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Why Is Nick Carraway Important In The Great Gatsby

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Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is the best known American novel, taught everywhere and in every classroom.
Fitzgerald wrote the book at the height of 1920s Jazz Age-- a phrase he coined himself. The United States experienced an economic boom after WWI along with the postwar haze of long, extravagant parties. It was the era of jazz, easy indulgence, money, flappers, ragtag, and bootleggers.
The characters in Fitzgerald’s novel cannot stay still and are constantly on the move. The Great Gatsby incorporates the restless of the era: wild drinking, jittery dances, and fascination of the automobile. Everyone is trying really hard to have a good time, and no one is willing to admit that he or she is not.
Fitzgerald wrote his novel in the voice of Nick Carraway, a young, observant man eager to fit into this new elite society he finds himself in the middle of. Carraway condemns the lavish living of his neighbors while upholding Gatsby to higher morals. …show more content…

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald hung out with the rich kids and developed an obsession with wealth. His father was an unsuccessful businessman and his mother tried to support her family with her dwindling inheritance. Fitzgerald went on to study in Princeton where affluent peers simply fueled his fixation.
Fitzgerald cloaks Jay Gatsby in mystery and never reveals his true character. Readers never find out about the source of Gatsby’s wealth or about his business with Wolfsheim. Some readers claim that Gatsby was too shady to

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