AP Style Prompt:
The technique of a first-person narrator presents certain problems of objectivity and reliability for the reader. Write a well-organized essay in which you examine the character of Gatsby as Nick perceives him. To what extent is Nick a reliable narrator, and is his evaluation of Gatsby ultimately just? Be certain not to summarize the plot or offer a mere character description.
The Great Gatsby is a book told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, who throughout the book describes the plot and the characters in details that helps the readers understand them better. However, just as most first person narrators in a story, Nick isn't as reliable a source for understanding Gatsby's character. Throughout the book Nick is biased with his descriptions of Gatsby, judging him and sympathizing with him, thus clouding his view of who Gatsby truly is as a person.
At the beginning, Nick mentions how Gatsby was the embodiment of everything he hated in a person, and it's shown throughout the book, making Gatsby appear shady and obsessive, fake even. Nick describes him as someone who pretends to be someone he's not when in reality he was "a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders," (156). He also used hasty nerve-wracking actions Gatsby performs throughout the book to describe his character, mostly negatively throughout the book. Having him do things like toss a bunch of fancy shirts from England into a messy pile for Daisy to look at or showing her clippings from articles that were about her made him appear obsessive and trying too hard to impress her. Even though that is, in a way, true, the judging and critiquing way he shows it makes Gatsby seem more like a monster or a freak rather than a person.
It wasn't really until later in the book when Gatsby started showing more positive traits about Gatsby, but even then, it was still biased. Nick begins to sympathize with Gatsby is a way where he places him as a victim in the story and throws Daisy and Tom into the villainous roles near the end. Near the end of the story, Gatsby's bad traits begin to be overlooked and instead overshadowed by the newly founded love Nick develops toward him. He described his dream to be with Daisy as pure rather than an obsession like he hinted at in the beginning of the book, and he justified Gatsby's actions when it came to the choices he made to change his social class and his persona that he exploited in order to win over Daisy. It's practically a different character he's describing by the end of the book by abandoning the original character he described at the beginning.
It's true, although, that Nick was detailed in describing Gatsby's backstory to help the readers understand who Gatsby is. However, that was turning point in which Nick abandons his judgmental description of who Gatsby is for the sympathized version of Gatsby. In the beginning of the book, the reader will most likely fell like there is no good character because everyone seems to be terribly flawed (with the exception of the narrator). Near the end, though, the reader begins to pity Gatsby and love him more as a character compared to the others. Why? Because Nick begins to sympathize with Gatsby and pity him too, and as a result, describes him as someone more likable for the reader to pity and care about more as well.
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......Welp. That's all I got, Mr. Giddings...
