/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2675041]

Sup c/lit/s, I'm trying to prove that Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is a gigantic asswipe (for an American Lit paper). Assistance?

[Anonymous No.2675046]

Well for starters you could talk about how he just went along with Tom as he blatantly cheated on Daisy (Nicks cousin) with some cunt and he and didn't do shit about it. Nice one, asshole.

[Anonymous No.2675047]

He dumped his girlfriend over the phone. Wadda douche.

[Anonymous No.2675048]

NICK CARAWAY IS A BETAFAG

[Anonymous No.2675049]

>>2675041
> I'm trying to prove that Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is a gigantic asswipe
In those words?

[Anonymous No.2675051]

This isn't a homework board. Also, Carraway is flawed, but he's not a bad guy really.

[Anonymous No.2675072]

Carraway was a coward who went along with everyone and everything, and never had an opinion about shit because UH OH I'M NOT DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN WHAT'S HAPPENING SO IT'S BEST IF I JUST TAKE A STEP BACK AND LET THINGS PLAY OUT EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE VERY NEAR TO ME ARE BEING SINNED AGAINST.

[Anonymous No.2675085]

On the first page of the book he says his father taught him not to judge people, and that his own best trait is that he reserves judgement.

AND THEN HE JUDGES PEOPLE THE WHOLE BOOK!

Nick is a liar and since the book is told through his judgemental narrative, it makes the whole story tainted. It's actually pretty cool how Fitzgerald did that.

[Anonymous No.2675105]

>>2675085
yeah but to be fair he's judging the assholes who've been more privileged than himself so he's not really contradicting the advice

[Anonymous No.2675138]

>>2675105
Ah, now that brings us to another point. The second sentence is:
> “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

But actually everyone around Nick (except George Wilson) has hell of a lot more money than Nick. Another misleading statement.

[Anonymous No.2675149]

Nick Carraway is canonically bisexual. Re-read the last two pages of Chapter 2 (the one with the party with Myrtle in the apartment). His fling with Jordan takes on a much more meaningful role in establishing the dynamism of Nick's character when you realize that up until now, he's been bouncing from partner to partner, partaking in drunken one night stands with anyone, man or woman, as he searches for someone to keep him grounded. Of course, his relationship with Jordan is a hollow one--his narration betrays the novel as Nick's love story with Gatsby (not romantic love this time, but a kind of love).

If Nick is a dynamic character (as the above textual evidence shows that he is), then he's not just "a gigantic asswipe." He either starts out as an asswipe and becomes a better person, or he starts out as a decent person (or at least a tabula rosa) and becomes an asswipe. (Ok, there's no reason that "asswipe" has to be one of the stages of his dynamism, but the term is so vaguely defined that it could almost certainly apply to one of the stages of his character.)

This is a logical argument based on a rationalization of textual facts. In order to write a paper that includes it, you need to attach it to a series of direct textual cues that confirm at which stage his status as an asswipe is most evident.

[Anonymous No.2675613]

If you ever read "Trilmachio" (the first draft of Gatsby put out by Cambridge Press, I think), Carraway is slightly more unsavory.

[Anonymous No.2675615]

>>2675138
except for Gatsby himself, who started off poor

[Anonymous No.2675699]

"Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known."

Kind of a dickish statement.

[Anonymous No.2675727]

>>2675138
I don't think "advantages" means money in that context. It means "stable, midwestern upbringing."