How Does Nick Carraway Present Gatsby's Life

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Pages: 5

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”, (Fitzgerald 180). In the Great Gatsby written by Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby and Fitzgerald's lives were portrayed through this quote. Both Gatsby and Fitzgerald wanted something they couldn’t have based on their pasts which eventually destroyed them. Nick Carraway the main character in The Great Gatsby, didn’t exactly portray Fitzgerald’s life, it portrayed the life he wanted. Fitzgerald portrays his own life struggles through the characters of Nick, the life he wanted, and Gatsby the life he had. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in Minnesota. Both of Fitzgerald’s parents were upper middle class and gave Scott the best education they could. Fitzgerald …show more content…
Nick appreciates Gatsby and says, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgerald 154). Nick is not the richest, nor the poorest, and seems to have the knowledge that there are higher status people than him, and he is okay with that. Nick is the narrator of this book; the readers find it easier to trust him while all of the lies and affairs are happening around him. Nick is a great listener and observes the people around him. Unlike Gatsby and Fitzgerald, Nick is disturbed by the way the people are living in East and West Egg. Gatsby’s blinded by his love for Daisy, but Nick makes a note to say, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 179). Nick explains to the reader that he does not respect anything the Buchanan’s do and they don’t take responsibility for their actions. Later in the story, Nick shares that Gatsby told him that he was not driving the car that hit Myrtle, and that it was Daisy, in addition this shows how selfish and disrespectful Daisy is of her peers to let someone else take the fall. Nick almost goes down the same track as Gatsby and Fitzgerald did by meeting Jordan Baker, Daisy's best friend. Jordan and Nick have a lustful …show more content…
Some may say it’s just a coincidence that these events match up, but other stories written by Scott Fitzgerald are also autobiographical. “It was characteristics of Fitzgerald, who was one of the most autobiographical of writers, to transform his own experiences into fiction”, (Donaldson