The Great Gatsby is a excellently written narrative about the loss of love. the jobs of American wealth. and the world of life. With these subjects in head. it is of import to retrieve that in our complex world. non all work forces are merely sexually attracted to adult females as some would normally presume. The character of Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can be characterized as sexually equivocal and emotionally insecure. On the one manus. Nick Carraway is a individual who came from an upper center category household and is attracted to Jordan Baker. and on the other manus. he demonstrates a sexual attractive force toward Jay Gatsby that is hidden due to his rigorous upbringing as a kid. Added to this. he portrays himself as a spot feminine. all of which conveying his heterosexualism into inquiry. The undermentioned analysis will be an in-depth probe into the character of Nick Carraway to find if his emotional insecurity and sexual ambiguity are a consequence of his homosexual desires toward Jay Gatsby.
Nick Carraway had an emotionally rough childhood. His training male parent. rigorous and stiff. cautioned him over the old ages to avoid impulsiveness. which led Nick to carefully guard but in secret indulge in “feminine” inclinations. Nick Carraway confirms this theory when he stated. “I am full of regulations that act as brakes on my desires” ( Fitzgerald 63-64 ) . which were instilled by his male parent. These brakes that Nick speaks of prevent him from taking action on his homosexual dispositions.
Nick imaginatively envisions get awaying to a another sort of maleness wholly. one that can accommodate his “feminine” emotions and occasional attractive force to work forces. For illustration. when Nick in private confessed to Jordan Baker. “I must hold felt pretty Wyrd by that clip because I could believe of nil except the brightness of [ Gatsby’s ] pink suit under the moon” ( Fitzgerald 150 ) . it shows that he does in fact have an attractive force to Jay Gatsby. Whether or non it is a sexual attractive force. it shows that Nick fells and feels sinful of what he considers unacceptable and unsafe desires. which have been conditioned by society and societal interaction. Besides. in the beginning of the novel. Nick provinces. “There was something gorgeous [ about Jay Gatsby ] ” ( Fitzgerald 6 ) . In add-on. Nick realizes that a adult male is most powerless among other work forces when one admits to an interior emotional life. such as when Tom Buchanan expressed his sadistic righteousness over Gatsby during his confrontation of him and Daisy.
Nick’s immediate response to Tom Buchanan’s humiliation of Jay Gatsby was sympathy for Gatsby and fright for himself. Nick feared that if he expressed his understanding for Gatsby or fright for himself. it would weaken his ain airs of masculine impregnability and besides leave himself unfastened for ridicule by Tom Buchanan. It was after this incident that Nick go entirely devoted to Gatsby and showed a prejudice in the description of Gatsby’s character. Toward the terminal of the novel. Nick transformed the character of an emotional moonshiner that acquired his wealth through organized offense into a fabulous American hero with a bosom of gold. It is these events that reveal Nick’s attractive force to vulnerable work forces. Vulnerability is what Nick views as “gorgeous” about Gatsby.
One of Nick’s greatest frights is to be left entirely and trapped his universe of sexual ambiguity and emotional insecurity. On his 30th birthday. he saw a “promise of a decennary of solitariness. [ and ] a thinning list of individual work forces to know” ( Fitzgerald 143 ) . Nick is stating the reader that he has perfectly no programs on get marrieding a adult female when he accepts the fact that the following 10 old ages of his life will be spent entirely. Besides. Nick tells the reader that he prefers holding merely individual males as friends. which raises concerns about his heterosexualism. Nick knows and accepts that he is trapped for the following 10 old ages between his program to non get married because of the fact that he is non sexually attracted to adult females and his inability to move on his homosexual dispositions toward work forces ; nevertheless. the fact that he plans to go on to maintain a “thinning” list of individual work forces to cognize shows that possibly he is still urgently seeking for a suited spouse.
Despite all the grounds of Nick’s homosexual dispositions. most readers believe there is grounds of his heterosexualism. His attractive force to Jordan Baker. to some grade. shows that he is attracted to adult females ; nevertheless. this attractive force. under close examination. reveals the antonym. Nick’s attractive force to Jordan Baker emerges while he is still composing letters on a hebdomadal footing to the girlfriend waiting for him in his place town that his household expects him to get married. Nick stated. “…all I could believe of was how when that certain miss [ Jordan ] played tennis. a weak moustache of sweat appeared on her upper lip” ( Fitzgerald 64 ) . It is Jordan Baker’s maleness that attracts the attending of Nick Carraway. and if Jordan’s maleness is what draws the attending of Nick. so it is muliebrity in a adult male that attracts him to Jay Gatsby ( Fraser 558 ) . This shows that Nick is more emotionally drawn to feminine work forces instead than masculine adult females.
To better understand the character of Nick Carraway. we must besides analyze the character of his Godhead. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The muliebrity of the writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald. may hold reflected upon the storyteller of the narrative. Nick Carraway. In 1935. Fitzgerald told his secretary. Laura Guthrie. “I don’t know what it is in me or that comes to me when I start to compose. I am half feminine. at least my head is” ( Kerr 406 ) . This proves that the author’s admitted muliebrity may hold led to the feminisation of Nick Carraway’s character. Furthermore. a character that narrates a narrative is basically the writer of the narrative narrating it through his ain self-created character to accommodate his ain individual ( Sheppard 3-4 ) . In other words. Nick Carraway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are one in the same ; they both are “half feminine. ”
In the concluding analysis. after reexamining all the grounds. it is undeniable that Nick Carraway does. in fact. have homosexual dispositions toward Jay Gatsby. Nick’s rough childhood and rigorous male parent that created his insecurity. his attractive force to Jay Gatsby’s muliebrity. his credence of a coming decennary of solitariness with no program of get marrieding piece at the really same clip maintaining a list of individual work forces to cognize. his attractive force to Gatsby’s masculine exposure. and the fact that the writer himself has admitted to being “half feminine” all demonstrate the impression that Nick Carraway has a sexual attractive force toward Jay Gatsby ; nevertheless. his insecurity and societal parturiency maintain it well-hidden prevent him from moving on those “unacceptable” desires.
Plants Cited
– Fitzgerald. F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1st Edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1925.
– Fraser. John. Dust and Dreams and the Great Gatsby. The John Hopkins University Press. Vol. 32. No. 4 ( December 1965 ) . 554-564.
– Kerr. French republics. Feeling “Half Feminine” : Modernism and the Politicss of Emotion in the Great Gatsby. American Literature. Vol. 68. No. 2 ( June 1996 ) 405-431.
– Sheppard. David. “Narration. ” Jungian Novel Writing: A Fabulous Approach to Story Telling. ( 2002 ) : 13 pars. [ journal online ] . Available from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. greek-myth. co- m/Novel_Writing/narration. htm ; Internet. Accessed 3 May 2004.