Comparison of Jay & Nick in The Great Gatsby

The great difference between the two characters is that Gatsby lives his life with not a drop of denial or hypocrisy about his belief in the American Dream and his willingness to do whatever is necessary to make that dream his own, while Nick is a thoroughgoing hypocrite in denial about the nature of his own beliefs.

It is important here to keep in mind the attitude of the author toward his creations Gatsby and Carraway. Fitzgerald is ostensibly giving the reader the message that this group of people are generally self-deluded folks who are pursuing superficial goals. They are for the most part doomed to misery because even if they were to achieve those goals (such as the acquisition of Daisy by Gatsby), they would find that the having is not the cure-all that the pursuing makes them believe it will be.

However, this attitude presupposes a certain distance between the observer (be it reader or

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at he pretends to be above Gatsby morally and in terms of consciousness, when in fact he essentially shares Gatsby's perceptions and desires. He pretends, for example, to sit high above Gatsby and judge him for his obsession with Daisy, but when he is exposed to Jordan, who is the epitome of the shallow product of the American Dream, he falls for her like a load of bricks, though it takes him some time to realize it. In short, Nick is a hypocrite, whereas Gatsby is at least committed to his own superficial, egotistical, materialistic self-destruction. Gatsby is dedicated to living the American Dream, he is proud of that fact, does not even consider any other path or ideal, and he will do anything and everything he needs to do in order to live that Dream. Nick, on the other hand, pretends to be above it all and convinces himself he is indeed above it all. Author Fitzgerald in this book appears to be above it all, appears to expressing compassion for his delusional, fictional creations. Both Nick and Fitzgerald, however, are mere dabblers in their philosophies compared to Gatsby. Certainly both Fitzgerald and Nick feel sympathy, at the very least, for Gatsby, but they are looking down on him from above as they express that sympat
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Approximate Word count = 2152
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)