Nick Carraway
“I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone.” (164)
This quote best sums up Nick’s attitude in this chapter and brings the novel full circle. From this quote, it is clear that only Gatsby is safe from Nick’s growing resentment. Nick feels like everyone else is not on his and Gatsby’s side. This captures the prevailing attitude Nick gives off in this chapter, which is disgust for the upper class and repulsion for what happened to Gatsby. Lastly, this quote brings the novel back to the very first chapter where Nick told us, “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction.” (2)
Nick's Best Qualities:Responsible
“At first I was surprised and confused; then as he lay in his house and didn’t move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested--interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which every one has some vague right at the end.” (164)
Good friend to Gatsby/ Loyal "I'll get somebody for you, Gatsby. Don't worry. Just trust me and I'll get somebody for you." (164)
Ability to tell right from wrong He realizes this by calling Daisy and Tom “careless people.” (179)
|
Nick's Worst QualitiesPassive
“...and anybody would have said they were conspiring together.” (145)
Dishonest
Even Jordan Baker remarks, “I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.” (177)
|
Nick's role in the novel:
Nick is the narrator of this novel, and serves as a stand-in for the readers. Through his eyes, the reader gets to experience the lives of Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and Gatsby crash together. He connects the characters together and the result is what we see in the ensuing chapters. More specifically in chapter 9, it is through Nick’s disillusionment and resentment that we are able to see through the superficial East and realize how moral emptiness in the upper class.