The Great Gatsby and Nick Carraway

Q: What do we know about Nick Carraway and the Gatsby?

A: Nick Carraway thinks of himself as high moral and tolerant. He narrarates the story and tells of the hero, Gatsby, who he describes as "nothing short of gorgeous." It starts off with Nick in the summer of 1922 in New York where he is renting a house in the West Egg in Long Island. East Egg and West Egg are set different by wealth and taste. He knows of Gatsby because the West Egg is next door to the Gatsby's mansion. Nick graduated from Yale and has a lot of connections on the East Egg, which sets him apart from his neighbors and the people he is associating with.

One night, Nick goes to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy, her husband Tom Buchanan, and her friend Jordan Baker. When he is leaving he gets a hint from Tom and Daisy to take an interest in Jordan. As he arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time looking out across the water. He describes him as a handsome, young man, but he cannot find what Gatsby is looking at out in the dark.