Nick's Role
Nick serves as a semi-impartial narrator, whose internal struggle helps to highlight the conflict between a corrupted American Dream and Western traditional morals. Nick’s role as a narrator is greatly aided by his innate trustworthiness, which inspires many people to confide in him, especially Gatsby. This allows Nick onto an “inner track” of sorts, giving the reader more information and creating a deeper and more three-dimensional view of the characters.
Nick’s second role is to act as a microcosm to show the corruption of the American Dream and help the reader to see the macrocosm of America as a whole. Nick is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by life on the East coast. His internal conflict is externalized in his romance with Jordan Baker: He is both drawn to her vivacity, energy, and sophistication, and repulsed by her selfishness and dishonesty. This shows Nick’s attraction to the glamorous and hedonistic lifestyle of the corrupted American Dream, despite disliking its looser set of morals and damaging lifestyle. It also mirrors the internal struggle that many of us feel; whether to go to the party or to finish the English chapter presentation due the next day - that is the conflict between quick fun and the “right thing to do”.
Nick’s second role is to act as a microcosm to show the corruption of the American Dream and help the reader to see the macrocosm of America as a whole. Nick is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by life on the East coast. His internal conflict is externalized in his romance with Jordan Baker: He is both drawn to her vivacity, energy, and sophistication, and repulsed by her selfishness and dishonesty. This shows Nick’s attraction to the glamorous and hedonistic lifestyle of the corrupted American Dream, despite disliking its looser set of morals and damaging lifestyle. It also mirrors the internal struggle that many of us feel; whether to go to the party or to finish the English chapter presentation due the next day - that is the conflict between quick fun and the “right thing to do”.