The Great Gatsby

what does nick's judgements reveal about his character that he does this?

especially in relation to his opening comments

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Nick is out to try something new........... he wants to live the high life, party a bit, and simply have fun in an East Coast city and a high class neighborhood. His judgments are those of a young man; he later matures and figures it out. I think the opening scenes allude to the fact that he has high standards and a moral character; so his decisions are simply those of "testing the water." He's a good guy!

Nick represents the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East. A young man (he turns thirty during the course of the novel) from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York in 1922 to learn the bond business. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island, next door to Gatsby. Nick is also Daisy’s cousin, which enables him to observe and assist the resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a result of his relationship to these two characters, Nick is the perfect choice to narrate the novel, which functions as a personal memoir of his experiences with Gatsby in the summer of 1922.

On one hand, Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York. On the other hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.

Nick states that there is a “quality of distortion” to life in New York, and this lifestyle makes him lose his equilibrium, especially early in the novel, as when he gets drunk at Gatsby’s party in Chapter 2. After witnessing the unraveling of Gatsby’s dream and presiding over the appalling spectacle of Gatsby’s funeral, Nick realizes that the fast life of revelry on the East Coast is a cover for the terrifying moral emptiness that the valley of ashes symbolizes. Having gained the maturity that this insight demonstrates, he returns to Minnesota in search of a quieter life structured by more traditional moral values.

Source(s)

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/canalysis.html

Nick is still not matured at this point in time,he still wants to party and.have fun in the east coast.but as time goes he matures and begins to see life from a different aspect.he is also able to analyes Daisy and Gatsbys love affair

Source(s)

The Great Gatsby novel and study notes by F.Scott Fitzgerald