Great Gatsby Dialectical Journal

One way Nick’s social location as a middle class person influences his actions is during his visit with Tom and Daisy. “A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up towards the frosted wedding-cake of the

Nick’s father also established morals in Nick that parallel his, to never judge a person based off of first impressions because you don’t know what that person has been through. Nick began to break away from his family traditions with World War I. Following his graduation, Nick participated in World War I, unlike his great-uncle as he sent a substitute to the American Civil War. With a hesitant, but supportive family, Nick sought to move east to New York and try his hand in the

As the story begins, Nick says, “...I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me…” (Fitzgerald 1). Although Nick claims he has been taught to not judge others, he does quite frequently. Nick insults Daisy and Tom,

Nick says that Tom had changed since his New Haven years, and was now a sturdy, broad shouldered man with a hard mouth and a supercilious manner. An observer can picture their own Tom Buchanan, but will always envision him as a stuck up aristocrat with a body to match. It is not clear whether Nick truly likes Tom as a person, given that his descriptions of him tend to lean more towards the villainous side; but it is clear that Nick respects him regardless of his personal

Therefore, he surrounds himself with important people and tries to fit in with these people. Though when in reality he is a very awkward person. In the book, when Nick first goes to Gatsby’s party, he just shifts from one group

A notable example of this is when NIck says: “They’re a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” (Page 162). This statement reveals how he understands the major role money plays in corrupting an individual. Unlike the whole West Egg crowd, Nick does not let money, dishonesty, or materialistic items dominate his life.

He disliked Martin because he perceived that Martin was wealthy and ate well, which Nick doesn’t do, which influences his point of view. When the author finally pulls back the curtain to show Martin’s true source of his appearance, he recognizes some signs of his mother and him being poor, which confuses but may give Nick an idea that Martin was not wealthy. He sees what Martin eats, which is only two things, which reveals that what Nick perceived was wrong. The narrative realizes this, and understands that he was wrong, which caused him to think

Tom spends much of the evening trying to flaunt his own success, whether it be academic, physical, or monetary. However, Tom resorts to his wealth, of which he is more successful than Nick. In wanting to show Nick his

When finding out about Tom’s affair with Mrytle and being forced to attend one of their parties, Nick expresses his opinion on his infidelity, “the fact that he ‘had some woman in New York’ was really less surprising… Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart” (Fitzgerald 25). As a static character, Tom’s hubristic mentality causes him to seek the excitement in having an affair as he desires more sense of dominance over those of the lower class. The use of contrast between Tom’s physical state and his mentality emphasizes on the motif the appearance versus reality, which in terms evokes a paradox between his perfect gentleman image and his veil inner self. The situational irony, where he should take pride in his physical ability as he is a successful football player cannot satisfy his enormous ego at heart, develops his hamartia to be the excessive pride that he generates based on his inherited social status.

Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supported it could support one more single man.” (3) After the War the economy was growing very quick and everyone wanted to be in the bond business, it was a quick way to get rich. Nick always admire his father, one of the things Nick’s father passed along to him was "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven 't had the advantages that you 've had" (1.2). Nicks parents though him not to show off what he has and always think

When Nick describes Tom, it is showing a sign of cruelty. Nick describes Tom by saying, “Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (9). Here Nick is describing how Tom Buchanan changed from when they both attended college together. In college, Tom was very friendly and was wonderful to be around. Nick realized, when they met again, that Tom had changed from friendly to cruel in the years after Tom and Nick graduated from Yale.

Nick seems not to be oblivious to his sadness, although he lacks knowledge about the cause of the emotion, for he admits that dinner alone at the Yale Club is, “for some reason [,]…the gloomiest event of [his] day” (62). After dinner, Nick studies in the library, which he considers a quiet and “good place to work”, although he does mention that “there generally a few rioters”, which contradict Nick’s purpose for studying there, because if Nick really didn’t want to be disturbed he would go home (62). After studying for about an hour, “if the night [is] mellow” Nick restlessly “strolls around” the avenues and although among many, he still “[feels] a haunting loneliness” and can “[feel] it in others”(62). However, Fitzgerald relates Nick’s loneliness to that of “young clerks”, who “wast[e] the most poignant moments of night and life” “loitering” and waiting around for people to come and provide work for them, which parallels Nick’s own method of wasting time and waiting for people to provide him with something to

He stopped caring about his strong abhor of the wealthy East Egg crowd considering Gatsby was West Egg and New Money. He did not hold the general arrogance that those of Old Money did. At this point, Nick is devout to Gatsby and determined to protect his legacy. The once seemingly impartial narrator has now seen Gatsby in a brighter light than he has others, through rose tinted

Compared to his home “across the courtesy bay” was where the “white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” were located. From this description, Nick is seen as viewing two different types of America. There is the middle west culture and the high stuck up east coast culture.

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it has many moments that can be argued that Nick can be displeased with the people he surrounds himself with. Nick even states that Gatsby stands for everything he hates and despises about the rich he corresponds with but yet by the end Gatsby is the only one that Nick appreciates on some level. With an almost fleeting passage in The Great Gatsby though it clearly show that Gatsby had a glamor that secreted from him that Nick idolized but was slowly being squandered as he had ‘talked with him perhaps six times in the past month and found, to my disappointment, that he had little to say. ’(pg 64) Nick then goes on to say that Gatsby started to lose the glamour that built up after the parties, especially the rumors he was told about how Gatsby came into his money.