In my opinion, Nick is not a reliable narrator. First of all, he comes from a middle-upperclass snobby family, and the apple never seems to fall far enough from the tree. "My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations." (p. 3). Within the first few pages, he is describing the wealth and fortune his family owns, due to a hardware business passed down each generation. Despite breaking free of family molds and going into the bond business, Nick still has a snobbish nature. For example, when he goes to visit Daisy and Tom Buchanan, the animosity Tom feels for Nick is apparent to the readers. Nick's take on the situation is, "I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him..." (p.7).
While narrators can, and usually do have skewed perspective, I think Nick's is too small a window to look at the other characters through. Readers are supposed to be able to make judgements on the characters themselves, but I feel Nick's opinion is too strong for the readers to get to that point. Every other character in this book, Nick describes them with a negative connotation: Tom is abusive, Daisy is cynical, Ms. Baker is lazy, Mrs. McKee is shrill, Mr. McKee is meek, and so on. I think that Nick judges the other characters too harshly, and denies the readers an opportunity to judge the characters themselves. A question I pose is: if Nick's opinion on the characters is ignored, how would you perceive the characters? If that's too broad, I pose another question: Despite Nick's current opinions, which current character do you think Nick would/will become closest to throughout the span of the book?
To answer your last question, Leslie, i think Nick will become closely associated to Gatsby. In chapter two, page 48, he goes into great detail about Gatsby's smile. Gatsby also invited him to the party, which Nick said doesn't happen for all the quests. Most of the guests just arrive. also, Gatsby invites Nick to meet him the next morning, showing the reader that there will be further interaction between the two characters.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, i'm interested with your opinion where you say he isn't a reliable narrator becasue he is from a middle to upper class background. i just don't see how he being well-off has to do with being reliable. in the very begging,we read about his father saying, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." this to me gives him a good basis for more sophisticated judgments. i think that puts a great deal of perspective into how he grew up and the moral standards that were set out for him. plus, other than that, we don't yet know anything about his family and his upbringing.
In my opinion Nick is a relilabe narrator. I feel that since Nick's father influnced him when he was younger, that he has the understanding that there are two sides to every person. When Nick describes Gatsby on page 2, he recognizes both sides of his personality. First Nick says that he has "an unaffected scorn" for all that Gatsby stands for, then he goes on to say that Gatsby has a "creative temperment... and a romantic readiness." By saything this he can see the whole person.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I think Nick won't become really close with any of the characters around him. He may wish to become close to some or just one, but in my opinion he seems a bit of a self-saboteur, something I won't go into in this comment.
ReplyDeleteBut I will say that I disagree with you that Nick's point of view is too small to really judge the characters around him. Plenty of dialog and non-distortable actions which Nick tells about give plenty of basis for anyone's judgement.
To give an example you yourself gave, Tom is abusive. Sure Nick insinuates this plenty and it is most certainly his opinion, but it's undeniably true. On page 37, Tom breaks Mrs. Wilson's nose just for saying Daisy repeatedly. Sure, Mrs. Wilson was being disrespectful, but to break her nose is in my opinion the definition of abusive.
Another example you give; Daisy is cynical. Quite honestly I never saw a place where Nick himself suggested Daisy is indeed cynical. There is a line of dialog "...I'm pretty cynical about everything." In truth, this and the dialog after this, which is Daisy explaining her downtrodden view of the world, is the only part I found suggesting that Daisy is a cynic. And since it's dialog, it would be the same from any characters point of view.
These are just two examples, but I truly feel that Nick's narrations only agree with the actions and dialog that are actually happening. Because of this, Nick is indeed a reliable narrator.
Wonderful discussion. This question of Nick's reliability has been debated for years!
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