question 1- Olivia Palotay

The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway. He took part in WW1 and graduated from Yale. He did not come from money, and coincidently moved in next door to Mr. Gatsby when he moved to the West Egg in New York City. He is cousins with Daisy Buchannan, friends with her husband Tom Buchannan, and forms a close relationship with Jordan Baker. He claims to be an honest man, and throughout the book he proves it in different ways. Nick portrays an honest man from the beginning of the book when he says, ""Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had"" (Fitzgerald 1). The quote is one of the first sentences in the book, and it immediately gives readers a sense of how Nick's character in the book. The quote is saying that you should look at things from everyone's perspective because everyone's experiences are different, and Nick definitely lives by this quote throughout the book. For a majority of the book, Nick does not judge anyone. He knows how the stereotypical rich person is supposed to act, but tried to see past that in all the characters, only to be disappointed in the end.


Nick is thrown into this new, high class lifestyle immediately when he moves to the West Egg because of Daisy. Daisy, Tom, and Jordan show Nick what it is like to have all the money you could ask for and party all you want. He is in a lower social class than them, but does not seem phased by it. He does everything with them and never judges them because of their money. I believe that the author made Nick the character he is because it shows an outside view of the rich life. Everyone treats Nick like an equal, but he is constantly reminded that he does not have what they have, especially since he lives next door to Gatsby. Through out the book, Nick began finding out  more and more about his friends' lives. Daisy and Tom cared about money and social status, and Gatsby cared about Daisy and what she thought of him. Once Nick knew them well enough, he formed an opinion on them. He realized that they are not as great as they come off to be, and I respect Nick for that. He went the whole having little opinion on everything, but once he knew enough about each of them to form an opinion, he did. I liked Nick and the way his character was throughout the whole book, and I think the he could not have narrated the book any better.