“In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments; a habit has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.” (Ch.1, pg. 1) The narrator is perhaps the most important component in bringing life to the text. A unique point of view provides the reader with a subliminal value hidden within the text. Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” is fantastic in the way that it contains a narrator whose reliability is questionable. The narrator Nick Caraway is a first person peripheral narrator in which he witnesses the main character’s story and recounts it to the reader. He seems to be a reliable narrator to an extent in which he is biased especially with his judgment on the other characters in the …show more content…
He is reliable in the sense that he is telling the story in his own words making him seem more believable. In other words, he forces the readers to experience the same experiences he himself did. He is also reliable because he links all the characters in place and gives brief descriptions of most of the events from the three major characters he witnessed. Plus without Nick’s narration the story would’ve been told the way the author intended it to. Fitzgerald’s motive of implementing the main theme of the decline of the American dream would have failed because only Nick can show how the characters are spontaneously showing their flaws. This brings into consideration that his evaluation of Jay Gatsby as just because he was able to unravel the dream, which leads ultimately leads Gatsby to a catastrophic ending. He is able to reveal to the readers the moral consequences the characters take in trying to achieve this universal theme throughout the novel of the American dream. Caraway serves as a reliable narrator because he held accountable of personally experiencing and observing events of the story. And he gives a just evaluation of Gatsby through him finding the outcome of Gatsby attaining the American …show more content…
Although he does link all the characters in place he still lacks ethical credibility because he can’t give an accurate account of the events that he described. First of all, he had to depend on other characters to give him information about certain events that occurred he was involved in the story. He must converse with them in order to absorb the information and inform the reader about the events that took place before him. In addition, he is biased despite his contradicting statement of “reserving his judgment.”(Ch.1, pg. 1) His descriptions of the characters and events are based on his own perception of them. But of course, if this were told were the other characters the readers would find the story unbelievable if the story was told in the higher bias of the other hollow characters. Nick definitely has an unjust evaluation of Jay Gatsby as he fails to confront Gatsby of his ethical values. Nick is passive in showing his disapproval for Gatsby; making him dishonest. He was too fascinated by Gatsby’s courage and achievements that he was unable to grasp on to the major faults of Gatsby until the very end. Caraway serves as an unreliable narrator because of his biased perspectives ultimately effecting his narration. His evaluation of Jay Gatsby is unjust because it changes over the course of the