Nick is the narrator for the entire tale of the Great Gatsby. Thus, it is only Nick’s version of events that we are exposed to (see more on this in narrator reliability on page 31). Nick comes from a well-to-do family in Chicago, who graduated from Yale before moving East to pursue stockbroking where he becomes witness to the debauchery, consumerism, and infidelity of the New York upper-class. This is mostly through his neighbour, Gatsby, his cousin Daisy, and lover, Jordan. Nick is a “witness” more than he is a “perpetrator” of this lifestyle; instead he is “carried-away” by these events. He states that he is “slow thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires,” which credits his reliability as a narrator. He is pensive, cautious, and tolerant, and as we see by the end of the book, not entirely suited to life as an east coaster. While the fast-paced and opportunity-rich city allows him to exercise his intellect, he finds it difficult to ignore the coinciding grotesque happenings. His relationship with Jordan parallels this conflict. He falls “halfway in love with Jordan;” while he is taken aback by her sex appeal and sharpness, eventually her negligence and falsehood deter him from escalating their affair. And so, Nick moves back home to the novel to liberate himself from the superficiality of the East. However, the fact that Nick, decides to write this novel two years later elucidates that perhaps he, like Gatsby, suffers from an overwhelming nostalgia for the past.
