Diana Kharabar
December 10, 2015
Tuttle 3
Honesty
Nick Carraway is the narrator of the book The Great Gatsby. Nick had grown up
in the Midwest and is now living in the West Egg beside the wealthy Jay Gatsby. As Nick
is telling his story and the story of Gatsby he had said “I’m inclined to reserve all
judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me
the victim of not a few veteran bores.” This quote makes one think that Nick Carraway is
not judgmental and only tells the truth about the other characters in the story throughout
the book but reading on and analyzing the story one gets to find out interesting details.
“I am one of the few honest people I have ever known”, when first reading this
quote a person may think that Nick is being very conceited and thinking highly of himself
in the book as a narrator. Nick may be the one telling the story and explaining
throughout the book about the different problems between the Buchanens and Gatsby
but that does not mean that he is not honest. Nick was taught well in his childhood that
he should not judge people. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember
that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” He is
honest because some people would be judgmental unlike Nick and make bad first
impressions of the characters from the very beginning of the story. Nick instead had first
stated that Jordan was a bridesmaid at Daisy’s wedding instead of her being a spoiled
rich girl that does not marry poor boys. He had also first mentioned Tom by saying that
Diana Kharabar
December 10, 2015
Tuttle 3
readers get to analyze each character in depth except Nick. Jay Gatsby is involved in
an illegal business and is in love with Daisy Buchanan. Tom Buchanan is making bad
decisions and is cheating on Daisy with Myrtle. While Daisy is cheating on Tom and had
killed Myrtle while driving which led to Gatsby being killed. All the drama that is going on
in this story makes the reader realize that Nick was not directly involved in the drama
but was a bystander that had an outsiders point of view on it. Nick being a great narrator
that tells the truth about everyone else makes himself honest also. Having an honest
narrator gives more a view on the story and more precise details without judging every
character for their immoral action. Another example of Nick being an honest is when he
is personally invited to one of Jay Gatsby’s parties. When Nick had gotten to the party
he realized that most of the people that were at the party celebrating were not even
invited “I was one of few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited–
they went there.” Nick is trying to show us that he is reliable and does not want to get
involved in things unless he really has to or he feels that it is necessary and proper to .
Throughout the story Nick Carraway was a very honest narrator that got the right
insight of the story and was a great narrator that helped the readers understand the
point of the story and what he is trying to get across. The depictions of each character
was without much judgment and it was telling the story as is and without any covering
up of details because one was better than the other. Nick was straight forward and
overall from everyone he knew and had connections with he was the most honest one
out of all.