The Great Gatsby 3-15

The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story who also cast himself as the book's author began the story by describing his own personality and moral standards. He describes himself to be highly moral and highly tolerant, but he appears to me to be quiet ambiguous and compulsive. Nick seems to be a sensitive and emotional guy, especially when he stated the his hero, Gatsby's personality was “nothing short of gorgeous.”

Nick had just arrived in New York, where he stayed at a interesting neighborhood, West Egg. He describes West Egg as a place for the new rich people, those who are self made and are enjoying the thrill of money by investing the money into shallow things, without any real sophistication. He also described East Egg of being sophisticated, privileged, and aristocratic. West Egg, where Nick stays is quiet different from Nick himself, Nick comes from a privileged family, graduated from Yale, and had many connections on East Egg. Despite of all the sophistication of the East Egg, Nick found otherwise when he met his cousin Daisy. Tom, Daisy's husband is a arrogant, dishonest and a racist, he openly carried out a outside relationship with another woman. Not to my surprise, Daisy turns out to be quiet shallow, and dumb. To me Daisy tries to hard to be wise and sophisticated, and self-loved, she think women live best as beautiful fools. Tom and Daisy are a perfect example of the rich Americans who are too bored, too selfish, and too rich.

To contrast with the Eggs, the Valley Of Ashes symbolizes the horrible, and the poverty. The valley is half way between West Egg and New York, made up of industrial dumping and symbolizes the by-product of modern industrialization and capitalism. New York City, where Nick prepares to do bond business in is described by him as loud, glamorous, and fascinating. All the dazzling of the most amazing surfacy things seem to lack a strong moral system. Even to Nick's surprise, Tom's affair with his mistress doesn't seem to bother him very much.

The Great Gatsby so far has given me a feeling of cynicalness, and a very raw picture of human nature.