The Great Gatsby: The Integrity of Nick Carraway :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby The Question of Nick Carraways Integrity     In pursuing relationships, we come to know people only step by step.Unfortunately, as our knowledge of others deepens, we often move fromenchantment to disenchantment. Initially we omit flaws or wish them awayonly later do we carry out peril of this course. In the novel "The Great Gatsby"by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the journey from enchant to disappointment may be seenin the narrator, Nick Carraway. Moving from initial saki to romantic allureto moral repugnance, Nicks relationship with Jordan Baker traces a painfullyfamiliar, all-to-human arc.     Nicks initial interest in Jordan is mainly for her looks and charm.Upon first spy of her at the Buchanans mansion, he is at once drawn to herappearance. He Notes her soundbox "extended full length" on the divan, herfluttering lips, and her quaintly tilted chin. He observes the lamp light that"glinted along the paper a s she turned a page with a flutter of slender musclesin her arms." He is instinctive to everyplacelook her gossipy chatter about Toms extra-marital affair, and is instead beguiled by her dry witticisms and her apparentsimple sunniness "Time for this safe girl to go to bed," she says. When Daisybegins her matchmaking of Nick and Jordan, we sense that she is only leadingwhere Nicks interest is already taking him.     It is Jordan, then, who makes Nick feel comfortable at Gatsbys party,as we sense what Nick senses theyre becoming a romantic couple. As they repulsehome a summer house-party, Nick notes her dishonesty but forgives it,attributing it to her graspable need to get by in a mans world. Shepraises his lack of carelessness, tells him immediately "I like you"--and he issmitten, After Jordan tells him the tale of Gatsby and Daisys past, Nick feelsa "heady excitement" because she has taken him into her confidence. Attracted byhe r "universal skepticism" and beneath the influence of his own loneliness, Nick--overlooking this time her "wan, scornful mouth"--seals their solicit by planteda kiss on Jordans lips.     But the friendship cant last and is, by summers end, replaced byrepugnance. The smallest of details, at first, heralds this falling-apart"Jordans fingers, powdered with white over their tan, rested for a moment inmine." Here Fitzgerald has dropped a impalpable hint that their liaison is to be thematter of only a moment, and that Jordans " lawfulness" may be a matter of merecosmetics. But it is Jordans trial to feel the gravity of the real falling-apart--among Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby--that most rankles Nick, and he reacts with