A strong protagonist will make the audience sympathize with them, and right now, I don't quite sympathize with any character. I guess we will have to sit back and wait for the protagonist to reveal him/herself.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Who is the Protagonist?
The protagonist (as we learned it in 8th grade) is the character who has to overcome the most obstacles. For me, at least, it is difficut to see who is the protagonist in The Great Gatsby thus far. The first candidate that jumps to my mind is Nick. However, he is boring (having neither opinions nor an interesting character) and is lacking a struggle in his life. Because he is not struggling with anything, he seems like a weak protagonist (at least for now). The next character that seems a likely candidate is Gatsby himself. After all, the title has his name in it. However, at this point, we cannot tell what kind of struggles Gatsby may be facing, or if he has any at all.
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Good question, Tim. Gatsby is the "title" character, but so far all we have to go on is mystery and innuendo. Time will tell if we sympathize with him. I will be eager to see what people think of this character and his choices!
ReplyDeleteFor the time being Nicks makes a great neutral guide to all that is Gatsby in the novel. Having a seemingly unbiassed and honestly uninteresting narrator certainly draws ones attention to Gatsby more, but I have feeling that as F Scott gets into more of his social commentary we will see an evolution of Nick in a manor that helps develop F Scott's main ideas into something more personal to the reader. I would not give up on Nick quite yet.
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