Does Nick Carraway Hold Water? : A Study of The Great Gatsby (In Commemoration of the 110th Anniversary of the Founding of Momoyama Gakuin)

The Great Gatsby has been estimated highly, especially for thoroughness of its craftmanship. It is, however, not always beyond criticism. "Nick Carraway is an untrustable, unreliable narrator" is one of the most severe comments. Two reasons are pronounced for this. One of them is that Nick lies. His self-advertisement is discrepant from how he actually is. At the beginning of the story, self-conceitedly he introduces himself as a self-controlled person who abstains from judging others. However, he readily judges others, rather biasedly. The orher reason is that Nick occasionally dares to take the omniscient author's position in spite of his being assumed to play the role as one of the characters, through whose point of view the reader is supposed to experience the drama of the story. The first reason is out of place, for Nick meant simply that he would not mention his judgments to a person's face. He judges others secretly, not speaking it out. The second reason sounds convincing in a sense. There are quite a few cases that the reader may wonder how Nick can have such and such information or knowledge if he is not ominiscient. It is, however, based upon the criterion of strict realism. Whether it is reasonable or not to apply the criterion of realism to this story should be a matter for argument. The story took place in the jazz age, when the prewar morals had become out of style. The situation was chaotic, unstable, with the old social order broken down. Artists were making every effort to devise new methods for this new age. It had something to do with this when T. S. Eliot said "The Great Gatsby is the first step American fiction has taken since Henry James..." F. Scott Fitzgerald is not a realist by any means. He is more inclined toward romanticism with cynicism and irony, than toward facts. That John Keats was his most favorite poet all his life may tell how he had affinity with this poet. The way he creates something artistic out of a little of fact exploiting his imagination corresponds to the way how the poet creates such a piece of poetry as "The Grecian Urn". Fitzgerald's language in The Great Gatsby tends to be metaphoric, approximate to that of poetry. At the same time, it is undeniable that craftmanship in this work is not perfect. Nick Carraway does not always hold water. Some parts of The Great Gatsby where Nick is criticized for his irresponsible narrative are, however, very charming. The postwar age was so different from the prewar world that the old realism was unable to grasp it. Paradoxically speaking, such features as imaginativeness, romanticization with cynicism, and metaphoric language, which are considered characteristic of Nick's narrative, reflect better the actual situation of the times, when the story took place.5KJ00004272368論文Articledepartmental bulletin pape