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The Great Gatsby
Who is the central character of “The Great Gatsby”, Nick
or Gatsby? Why?
1. Characterization of Nick2. Characterization of Gatsby3. Result
At first we want to introduce Nick and Gatsby, two of the main characters of
the book, to give you a better understanding of their behaviour and about our
opinion who is the central character. After this we will write a result.
1. Nick
Nick is born in a middle western city and grews up in a wealthy family. He has
a good education. His father always tells him not to judge other people, who
have no advantages in their childhood. For that Nick is respected and can make
friends easily. But also he isn’t perfect because he doesn´t
listen always to the stories of his friends.In 1915 he graduates from Yale and
participates in the first World War. Frustrated and disgusted by the western
provincialism he decides to go East in 1922 and to learn the bond business.
He wants to live in a more fashionable area and to get to know the upper class.
For that he moves to West Egg and lives in an “eyesore”
between two big mansions (p. 9/l.24). At the end Nick leaves West Egg on account
of moral frustration. He has learnt that money is more important for the upper
class than love. For the rich people, like Tom and Daisy, materialism plays
an important role. They create the illusion of being better, more valuable and
deserving than other people. Fitzgerald uses Nick as the first person narrator
and so he is mainly a passive observer. Nick is a reliable narrator because
he doesn’t only tell the story from his point of view, but also through
other characters like Jordan, when she tells us about Daisy’s past
(p.74 /5 – 77/10). His reports are in complex sentences with a touch
of irony. His character traits are tolerance, a certain snobbishness and self-irony.
Nick is an admirer of romantic and Gatsby, whom he despises at the beginning.
Nick is in the perfect position to tell the story, because he is Daisy’s
cousin, he was together with Tom at Yale and his house is next to Gatsby´s.
He knows the characters well enough to give us the main information about them.
Although Nick doesn’t like most of the characters and their behaviour
he doesn’t make any judgements. During his first visit at Daisy’s
and Tom’s house he gets to know Jordan, a famous golf player, and
falls in love with her. Jordan is actually a careless, bored and arrogant woman,
who is willing to do everything to win (p.59/1). But Nick doesn’t
care, which shows that he is only sexual interested in her. It’s only
her outward appearance which makes her attractive! One important thing, too,
is that Nick is Gatsby´s only friend at the end. He is the only one who
knows him really and tries to organize a dignified furneal. Although he despises
some things about Gatsby, he understands him in a certain way.
2.Gatsby
Gatsby is described as a self-assured, eccentric, ambiguous, romantic, sensitive,
lonely, mysterious, ambitious and generous man. He is a new rich and so he wants
to show everybody that he can buy everything with his money. But his intention
is not actually to present his money and his wealth, but to win back his love
Daisy. He creates the dream that she comes back because of his great and pompous
mansion which is furnished according to her taste. He doesn’t realize
that this is not the suitable way. Gatsby can impress Daisy, but it is the wrong
way to see what love is. That doesn’t make him a bad person, you can
see that he is blinded by love. He would do everything for Daisy. He bought
the big mansion to give parties in hope that Daisy would appear one day. Gatsby
is actually a good host, he always prepares his parties well. But he as himself
never appears and celebrates with his guests. Most of his guest aren’t
even invited, but he doesn’t care. You can compare him with a disco
owner who has a certain intention. In this case, it would be to conquer Daisy.His
mansion is situated next to the water, so that he can see the green light, which
belongs to Daisy’s dock. The green light is a symbol that Daisy is
near to him. Nobody really knows who Gatsby is, there are a lot of speculations
about his past. For example that he had killed a man, that he was a bootlegger
or that he was a German spy during the war. There is a lot of gossip about him.
In Chapter IV and VI Gatsby informs Nick about his past. He tells him that he
is the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west, but they are all dead
now. He brought up in America but educates in Oxford, because of the family
tradition. After the death of his family he gets some money and lives in all
the capitals of Europe. One day he sees the beautiful yacht of the millionaire
Cody. Gatsby borrows a row boat to warn Cody of an innpendiny storm. Cody take
the 17 year old boy for the job of a steward, mate and secretary. When Cody
dies, he leaves the boy a legacy of 25.000 $. Cody makes Jay Gatsby. Before
he meets Cody his name was James Gatz. In Chapter IV we also get to know about
Daisy’s and Gatsby´s love. Daisy was eighteen and the most popular
young girl in Louisville. She is dressed in white, and young officers from Camp
Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night (page 74). Once
Jordan saw Daisy and Gatsby, they were in love. That was in 1917. Then Gatsby
had to go to war, but Daisy promised to wait for him. The time was too long
for her and in the end she married Tom. Another reason for that was that “rich
girls don’t marry poor boys” and Gatsby wasn’t
rich at that time. Five years later Daisy and Gatsby meet again and he is still
blinded by love. He is willing to do everything for Daisy, even to say that
he was driving the “death-car” which kills Myrtle in the
end. This sacrifice becomes a disaster for him. Mr. Wilson kills Gatsby in his
swimming-pool in revenge for his wife.
3. RESULT (Who is the main character?) :
We think that Gatsby plays the most important role in the novel, it’s
a very special role. He is introduced very late. His first appearance is in
Chapter III at one of his parties (p.49/l.28). Before that, only Nick tells
us information about him. On the one hand Nick admires his neighbour because
of his wealth, the big parties and his romantic readiness, on the other hand
he despises him, because he thinks Gatsby is unable to understand what true
love is. He sees also a materialist in him. In our opinion Gatsby plays the
central character because the whole book is built up around his life and the
love for Daisy. Nick is responsible to tell the incidents in the right order,
so that we understand what is going on. He plays the central role in narration
but not in the book. We also get to know about Nick’s past and his
wishes, but that’s not the point. Nick tries to be part of the upper
class and builts up a relation to the famous golf player Jordan Baker. In the
end they finish their relationship because they recognize that they don’t
fit together. Jordan is only materialistic and finds her profit in everything,
but Nick expects more than that. He believes in true love, although he had tried
to be like a man of the higher society. He recognizes that materialism and love
couldn ´t lead to happiness. That is the point that Gatsby doesn’t
see. Another hint for Gatsby as the main character is the title “The
Great Gatsby”. Fitzgerald wouldn’t have chosen this title
if another character would be the most important person. Fitzgerald had also
to chose somebody who explains us details in the context and who is credible.
Nick has to play this part but that’s not the most important role.
Quelle: -"the great gatsby" -Lektürenhilfe
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