An Analysis of the Character Nick in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Theyre a rotten crowd, I shouted across the lawn. Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together (162), are the words that describe Gatsby the best as put by Nick. In the context of the book, Nick is saying that Gatsby is better than the people that he has come to associate himself with, and that they are not worth his time. Nick sees through all of the rumors about Gatsby directly into his heart. He sees the man that Gatsby really is, and the cause for which he has worked a good portion of his life.

Right from the very beginning of the Great Gatsby, Nick tells us that Gatsby is more than a simple man. He tells us that Gatsby is an important, valuable person who is more than what people say about him. After we first hear of Gatsby in the beginning of the story, we learn less and less of him. He becomes a mystery, and Fitzgerald puts us in suspense by having characters talk and speculate about Gatsbys past in the form of rumors from things like Gatsby being a Nazi conspirator to saying that his parents died and left him a great sum of money.

Finally, when all seems lost in our quest to find out who Gatsby really is, and what his past really was, we meet him staring out towards a green light over the water towards East Egg, which, as we learn later, is where Daisy lives, his long time love. After this we begin to become more familiar with Gatsby, we learn that he has lavish catered parties very often on his estate, yet never joins them, only watches as if waiting for someone to arrive. That someone, we later find out, is Daisy. One night, Nick tells us that he finds the courage to go to one of Gatsbys lavish house parties, and that is the point when we really begin to learn about Gastby and his life.

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From that party until the end of the book, we discover many things about Gatsby and his past. We learn that he was not a Nazi conspirator, that his parents not die and leave him a large sum of money, we see that he did not make his money through illegal business, and that he spent time in the army during the war, and afterwards went to Oxford for a short while. We also learn the most important parts of Gatsbys life, and that is that Daisy is his long time love, for which he has been working for since he went into the army and was forced to leave her in Louisville.

Daisy is the reason for his standing out at night with his arms outstretched towards the green light on the opposite shore of the water. She is the reason for his lavish parties, to which very many people are invited. He believed that by having such large parties, he increased his chance of seeing her again.

Gatsby is nothing more than a very love-struck young man. In Louisville, before he left for the war, Daisy refused to marry him due to the fact that he was not wealthy enough. That is the reason for his lush parties, and his extravagant lifestyle, he wanted to attract her back to him, but did not want to go directly to her, because she was married, and was better than that. In the end, after all of his working to get her back, to show her how much he loved her, she could not be with him because of her own insecurities and skewed sense of happiness.

She just wanted to have a stable life with money, and that could not be done by leaving Tom and being with Gatsby, whether Gatsby loved more than Tom or not, she insisted on staying where she had been trained to be. Where she was taught by her parents, where there would be no scandalous divorce, which was against her Catholic raising.

Gatsby was better than the rest of them. His true love for Daisy was completely revealed with the close of the book. That is when it all came together and the reader saw just what Gatsby really was, a loving hardworking man, dedicated to having what he wanted and what made him happy. He was an honest man that yearned for his long time love. He was true to what he wanted, and to himself by working for his goal. That is what makes Gatsby worth the whole damn bunch (162).

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