Character of Nick Carroway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Character of Nick Carroway in The coarse Gatsby In his novel, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the character of Nick Carroway as a decent person. Nick stands out when being compared to the former(a) characters in the story. It is Nicks honesty with himself and toward others, his morality, and his unbiased, slow to judge qualities that make him the novels best character. The chain of events that occur in the story begin with Nick meeting Jordan Baker at Gatsbys party. It was this meeting that causes Nick to mention the topic of honesty. Nick learns about Jordans cheating in a golf tournament, and he realizes how dishonest Jordan really is. She was incredibly dishonest, (Page 58) Nick said, adding, Dishonesty in a woman is a thing that you can never sentence deeply. (Page 59) Jordan seemed to contrast her own dishonesty with Nicks honesty. On the night of the party, Jordan leads Nick to say, Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtue s, and this is mine I am one of the few honest people I have ever known. (Page 60) He supports his words with his actions as a narrator, as well as his share as a character in the story. As the narrator, he was honest with himself, one example being Nick admitting to himself that Jordan was not only dishonest, but self-loving and cynical as well, but he loved her regardlessly. As the novels main character, he was the only one that did not feel the need to mislead other people. All of the other characters would use an impressive, unreal facade in order to attract people and make a good first impression. For example, Daisy acted completely diametrical around company from when she was with Tom. However, this happened while Nick would always let his honest, true character show through the entire time. Nick also seemed to be The Great Gatsbys only uncorrupted, unmaterialistic character. Every other character, including Gatsby himself, seemed to think that money could buy happiness. Gatsbys though process is a prime example of that he thought that he could take over Daisy by impressing her with his extravagant parties. The fact is, Daisy, being materialistic herself, probably would have been won over, had she not been already married to a rich man. That philistinism is what leads to the characters corruption.