Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway, the narrator, is a young man from the Midwest of the USA who, having graduated from Yale in 1915 and fought in World War I, has returned home to begin a career. Like others in his generation, he is restless and has decided to move East to New York and learn the bond business. The novel opens early in the summer of 1922 in West Egg, Long Island, where Nick has rented a house. Next to his place is a huge mansion complete with Gothic towers and a large swimming pool which belongs to a Mr. Gatsby, whom Nick has not yet met. Directly across the bay from West Egg is the more fashionable community of East Egg where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. Daisy is Nick´s cousin, and Tom had been in the same senior society as Nick in New Haven.
Like Nick they are Midwesterners who have come East to be a part of the glamour of the New York City area. They invite Nick to dinner at their mansion and here he meets a young women golfer named Jordan Baker. During dinner Mrs. Myrtle Wilson rings. She lives in a strange place between West Egg and New York City that the narrator calls the “valley of ashes.” One day Tom takes Nick to meet the Wilsons but the party breaks up as Tom breaks Myrtles nose with a blow of his open hand because she has mentioned the name of his wife in a discussion. Some weeks later Nick finally gets the opportunity to meet his mysterious neighbour Mr. Gatsby. Gatsby gives huge parties and people come from everywhere to attend these parties, but no one seems to know much about the host. Nick becomes fascinated by Gatsby and observes that he does not drink. One day Nick and Gatsby drive to New York together. Gatsby tells Nick that he is from a wealthy family in the Midwest, that he was educated at Oxford, and that he won war medals from many European countries. At tea that afternoon Nick finds out from Jordan Baker why Gatsby has taken such an interest in him: Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan and wants Nick to arrange a meeting between them. Gatsby had fallen in love with Daisy as a young officer in 1917. He had been sent overseas, and she...