Nick, is first of all, Fitzgerald's means of making his story more realistic. Because Nick is experiencing events and telling us about them in his own words, we're more likely to believe the story. After a while we almost begin to experience the events a s Nick does; the I of each of us as readers replaces the I of Nick. (For more details, see "Point of View.")

Nick is a narrator whose values you should have no trouble identifying or at least sympathizing with. He's not mad or blind to what's going on aro und him. He's a pretty solid young man who has graduated from Yale University, served his country in the First World War, and decided to go into the bond business. He comes from a solid Midwestern family, from whom he has learned some pretty basic values. He is honest, but not Puritanical or narrow minded. He is tolerant, understanding, and not hasty to judge people. He is the sort of person you might talk to if you wanted a sympathetic ear. But his toleration has limits.

These are some of the qualities that make Nick a reliable narrator, someone whose story we are likely to believe. It seems often that his values are pretty close to those of the author.

Many readers have remarked that the novel is based on a contrast between the solid, traditional, conservative Midwest and the glamorous, glittering, fa st-paced world of the East. Nick (like Scott Fitzgerald, his creator) is from Minnesota. He comes East to experience the new and exciting world of New York that is very different from Minneapolis-St. Paul. At the end, he chooses to leave the East and retu r n to the Midwest. By that choice he seems to be saying to us that he has tried the East and found it missing something he needs: a basic set of values. So he goes home, where values still exist. Think about the two worlds--the Midwest and the East and wha t they represented for Nick (and by extension, Fitzgerald) and what they might represent for you.

Another important aspect of Jordan is her function in the novel. Fitzgerald needs her to get the story told. Because she is Daisy's friend from Louisville, she can supply Nick with information he would not have otherwise. She also serves as a link between the major characters, moving back and forth between the world of East Egg (Tom and Daisy's house) and West Egg (Gatsby's and Nick's houses). She is rich enough to be comfortable among the East Eggers but e nough of a social hustler to appear at Gatsby's parties.

Jordan serves still another purpose: Nick's girlfriend during the summer of 1922. The Nick-Jordan romance serves as a nice sub-plot to the Gatsby-Jordan relationship, and allows you to compare and co ntrast a romantic-idealistic love with a very practical relationship made on a temporary basis by two worldly people of the time.

Nick has that capacity, which Fitzgerald felt was so terribly important (see The Author and His Times), of holding two contradictory opinions at the same time. He both admires Gatsby and disapproves of him. He admi res Gatsby both because of his dream and because of his basic innocence; and he disapproves of Gatsby for his vulgar materialism and his corrupt business practices. (Nick does not want to become involved with Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby's underworld "connecti on.")

The title of this novel is The Great Gatsby. If you like paradoxes, start with this one: he is neither great nor Gatsb y (his real name was Gatz). He is a crook, a bootlegger who has involved himself with Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series. He has committed crimes in order to buy the house he feels he needs to win the woman he loves, who happens to b e another man's wife. Thus a central question for us as readers is, why should we love such a man? Or, to put it in other word, what makes Gatsby great? Why, despite all these things, does Fitzgerald invite us to cry out with Nick, "'They're a rotten crowd '... 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.'"?

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jordan Baker, Dream Success--the, Gatsby Nick, Gatsby Daisy, World War, East Eggers, Chapter VII, Tom Daisy, World Series, Owl Eyes--and, tom buchanan, jordan baker, ^^^^^^^^^^the gatsby, gatsby daisy, gatsby nick, nick carraway, dream dream, involved meyer wolfsheim, golden girl, tolerant understanding, green light, nick carraway nick, foul dust floated, dust floated wake,
Approximate Word count = 2822
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)