The Great Gatsby Character Development
In a novel the narrator is the vehicle, the one telling the story to the reader. Laying out critical information, describing the setting, creating mood and atmosphere, and generating information upon which we create our opinions on characters and events in the novel. These are classically what we associate the narrator with regard to the novel and its progression. The characters that the author describes are the major focus of the novel. Characters change and develop over the course of the novel, if there were no kind of change in any of the characters the novel would be almost pointless. Stories need to have rounded characters, whether they change for the better of worse, if nothing happened the novel wouldn't be much to read and wouldn't leave the reader satisfied one way or another in the end. What is interesting is when the narrator takes on a different type of role in a novel. He is no longer used merely as a device to incorporate information; instead he plays an important and active part in the development of the plot.Traditionally the narrator is usually outside of the story, but in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway (the narrator) is much more than that. Nick in this novel is
The last character of the novel that I will mention, the one who makes the novel unique is Nick Carraway. Though he is the narrator of the story, he is also a functioning character in the novel, second in importance only to Gatsby. More importantly he is the only character we see in the novel that goes though any kind of change or development. The novel begins and ends with Nick, and in a way the events tell the story of his development. In the beginning of the novel nick is reserved. Listening to advice given to him by his father he tends to reserve personal judgement of others. He sees faults of the other characters but does not act or say anything about them. He tolerates people, giving them what you might call the benefit of the doubt, he doesn't judge people. Nick interacts with the other characters in the story and even befriends the solitary Gatsby. This is very unusual for the narrator to be in the middle of the story, interacting as much as he does with others and going through the most dramatic change. He continues to reserve judgement on anyone until he turns thirty. Around this point his morals and his duty to speak up start to kick in. He can no longer tolerate the behavior and morals of the eastern upper class. He returns west after Gatsby's funeral, realizing that everyone except for Gatsby had been without morals and is too materialistic. No one except for Gatsby had shown any other real positive qualities like his romanticism and idealism. Nick over the course of the novel changes, while at first he can be tolerant, towards the end he feels like he can no longer idly sit back and be a part of this society with all its loose morals. Nick has principles and values that change over the novel, this is something we don't see in any other of the characters. The second character that plays a significant role in the novel that doesn't show any development is Tom Buchanan. Tom is a sterling example
Some common words found in the essay are:
Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, Gatsby Tom, Daisy Buchanan, Buchanan Tom, course novel, character novel, main character, nick carraway narrator, beginning novel, characters change, doesn't change, change characters, nick carraway, development characters, upper class,
Approximate Word count = 1294
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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