the grate gatsby

Chapter 1

The novel begins with Nick Carraway introducing himself to the reader, telling the audience that because he tries to reserve negative judgments about other individuals, he has often served as confessors for many who need someone to listen to their problems without dealing with ensuing criticism. Nick, who is from Minnesota but had moved to New York in search of adventure and excitement, has left the East to return to his home state because he is running away from painful memories of the eventful summer of 1922, when he had met and befriended a man named Gatsby. Nick admits that even though he scorned everything that Gatsby represented, he never stopped admiring his “romantic readiness” – an endless well of hope that inspired Gatsby to believe that absolutely anything was within his easy grasp. Nick mysteriously declares that at the end of everything, Gatsby was all right; what had killed his dreams were the jealousy and pettiness of those who surrounded h...