"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart" (Fitzgerald 96). F. Scott Fitzgerald states this quotation through Nick Carraway's narration in The Great Gatsby. Nick comments on the values, qualities, or ideals that people will invariable hold true to themselves. In Fitzgerald's novel, not only can the reader identify a character by their values and wishes, but he also portrays each individual with their own mannerism, especially their own speech. Fitzgerald's use of individual speech patterns that define the characters in his novel aids in furthering the renowned characterization in The Great Gatsby. .
Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, is characterized by his honesty and straightforward speech. At the very beginning of the novel, Nick comments on his honesty, "Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known" (Fitzgerald 59). The reader quickly discovers that, in reality, this account is not quite true, but as the story progresses; it becomes apparent that Nick is candidly attempting to tell his account of the plot. Although his honesty is an important aspect of Nick's speech, his straightforward storytelling is his most defining quality, "I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it" (Fitzgerald 29). In this quotation, Nick clearly explains why the following account in the Plaza Hotel is blurred and confusing. Nick's accounts are solely based on his point of view; thus, the reader must take Nick's state of mind into consideration. Furthermore, Nick's storytelling is extremely symbolic, "He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled under the night" (Fitzgerald 180).