Though as readers we only receive Nick’s biased view on events and only hear his commentary on events this in now way means that his opinion is anything less than fact. If this were a real story told by a real person then yes, Nick would be extremely unreliable narrator. All his drinking and the fact that we never hear any other opinions would create a completely biased and therefore unreliable perspective for the reader. The Great Gatsby however, is a work of fiction and, when analyzing the writing style, must be taken as such. We cannot look at Nick as a person; rather we should view him as a device, which Fitzgerald uses to show us the world he created. This means that whatever Nick may say or think is, in fact, Fitzgerald telling us what to make of the situation described at that time. By creating a biased narrator he passes his own ideas and social commentaries through to the reader without simply stating them. No matter who or what a fictional narrator may be they are only there to pass-along the message of the author.
To summarize: Fitzgerald created Nick with intent; meaning that for all analytical purposes Fitzgerald is the narrator.
Eliot, this idea will certainly come into play when we look at the social theories: Marxism, feminism, African American criticism, post-colonial criticism. Fitzgerald is certainly making a social commentary through this book. The question is, is he critiquing the American class system, or is he himself enamored of the upper class?
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