Fitzgerald’s greatness lies in the fact that he found intuitively in his personal experience the embodiment of the nation and created a myth out of American life. The story of The Great Gatsby is a good illustration. Gatsby is a poor youth from the Midwest in America. He falls in love with Daisy, a wealthy girl, but is too poor to marry her. The girl then married to a rich young man, Tom Buchanan. Determined to win his lost love back, Gatsby engaged himself in bootlegging and other shady activities, thus earning enough money to buy a magnificent imitation French villa. There he spreads dazzling parties every weekend in the hope of alluring the Buchanans to come. They finally come and Gatsby meet Daisy again, only to find that the woman before him is not quite the ideal love of his dreams. A sense of loss and disillusionment comes over him. Then Daisy kills a woman whose name is Myrtle in an accident, yet Myrtle is Tom’s mistress, and plots with Tom to shift the blame on Gatsby. So Gatsby is shot by the Myrtle’s husband as to the Buchanans escape. T.S Eliot read the Great Gatsby three times and concluded that it was “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”[3]
1 Nick’s role played in the novel structure
Nick Carraway surely plays a significant role in the novel-building. He is on the whole a reliable narrator. As the Fitzgerald put it, Nick has come to New York in the summer of 1922 to enter the bond business, and he lives in a small cottage located at west Egg, which is the less fashionable side to live. Upon his arrival, Nick is quickly greeted by his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and her arrogant husband Tom Buchanan. The Buchanans live on East Egg, which is the place where people of high status reside. Beside Nick’s cottage, on the west Egg, lives a wealthy man named Gatsby, thus, as the first-person narration go further, it is through Carraway’s eyes that we see the other characters and the world they live in. Carraway is the only role in the novel to exhibit, and hold onto, a sense of morals and decency throughout the novel.
1. 1 The key to contact with various groups of people
“ The magic power of the Carraway lies in the fact that he has contact with them all, intimate enough to weave them skillfully into the unified fabric of the dramatic tapestry that is The Great Gatsby.[4]. There are three groups of people socially distinct from one another in the world of Gatsby. They have different social background, including different behavior, language, and everything else. The first group consists of Tom, Daisy , and their friends, who belong to the upper-class in society. They are rich, arrogant and contemptuous. Although they always talk about science and art and read the socially polite newspapers, actually, indeed they are a group of people lacking inllectuality. The second group includes people coming from the lower-class. There are the Wilson, Vulger. They received little education and speak in the bad grammar, also they like to read gossipy newspapers. Then, the third is Gatsby, one of the “wild, unknown men”[1] who is worthy of the whole bunch of the others. Carraway see the world anew by Gatsby’s secret griefs. He follows his father’s advice on toleration, in the novel, he dose not make quick judgments on everything he participates, so he is able to gain access to many curious natures and become privy to unsought confidence. Thus, with the contacting function of Nick , there comes to the relationship among the three groups.
1. 1. 1 The relationship between Nick and Daisy
Though Nick is Daisy’s cousin, he is not familiar with her until he moves to the East. The first impression to Nick, Daisy is a sweet and innocent young woman. “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and bright passionate mouth,…exciting things just a while since and there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour”[1]. So, when Nick knows that Tom has an extramarital affair with Myrtle, and Gatsby loves sincerely worth Daisy , he assists the resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. Tom Bachanan , as Daisy’s husband, whose social status and physical strength give Daisy much safer and happier compared with the unrealistic love of Gatsby. Moreover, Tom has a mistress, which is a wild known fact , but the couple do not want to divorce. In the narration of Nick , readers can feel the inner relationship of this couple.
1. 1. 2 The relationship between Nick and Gatsby
Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor when he moves to the East, with his observation and description, the revelation of Gatsby’s story is gradual. Cause Nick is a tolerant and slow to judge, he is a person with whom people feel comfortable sharing their secret. Nick and Gatsby are both thoughtful man , and the same is true to the Gatsby trust Nick, it is Gatsby that invites Nick to his extravagant party. Knowing Nick is the cousin of Daisy, Gatsby seeks help from Nick who can bring Daisy to his extravagant castle. Under the relative relationship between Nick and Daisy, the love of Daisy and Gatsby is reburning. As the plot in the novel putting forward naturally , the secret of success in business of Gatsby and his true identity is revealed by the Nick gradually.
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