Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby immediately reveals to readers exactly what type of a narrator Nick Carraway is. The story begins with Carraway establishing his life, beginning by noting some advice his father gave him in his "younger and more vulnerable years": "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had." However, disregarding his father's guidance, Carraway, throughout the book, makes several judgements of others. In the first chapter alone, Nick makes the judgement of those who accused him of being a politician as being "wild, unknown men" (Fitzgerald 1). Moreover, he does so when he describes where he lives, "I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities North America", "I lived at West Egg, the— well, the less fashionable of the two." (Fitzgerald 4 & 5). This only advances that Carraway is not as neutral as he seems, establishing him as an unreliable narrator. With this knowledge, a reader can safely assume that everything Carraway narrates throughout the book is slightly skewed, at least. Fitzgerald makes a show of this character-flaw later, in Chapter 4 by using ironic meta-humor, "Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." (Fitzgerald 59).
This also adds to the reoccurring motif that nothing is really as it appears. More specifically, there is a false sense of security and happiness veiling a society, which at its core, is actually pretty depressing; as demonstrated by the relationship between Nick, and Tom & Daisy. Carraway spends three paragraphs explaining how he knew Tom and Daisy Buchanan in college, even stating how Daisy is his cousin, then showing off his knowledge of their more recent lives, but suddenly contradicts this in the same fashion as he did with how reserved he keeps his judgements, "And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to the East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all." (Fitzgerald 6). Many characters have expressed this facade in Chapter 1, such as Miss Baker and Daisy Buchanan (as suggested by Nick).
Daisy, who manages to act as if she completely oblivious to the way her husband abuses her, is actually aware that he has a mistress is obviously cynical about it, "Why-- Tom's got some woman in New York", soon after stating, "It's very romantic, isn't it, Tom?" (Fitzgerald 15). She feels as if she is treated like a fool by her husband and, possibly, many men around her; she declares wistfully, "I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool-- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (Fitzgerald 17). She subsequently says "Sophisticated-- God, I'm so sophisticated.", in a very shallow way, pointed out by Carraway, "The instant her voice broke off ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had just said." (Fitzgerald 17).
Carraway is very observant with most things, however not so much with women's bodies. He simply, does not appreciate feminine female bodies as much as men's bodies, as indicated by his description of Tom, a man whom he barely even knows, or likes,
"He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body."
compared to his description of Ms. Baker,
"I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she “got done.” I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before."
What he notices about Mrs. Baker are her most masculine qualities; he even uses manly diction to describe her as a "young cadet" with an "erect carriage." Using the word erect to describe a woman is very atypical, except when Nick Carraway's narration is concerned. Later in the book he speaks of her broad shoulders, as if they are an attractive quality for a woman.
And he lets it be known that he wishes to look at everyone dead in the eye, but at the same time doesn't, repeating the motif of sight, which partners the theme of deceptive perception. He, then returns home and sits on his land roller, as he is intrigued by the silhouette of Gatsby, gazing upon him and the distant green light of The Buchanan's docks on the other side. The green light, being the color green, can represent several things: life, money, envy, The American Dream, a combination of these things. The scene with Carraway, Gatsby, and the light ultimately sets up the rest of the story and it's intrigue.
This also adds to the reoccurring motif that nothing is really as it appears. More specifically, there is a false sense of security and happiness veiling a society, which at its core, is actually pretty depressing; as demonstrated by the relationship between Nick, and Tom & Daisy. Carraway spends three paragraphs explaining how he knew Tom and Daisy Buchanan in college, even stating how Daisy is his cousin, then showing off his knowledge of their more recent lives, but suddenly contradicts this in the same fashion as he did with how reserved he keeps his judgements, "And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to the East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all." (Fitzgerald 6). Many characters have expressed this facade in Chapter 1, such as Miss Baker and Daisy Buchanan (as suggested by Nick).
Daisy, who manages to act as if she completely oblivious to the way her husband abuses her, is actually aware that he has a mistress is obviously cynical about it, "Why-- Tom's got some woman in New York", soon after stating, "It's very romantic, isn't it, Tom?" (Fitzgerald 15). She feels as if she is treated like a fool by her husband and, possibly, many men around her; she declares wistfully, "I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool-- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (Fitzgerald 17). She subsequently says "Sophisticated-- God, I'm so sophisticated.", in a very shallow way, pointed out by Carraway, "The instant her voice broke off ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had just said." (Fitzgerald 17).
Carraway is very observant with most things, however not so much with women's bodies. He simply, does not appreciate feminine female bodies as much as men's bodies, as indicated by his description of Tom, a man whom he barely even knows, or likes,
"He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body."
compared to his description of Ms. Baker,
"I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she “got done.” I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before."
What he notices about Mrs. Baker are her most masculine qualities; he even uses manly diction to describe her as a "young cadet" with an "erect carriage." Using the word erect to describe a woman is very atypical, except when Nick Carraway's narration is concerned. Later in the book he speaks of her broad shoulders, as if they are an attractive quality for a woman.
And he lets it be known that he wishes to look at everyone dead in the eye, but at the same time doesn't, repeating the motif of sight, which partners the theme of deceptive perception. He, then returns home and sits on his land roller, as he is intrigued by the silhouette of Gatsby, gazing upon him and the distant green light of The Buchanan's docks on the other side. The green light, being the color green, can represent several things: life, money, envy, The American Dream, a combination of these things. The scene with Carraway, Gatsby, and the light ultimately sets up the rest of the story and it's intrigue.