobile, and Owl Eyes drunkenly declares that he washes his hands of the whole business.

Nick then proceeds to describe his everyday life, to prove that he does more with his time than simply attend parties. He works in New York City, through which he also takes long walks, and he meets women. Nick says that Jordan is fundamentally a dishonest person; he even knows that she cheated in her first golf tournament.

Nick feels attracted to her despite her dishonesty, even though he himself claims to be one of the few honest people he has ever known. He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. The rich, both socialites from East Egg and their coarser counterparts from West Egg, cavort without restraint. As his depiction of the differences between East Egg and West Egg shows, Fitzgerald is fascinated with the social hierarchy and mood of America in the s, when a large group of industrialists, speculators, and businessmen with brand-new fortunes joined the old, aristocratic families at the top of the economic ladder.

In this scenario, Gatsby is again an enigma—though he lives in a garishly ostentatious West Egg mansion, East Eggers freely attend his parties. Despite the tensions between the two groups, the blend of East and West Egg creates a distinctly American mood. While the Americans at the party possess a rough vitality, the Englishmen there are set off dramatically, seeming desperate and predatory, hoping to make connections that will make them rich.

Chapter 3 is devoted to the introduction of Gatsby and the lavish, showy world he inhabits. Fitzgerald gives Gatsby a suitably grand entrance as the aloof host of a spectacularly decadent party. Nick's reservation of judgment about people is carefully calculated "snobbish," as he even says and even Nick, the rational narrator, can be pushed too far. His tolerance has a limit, and it is the challenge to this limit that forms the basis of the book at hand.

As the chapter continues, more of Nick's background is discussed: the way in which he was raised and his moral character. Nick continues to sell himself, informing the reader that he is an educated man, having graduated from New Haven, home of Yale University. He comes from "prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations.

It qualifies Nick to be part of the action which he will unfold — a tale of socialites, money, and privilege — while also keeping him carefully apart. He has come from the Midwest, which for Fitzgerald is a land of perceived morality.

Nick has moved East, and disgusted, returns to the Midwest. The reader knows that Nick is not only upset over the action that he will unfold, but he is downright offended by the moral rancor of the situation.

Readers, wanting to believe in their own moral fortitude, find themselves siding with Nick, trusting him to exercise the same sound judgment they themselves would exercise.

The story begins. It is , and Nick has moved East to seek his fortune as a bond salesman, a booming, thriving business that, he supposes, "could support one more single man. This detail immediately encourages readers to see the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots.

West Egg, although also home to the rich, was home to "new money," people whose wealth was recently earned, as well as to working class people such as Nick. On another level, the delineation between the Eggs can also be a metaphorical representation of the sensibilities of people from the Eastern and Western parts of the United States. The story's first adventure, and the one that comprises a large portion of Chapter 1, is Nick's visit with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, at their mansion in East Egg.

The visit not only introduces the other characters crucial to the story, but it also presents a number of themes that will be developed in various ways throughout the novel. Daisy and Tom appear in stark contrast to the image of Nick: Whereas he is relatively industrious after all, he came East by himself to make his fortune rather than staying home and doing what is expected of him , the Buchanans live in the lap of luxury.

Arriving at the mansion, Nick is greeted by Tom, dressed in riding clothes. Tom is an impressive figure, dressed for a sport linked closely with people of wealth and means "effeminate swank" as Nick calls it.

He stands boldly, with "a rather hard mouth," "a supercilious manner," "two shining arrogant eyes," and speaks with "a touch of paternal contempt. Rather, he is harsh and powerful, caring little for social equality and protocol. As a reader, you should be skeptical of Nick because of how he opens the story, namely that he spends a few pages basically trying to prove himself a reliable source see our beginning summary for more on this , and later, how he characterizes himself as "one of the few honest people I have ever known" 3.

After all, does an honest person really have to defend their own honesty? However, despite how judgmental he is, Nick is a very observant person, especially in regard to other people, their body language, and social situations. For example, in Chapter 6, Nick immediately senses Gatsby isn't really welcome at the Sloanes' house before Tom says it outright. Nick is also able to accurately predict Daisy won't leave Tom at the end of Chapter 1, after observing her standing in the door with Tom: "I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away.

It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms—but apparently there were no such intentions in her head" 1.

If only Jay could have seen Daisy's intentions so clearly! In short, Nick delegates to another narrator when he knows he doesn't have enough information , and makes sure the reader comes away with a clear understanding of the fundamental events of the tragedy.

In short, you shouldn't believe everything Nick says, especially his snobbier asides, but you can take his larger characterizations and version of events seriously. But as you read, try to separate Nick's judgments about people from his observations!

A hero, or protagonist, is generally the character whose actions propel the story forward, who the story focuses on, and they are usually tested or thwarted by an antagonist. So in the most traditional sense, Gatsby is the hero —he drives the action of the story by getting Jordan and Nick to reintroduce him to Daisy which leads to the affair, confrontation in Manhattan, the death of Myrtle, and then the murder-suicide , he goes up against an antagonist of sorts Tom , and the story ends with his death.

Gatsby's story is thus a cynical take on the traditional rags-to-riches story. However, some people see the protagonist as also the person who changes the most in the course of a story. In this case, you might argue that since Nick changes a lot during the novel see below , while Gatsby during the story itself doesn't change dramatically his big character changes come before the chronology of the novel , that Nick is in fact the protagonist.

Nick's story is a take on the coming of age narrative—he even has an important birthday 30 in the novel! Basically, if you think the protagonist is the character who propels the action of the story, and someone who has an antagonist, it's Gatsby.

But if you think the protagonist is the person who changes the most, you could argue Nick is the hero. We never get a physical description of Nick, so don't blame yourself if your mental image of him is bland and amorphous like this fellow. And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees—just as things grow in fast movies—I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. There was so much to read for one thing and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air.

As the summer goes on, he meets someone wildly more hopeful than he is—Gatsby, of course—and he begins to be more cynical in how he views his own life in comparison, realizing that there are certain memories and feelings he can no longer access. Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something—an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man's, as though there was more struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air.

But they made no sound and what I had almost remembered was uncommunicable forever. Finally, after the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson, as well as the passing of his thirtieth birthday, Nick is thoroughly disenchanted, cynical, regretful, even angry, as he tries to protect Gatsby's legacy in the face of an uncaring world, as well as a renewed awareness of his own mortality.

Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away. After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction. On the last night, with my trunk packed and my car sold to the grocer, I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure of a house once more.

On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight and I erased it, drawing my shoe raspingly along the stone. Nick goes from initially taken with Gatsby, to skeptical, to admiring, even idealizing him, over the course of the book.

When he first meets Gatsby in Chapter 3, he is drawn in by his smile and immediately senses a peer and friend, before of course Gatsby reveals himself as THE Jay Gatsby:. He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.

It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.

It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. In Chapter 4, Nick is highly skeptical of Gatsby's story about his past, although he is somewhat impressed by the medal from "little Montenegro" 4.

He looked at me sideways—and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase "educated at Oxford," or swallowed it or choked on it as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt his whole statement fell to pieces and I wondered if there wasn't something a little sinister about him after all. He also seems increasingly skeptical after his encounter with Meyer Wolfshiem, who Nick describes very anti-Semitically.

When Wolfshiem vouches for Gatsby's "fine breeding," 4. In Chapter 5, as Nick observes the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy, he first sees Gatsby as much more human and flawed especially in the first few minutes of the encounter, when Gatsby is incredibly awkward , and then sees Gatsby has transformed and "literally glowed" 5.

Notice how warm Nick's description is:. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room 5. In Chapter 6, Nick honestly and frankly observes how Gatsby is snubbed by the Sloanes, but he seems more like he's pitying Gatsby than making fun of him.

It almost seems like he's trying to protect Gatsby by cutting off the scene just as Gatsby comes out the door, coat in hand, after the Sloanes have coldly left him behind:. Tom and I shook hands, the rest of us exchanged a cool nod and they trotted quickly down the drive, disappearing under the August foliage just as Gatsby with hat and light overcoat in hand came out the front door.

By Chapter 7, during the confrontation in the hotel, Nick is firmly on Gatsby's side, to the point that he is elated when Gatsby reveals that he did, in fact, attend Oxford but didn't graduate:.

I wanted to get up and slap him on the back. I had one of those renewals of complete faith in him that I'd experienced before. As the rest of the novel plays out, Nick becomes more admiring of Gatsby, even as he comes to dislike the Buchanans and Jordan, by extension more and more.

Why exactly Nick becomes so taken with Gatsby is, I think, up to the reader. In my reading, Nick, as someone who rarely steps outside of social boundaries and rarely gets "carried away" with love or emotion see how coldly he ends not one but three love affairs in the book!

Gatsby's fate also becomes entangled with Nick's own increased cynicism, both about his future and life in New York, so he clings to the memory of Gatsby and becomes determined to tell his story. At first, this might not seem plausible—Nick dates Jordan during the book and also admits to a few other love affairs with women and at one point confesses to being "half in love with [Jordan].

First of all, consider the odd moment at the end of Chapter 2 that seems to suggest Nick goes home with Mr. I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear , with a great portfolio in his hands.