The perspective of the narrator has a great impact on the story. The narrator, Nick Carraway, does not come from money like the rest of the people upper class people he associates himself with. Since he is different from his friends (Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Jordan), you would expect Nick to feel inferior to them because of his lower status, but that is not the way Nick sees he. He gives a very unbiased perspective on the story, and I think that is contributes greatly to the way readers view the story. If Nick was biased when he told the story of Gatsby, he would give the readers an opinion on Gatsby before we found out anything about him. Nick is fully aware that Gatsby treats him like he is superior to him, but he does not seem to care. Nick does not think less of Gatsby, and the same goes for the rest of the upper class people that look down on him. When Nick invites Gatsby over to his house for tea, Nick says, "The day agreed upon was pouring rain. At eleven o'clock a man in a raincoat, dragging a lawn-mower, tapped at my front door and said that Mr. Gatsby had sent him over to cut my grass". Gatsby did not like the way that Nick's house looked, so he decided that he should make improvements to it such as cutting the grass and planting flowers. Nick could have easily been upset by Gatsby's actions, but instead he is not phased by it.
I think the author wants us to see the story of the roaring 1920's through the eyes of someone who is not living like the rich were during that time. Nick is not used to have tons of money and constantly celebrating, so when he gets thrown into this new life, we see it from his perspective. Also, we get to see how the upper class act towards the lower classes. Tom is very arrogant, and he treats Nick, along with most people, with little respect. If the story was told by someone from the upper class, we would not can an outside perspective of the lives of the rich, or see how differently the treat other people. In my opinion, it makes the story more interesting because instead of the narrator giving you an opinion at the beginning of the story, you get the chance to form your own.
It is very interesting how often Nick just goes along with whatever his richer friends say. So I agree that the author probably wanted to have a narrator that wasn't upper class, so the readers could form their own opinions, but I also think he wrote Nick out to be someone pretty passive, and willing to go along with the flow to not only advance the plot, but show us more of the lives led by the rich. -Shayla McFarland
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think that if Nick was from the upper class, his opinions would be more upper class based and biased. Nick is very calm and adaptable to his environments. His opinions are not as biased because he can see from multiple view points.
ReplyDelete^Carson Corrick
DeleteI agree that it's interesting how Nick is the story when he isn't really involved with the other main characters. I like it a lot in the sense that it's neutral from the start and keeps that suspicion on what will happen next. Nick is in the perfect location to be the narrator. Next door neighbors with Gatspy and right across the lake from Daisy and Tom. He can see everything that is going on without being involved.
ReplyDeleteJared Jorden
Personally, i believe that even if nick had been from the upper class, that his opinions wouldn't be much different. Nick seems to be the guy who's opinions stay true. I guess the only thing that would change would be the way he perceives some of the actions of his fellow characters in the book.
ReplyDelete-Luke Knollinger