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

The Great Gatsby The Question of prick Carr outdoor(a)s Integrity     In pursuing relationships, we pose to know people only step by step.Unfortunately, as our knowledge of others deepens, we often move fromenchantment to disenchantment. Initially we overlook flaws or wish them awayonly later do we realize peril of this course. In the novel "The Great Gatsby"by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the journey from delight to disappointment may be seenin the narrator, Nick Carraway. Moving from initial interest to romantic allureto moral repugnance, Nicks relationship with Jordan Baker traces a painfullyfamiliar, all-to-human arc.     Nicks initial interest in Jordan is in general for her looks and charm.Upon first sight of her at the Buchanans mansion, he is at once drawn to herappearance. He Notes her body "extended full length" on the divan, herfluttering lips, and her quaintly tipped chin. He observes the lamp light that"glinted alon g the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender musclesin her arms." He is unbidden to overlook her gossipy chatter about Toms extra-marital affair, and is instead beguiled by her dry witticisms and her apparentsimple sunniness "Time for this good miss 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 drivehome a summer house-party, Nick notes her dishonesty but forgives it,attributing it to her understandable need to get by in a mans world. Shepraises his lack of carelessness, tells him directly "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 byher "universal skepticism" and under the influence of his own loneliness, Nick--overlooking this time her "wan, scornful mouth"--seals their romance by planteda kiss on Jordans lips.     But the attraction 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 subtle hint that their liaison is to be thematter of only a moment, and that Jordans "integrity" may be a matter of merecosmetics. But it is Jordans sorrow to feel the gravity of the real falling-apart--among Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby--that most rankles Nick, and he reacts with