Thursday, February 18, 2016

How does the perspective of the narrator change the story? –Shayla McFarland

     I think the fact that the narrator is Nick influences the story quite a bit. He is perfectly in the middle of all other characters to give us a view into all their lives. He is cousin to Daisy, went to the same collage as her husband Tom, lives next door to Gatsby, and is a potential love interest for Jordan. Also, he seems to be an unbiased party to the wealth/social classes, while keeping a healthy curiosity of them as well.

     I think the author uses this to his advantage. Nick seems like a kind man through all that we’ve read, even going so far as to protect Gatsby from slander with information he doesn’t even learn until later, “His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was” (Fitzgerald 113). He also protects Tom’s ‘secret’, and helps Daisy with Gatsby. I don’t think we’d see this from any other character as the narrator.

2 comments:

  1. I agree. There is not anyone else that could tell this story better than Nick. His interest in the people around him is what makes the story so interesting. He constantly wants to know more about everyone. He goes with him to see Myrtle and helps Gatsby try to win over Daisy, and keeps it a secret from everyone. If he were to tell either side it would change my opinion on the story and change the whole story. Nick is the perfect narrator for this story. -Olivia Palotay

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  2. I agree with olivia that Nick thus far has done a magnificent job on telling this story. He does beg for more info from the other characters with suave and interest for he does eventually get it, but he for sure does a good job getting it by being there for practically everything important for these people due to his association with them. Not only that, his position too really get him an advantage as well.
    Luke Knollinger

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