Nick Carraway, the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, leads the reader through the events of his time with Jay Gatsby, from his perspective. Generally speaking, one person's account of an event cannot be taken as the whole truth without hearing at least one other side. However, if we were to trust one person, their credibility would have to be of the highest stature. Nick presents himself, through his actions, as the mediator between conflicting characters. In other words, Nick is supposed to take the reader away from the excessiveness of the times and back to reality. Through this method, as the reader, we come to trust Nick Carraway. We let him take us by the hand and lead us down a winding path, through his eyes. The problem is that Nick is human and therefore has his flaws. Nick Carraway is not an innocent by-stander of the time; he is an active participant of all that can be viewed as morally wrong, and therefore is not "honest" and is furthermore subject to presenting the reader with a biased outlook. .
Nick begins telling his story of adventures with Gatsby by introducing himself through his upbringing. This can be seen as an attempt to establish his credibility with the reader. Some of Nick's first words "I"m inclined to reserve all judgments" (Pg. 1) are directly aimed towards this goal of establishing a trustworthy relationship in the readers mind, hoping that his accounts will be taken for the truth. .
The problem is that in 1922 Nick Carraway moved to West Egg, across the way from East Egg. Between these two "eggs", West Egg is described as being the wealthier of the two, and therefore Nick lives in the relatively poorer of the two. At this point Nick has not outwardly expressed any longing to be a part of the upper class society around him, but "My house was squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season.
