Gatsby Essay

Nick serves the purpose of literary device that has been employed to tell the themes of the story. In the novel, Nick Carraway tells us a story about Gatsby in which the latter tries to use wealth to attain happiness (Curnutt, 2004). Unlike all other characters in the novel, Nick is the only character that undergoes change from the beginning to the end of the novel. The society in which the story is set allows Jordan, Nick's girlfriend to cheat in golf and the same society does not raise any concern about her infidelity.  When the story begins, Nick accepts her girlfriend's dishonesty in an attempt to become part of the rich class. Nick reasons that "it made no difference to me. Dishonesty in women is a thing you never blame deeply-I was casually sorry, and then I forgot". He goes a head and charms Tom and Myrtle in an attempt to win over their friendship (Bruccoli, 2000).

The story develops during the World War I a moment that was couples with hard economic times. Nick's change of stances in various ways makes him the main character in the novel and enables readers to clearly understand other characters. Initially, nick is portrayed as a young graduate and a world war veteran who moves to New York to start a bond business (Bruccoli, 2000). He rents a bungalow in New York and start a modest life there. His reflections on past life and the way he compares it with the present life awaken in him a feeling that the values of those in the West and those he lived with in the Midwestern are different. He reckons "That's my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all-Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (Curnutt, 2004).

Nick's true colours seem to be obscured at the beginning. His friends only come to learn about his dishonesty very much later. Jordan rebukes him at the end of the story for being no better than the rest of the group members. As the story unfolds, his perception towards people keeps changing. He meets individuals who attempt all sorts of social evils from adultery to hypocrisy. He at first distances himself from them and he says   ' He  was clutching at some last hope and I couldn't bare to shake him free" (Bruccoli, 2000), a point that underscores his determination to pursue an immoral free life. As the story nears the end, most of nick's friend die and when people refuse to attend Gatsby's funeral, he asserts his determination to pay him the last respect. He says "When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out. When I was a young man it was different...I stuck with them to the end...Let us learn to show friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead...."  All his friends perish and he remains confused not knowing what to do (Bruccoli, 2000).

Nick is an important character who through his dramatic transformation builds on and makes reflections on other characters. He helps greatly in the development of the plot of the story as well as the main themes (Curnutt, 2004). At first, nick is portrayed as honest man of high moral integrity. His zeal to assimilate to his new friend's ways of life exposes him as a dishonesty person. He at first feared getting close to a dead person but masters his fears and attends Gatsby's funeral. It is true his unpredictable change of character that readers get a true picture of the story and the respective roles of other characters (Bruccoli, 2000).