NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The Great Gatsby: The Question of Nick Carraways Integrity In pursuing relationships, we come to know people only step by step. Unfortunately, as our knowledge of others deepens, we often move from enchantment to disenchantment. Initially we overlook flaws or wish them away; only 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 seen in the narrator, Nick Carraway. Moving from initial interest to romantic allure to moral repugnance, Nicks relationship with Jordan Baker traces a painfully familiar, all-to-human arc.
Nicks initial interest in Jordan is mainly for her looks and charm. Upon first sight of her at the Buchanan's mansion, he is at once drawn to her appearance. He Notes her body extended full length on the divan, her fluttering lips, and her quaintly tipped chin. He observes the lamp light that glinted along the paper as she turned a page with a flutter of slender muscles in her arms. He is willing to overlook her gossipy chatter about Toms extra- marital affair, and is instead beguiled by her dry witticisms and her apparent simple sunniness: Time for this good girl to go to bed, she says. When Daisy begins her matchmaking of Nick and Jordan, we sense that she is only leading where Nicks interest is already taking him.
It is Jordan, then, who makes Nick feel comfortable at Gatsby's party, as we sense what Nick senses: theyre becoming a romantic couple. As they drive home a summer house-party, Nick notes her dishonesty but forgives it, attributing it to her understandable need to get by in a mans world. She praises his lack of carelessness, tells him directly I like young he is smitten, After Jordan tells him the tale of Gatsby and Daisy's past, Nick feels a heady excitement because she has taken him into her confidence. Attracted by her universal skepticism and under the influence of his own loneliness, Nick overlooking this time her wan, scornful mouth seals their romance by planted a kiss on Jordans lips. But the attraction cant last and is, by summers end, replaced by repugnance. The smallest of details, at first, heralds this falling-apart: Jordans fingers, powdered with white over their tan, rested for a moment in mine.
Here Fitzgerald has dropped a subtle hint that their liaison is to be the matter of only a moment, and that Jordans integrity may be a matter of mere cosmetics. But it is Jordans failure to feel the gravity of the real falling- apart among Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby that most rankles Nick, and he reacts with disgust when she invites him in for a nightcap amid all the emotional wreckage, then complains the next day of his refusal. But Jordans worst action, in Nicks eyes, is her failure to stay on at Daisy and Toms when Daisy needs her. The betrayal is far worse than moving a golf ball, because it is deeply personal. In the end, with a rueful acceptance of what seemed meant to be but was not, Nick sees that, while Jordan may excite his interest and passion, the excitement pales in the light of her lack of the fundamental decencies. Though it has been Nicks first impulse to reserve judgments about her, in the end he cannot: the limit of his tolerance defines him.
In letting go of Jordan because of her lack of integrity, Nick has held fast to his.
Free research essays on topics related to: nick, jordans, nicks, great gatsby, jordan
Research essay sample on Initial Interest Great Gatsby Nick
