ill make a statement, only to later contradict himself. Very early in the novel, Nick describes Gatsby by saying “there was something gorgeous about him.” (2) However, he states in the same paragraph that “Gatsby....represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” Nick has similar conflicting feelings towards the Buchanans, for he “is repulsed by the Buchanans droit de seigneur and their moral carelessness, he is attracted by their nobility and their heightened life.” (Lehan, 109) When Tom states that whites are deservedly the dominant race, Nick says that “there was something pathetic in his concentration” (14) Despite this disdainful view, Nick sees that Daisy exudes “a whispered ‘Listen’, a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay and exciting things hovering in the next hour.” (9-10) Nick is mesmerized by this, and says about Tom, almost wishfully, “while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me.” (7) Why would Fitzgerald choose such an inconsistent character for narrator? Key to remember when analyzing these statements is that they all occur very early in the novel. Soon after, Carraway undergoes a change. Nick begins to form solid opinions about the people around him until finally: “They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. (154) Nick seems to have become sure of his dislike for Gatsby; his “compliment” is only a disguised barb. Nick feels that it is not admirable to be equal to a “rotten bunch.” The emotions of Nick Carraway are particularly important in this passage; Nick’s character would not h...
