In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. the storyteller Nick Carraway’s loss of artlessness and turning consciousness is one of the important subjects. Nick moves to West Egg. Long Island. an flush suburb of New York City. where millionaires and power brokers dominate the landscape. from his simple. idyllic Midwestern place. In his new place. he meets Jay Gatsby. the chief character in the novel. Throughout the novel. Nick’s engagement in Gatsby’s personal businesss causes him to bit by bit lose his artlessness and he finally becomes a mature individual. By larning about Gatsby’s yesteryear and acquiring to cognize how Gatsby faces the yesteryear and the present. Nick finds out about the futility of get awaying from the world. Nick besides learns how wealth can pervert when he meets the upper category people. Nick is cognizant of Gatsby’s chase of the American Dream and the devastation that the dream has brought Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby. Nick’s loss of artlessness and turning consciousness is demonstrated through Nick’s realisation of how the upper category people are. his acknowledgment of Gatsby’s failure in facing world. and the devastation that the chase of the American Dream has brought Gatsby.
Nick meets many members of the upper category and learns about the perverting power of great wealth. When Nick moves to the West Egg. he ever sees the large parties with many affluent people go toing. He thinks that the parties and the people must be astonishing. However. when he gets to cognize those people. Nick learns that the upper category society is full of prevarications and the maltreatment of power. Peoples with great wealth have more power than people who do non. They lie and they can acquire away with all their mistakes. When Nick meets Jordan Baker. he is attracted to her and thinks that she is a good individual. Subsequently. he finds out Jordan’s true personality and realizes that he is non in love with her.
I wasn’t really in love. but I felt a kind of stamp wonder. The world-weary haughty face that she turned to the universe concealed something–most mannerisms conceal something finally. even though they don’t in the beginning–and one twenty-four hours I found what it was. When we were on a house-party together up in Warwick. she left a borrowed auto out in the rain with the top down. and so lied about it–and all of a sudden I remembered the narrative about her that had eluded me that dark at Daisy’s. At her first large gold tourney at that place was a row that about reached the newspapers–a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad prevarication in the semi-final unit of ammunition. ( 58 )
Nick realizes that Jordan Baker is a dishonorable individual. He does non like her anymore and wants to stop his relationship with her instantly because he is an honorable individual. Nick besides finds out that people in the upper category normally abuse their power. Tom wants Nick to run into his kept woman Myrtle because he wants to demo Nick that he has great wealth and that it is all right for him to hold a beautiful married woman and have an matter with another adult female. Tom besides thinks that everyone should esteem him because he is affluent. “Now he was a hardy straw-haired adult male of 30. with a instead difficult oral cavity and a disdainful manner” ( 12 ) . Tom believes that hapless people should non be treated with regard. and that people with great wealth could make everything they want. Through disbursement clip with the upper-class people. Nick recognizes that wealth destroys people and that people in the upper category are all dishonest. mercenary. and egoistic.
Nick becomes Gatsby’s close friend. and through happening out about Gatsby’s yesteryear and cognizing how Gatsby faces the yesteryear and the present. Nick learns that one must confront world in order to continue with one’s life. At first. Nick does non cognize about Gatsby’s yesteryear and no 1 knows how Gatsby got his wealth and position. Subsequently. Nick learns that Gatsby comes from a hapless background but he lies that he is from a affluent household.
I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford’ . or swallowed it. or choked on it. as though it had bothered him before. And with this uncertainty. his whole statement fell to pieces. and I wondered if there wasn’t something a small sinister about him. after all. ( 64 )
Nick knows that Gatsby lies because Gatsby wants people to esteem him and he does non desire to confront the world that he comes from a hapless household. Furthermore. Nick knows about Daisy and Gatsby’s past relationship and how Gatsby can non confront the world that Daisy is married to Tom. Gatsby presses Daisy to state him that she ne’er loved Tom. Gatsby wants to deny the truth and wants to convey back the old yearss he spent with Daisy.
He talked a batch about the yesteryear. and I gathered that he wanted to retrieve something. some thought of himself possibly. that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since so ( 106 ) .
Gatsby can non accept the truth that Daisy has married person else. and he wants to travel back to the clip when Daisy and he were together. Gatsby can non travel on with his life. Through cognizing about Gatsby’s yesteryear and how he escapes from it. Nick learns that one must populate in the present and that the effort to acquire back to the yesteryear is ineffectual. hopeless. and impossible.
Nick is involved in many of Gatsby’s personal businesss and he eventually learns that the American Dream does non convey any felicity to Gatsby and destroys him alternatively. Nick. who leaves his Midwestern life and its values. is a informant to the devastation of the American Dream. Nick comes to the East with great hope and outlooks. but so discovers how the hope has been crushed by man’s greed and immorality. The cardinal minute of enlightenment comes when he talks with Gatsby after run intoing the ill-famed gambler Meyer Wolfsheim. Nick finds out that Wolfsheim is the adult male who fixed the World’s Series and he is shocked.
The thought staggered me. I remembered. of class. that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919. but if I had thought of it all I would hold thought of it as a thing that simply happened. the terminal of some inevitable concatenation. It ne’er occurred to me that one adult male could get down to play with the religion of 50 million people–with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe. ( 71 )
Nick’s contact with Wolsheim causes him to understand that people achieve their American Dream through corrupted ways. Nick is an honorable individual. and he ne’er knew that people would utilize such corrupted ways to derive wealth. By run intoing Wolsheim. he finds out that the American Dream causes people to turn into unscrupulous persons. Gatsby’s dream is to acquire wealth and to win back Daisy. Nick admires Gatsby’s love and devotedness for Daisy. and he helps Gatsby to set up his meeting with Daisy. Gatsby takes the incrimination for Daisy when she hits Myrtle with the auto. and this finally leads to his decease. At the terminal. Nick learns that Gatsby’s dream is unrealistic and that Daisy is unworthy for Gatsby to make so much for her. Daisy is mercenary and loveless that she ne’er tells the truth of Myrtle’s decease and she does non even attend Gatsby’s funeral. Through witnessing all these events that are involved in Gatsby’s effort to accomplish his dream. Nick learns that the American Dream brings one hopes and inducements in the beginning. but depression and letdown at the terminal.
In The Great Gatsby. Nick’s loss of artlessness and turning consciousness is demonstrated through Nick’s realisation of how the upper category people are. his acknowledgment of Gatsby’s failure in facing world. and the devastation that the chase of the American Dream has brought Gatsby. When Nick foremost moves to West Egg. he is guiltless and hopes to larn about the admirations of the universe. However. as he meets the upper category people and gets involved in their personal businesss. Nick finds out that the upper category society is corrupted and is deficiency of order. Nick discovers that the members of the upper category society are all dishonest. egocentric. and cruel. Nick besides learns that one should ever confront the world because when one escapes from it. one would non be able to continue with one’s life. Furthermore. Nick comes to cognize that the American Dream does non convey people happiness but instead make full them with letdown. Throughout the novel. Nick’s brush with Gatsby and others causes him to bit by bit lose his artlessness and he finally becomes a to the full mature individual.
Bibliography
Fitzgerald. F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. England: Penguin Books Ltd. . 1926.
