At the party at Gatsby's house on Sunday morning Nick hears more gossip from a group about Gatsby. The ladies make claims such as Gatsby being a “bootlegger who killed a man who discovered that he was nephew to von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil.” Gatsby has conflicting claims, he says he descends from a prominent family in the Midwest yet when asked where he's from he says San Francisco. After Gatsby says this he tells a ridiculously long list of accomplishments. Claims to have gone to Oxford, lived in the capitals of Europe, to have enlisted in the war effort and be promoted to major and decorated by the allies. Personally this proves my thought that people tend to lie when wanting to seem better to others.

Nick admires Gatsby even though he does much wrong (i.e. bootlegging). He finds one truth more interesting than the rest and goes and tells Jordan. While Daisy was in the Red Cross she fell in love with him. The question presented is can going back to relive the past be a mistake and will Daisy and Gatsby still have the same relationship.

Chapter 5

A discussion between Nick and Gatsby occurs that opens the chapter shows an uncertain relationship. The question I asked to myself was is Gatsby's friendship with Nick merely a method to an end. The means being a way to get closer to Daisy or does he genuinely hold a certain fondness for Nick? Gatsby himself does not believe that anyone would be his friend if he weren't wealthy. He is personally insecure about the class he finds himself in but recognizes that now Daisy will be quicker to love him. After Gatsby offers Nick a swim in his pool and a trip to Coney Island he realizes Gatsby is waiting impatiently for Nick to set up a meeting with Daisy, which Nick agrees to do. When it begins raining on the day of the meeting Gatsby becomes uneasy. Many things seem to be happening all of the sudden possibly showing Gatsby's apprehension. When Gatsby knocks over the clock they are all embarrassed and Nick tells him that he is behaving like a child. This subtle movement and moment could be showing Gatsby's desire to turn back time and put things back as they once were. When Nick reenters the room after leaving for a moment Gatsby and Daisy clearly seem happy as though they have just finished an embrace. They are happy at being together again yet also confused about how they feel which is shown by Daisy's tears. Then later Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy go over to Gatsby's mansion where he gives them a carefully practiced tour. Daisy is overwhelmed by the newspaper clippings detailing his exploits and by his possessions. When she is shown his collection of imported shirts she cries with joy. She is happy that now Gatsby can afford things for her and can do anything for her. Nick though wonders about Gatsby's view toward Daisy now; possibly disappointment. To me this encounter makes them realize the time that has passed and how faith full Gatsby is and how much he desires to be in love.

Chapter 6

This was a very interesting chapter in the book. I especially enjoy the in depth look that we get of Gatsby's or should I say Jay Gatz's life. A reporter who has heard gossip about him in New York comes to his mansion in the hope of getting Gatsby's true story of his past. Gatsby send the man away but Nick butts in and tells the story of Gatsby's past. Gatsby's real name is Jay Gatz, born to impoverished farmers in North Dakota instead of the rich life in San Francisco. He legally changed his name at 17 to Gatsby and went to college for two years at St. Olaf's but quick when he couldn't stand being a janitor to pay off his education any longer. When Gatsby met Dan Cody while working as a fisherman on Lake Superior his dream of self-improvement only grew. Cody took Gatsby under his wing as a personal assistant. They went to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast together and Gatsby began to covet wealth and privilege even more. Gatsby inherited $25,000 when Cody died but never got it due to Cody's mistress Ella Kaye. After that experience he vowed to become successful by himself. Several weeks pass without Nick seeing Gatsby and upon visiting Gatsby's mansion is shocked that Tom Buchanan is there. Tom and Mr. and Ms. Sloane stop by with him for a drink after horseback riding. The Sloane's exemplify the “old wealth” people. Gatsby invites them for dinner but they refuse; then ashamed at her rudeness offers Gatsby and Nick to eat at their house. Nick seeing that se is insincere declines but Gatsby accepts whether to be defiant or is just oblivious accepts. Tom complains about the crazy people like Gatsby that Daisy meets. Through the afternoon e is full of contempt toward Gatsby and even pokes fun at him for accepting the Sloane's offer. The next Saturday Daisy and Tom come to one of Gatsby's parties and Tom is again rude and unpleasant. Gatsby is crestfallen after the Buchanan's leave believing Daisy ha a bad time but does not know Tom made her sad by saying Gatsby got wealthy from bootlegging. Nick later realizes Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him and he informs Gatsby not to ask too much of Daisy. Even saying “you can't repeat the past.” To which Gatsby says, “Of course you can!” This shows Gatsby wants not only for it to go back to the way it was before but he want to truly relive the 5 years as if they didn't exist.

The Valley of Ashes

This valley is situated between the West Egg where the narrator resides and New York. This valley consists of waste land ranging for a long distance and spreading through a vast area. he author uses this place to symbolize the lives of the high class people who have no morals or ethics in life. They have no sense of social conscience about their personal lives. They don't have any inhibitions when it comes to their personal pleasures and they are in a way responsible for the fading social values.

The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg

These eyes are painted on an advertising hoarding at the valley of ashes. These eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of divine looking eyes which are serene and a bit fading in look. The author symbolizes these eyes with those of God's who look at the society cultures. These eyes watch the grief of George who works hard in the valley of ashes.

Green Light

We can see this green light at the end of the East Egg where Daisy and Tom reside. The author says that this light symbolizes Gatsby's hope to meet Daisy whom he loves ardently. It represents his hopes and dreams for his future too. At one point we see Gatsby reach the place where the light is situated to look for Daisy.

These are the main symbols used by Scott Fitzgerald in the book The Great Gatsby.

Modernism evolved from a series of movements involving composers, artists, writers (e.g. Stravinsky, Picasso, Woolf, Joyce, Lawrence) and was marked by a rejection of the conventions of the 19th century with an urge to experiment with new forms.  Gatsby describes East Egg in his memory using weird surrealism such as a woman on a stretcher in a white dress and a painting of El Greco (p167) using very imaginative techniques making it seem haunting, distorted, grotesque like the Greco painting.

Modernist painting rejects the mimetic conventions of the nineteenth-century and challenges the viewer's expectations by seeing the human figure differently.  Pablo Picasso's Analytical Cubist period shows figures and objects were represented not as they are actually seen, but in terms of opened-out (i.e. analytic) representations of the planes composing the subject.   “Indefinite procession of shadows” (p114) mimics a sense of cubism or shadowed two-dimensional people narrated in the new conventional state.

Modernist art also suggests the possibility of new ways of perceiving the world and often implies that these new perceptions may offer greater authenticity of vision, either through de-familiarisation or through discovery of genuinely alternative modes of perception.  This idea was infringed into the character of Gatsby and the themes of the novel.

The novel is about self-betterment and were no-one looks out for the best interest of anyone else.  People are murdered, the main character is involved in illegal activities and the overall atmosphere of the novel is gloomy.  The novel also shows the insignificance of ‘man’ by allowing the main character to be killed and no one even caring.

The overall effect is modernism that deals with mans brutality, this can be seen when Daisy hits Myrtle but doesn’t stop the car, George shoots Gatsby and when Jordan doesn’t care about what is happening around her throughout the story.

Insignificance of man is shown through wealth and how one person could have all the money in the world but still not be happy.  Gatsby had new money and was ready to impress Daisy with it and win her back, but money was not needed.  Daisy didn't truly love him, with or without money.  As a result Gatsby is filled with despair, all he wants is Daisy and he has no way of ‘obtaining’ her.

Modernist techniques are used to develop negative and cynical views, especially when consulting Gatsby; “from one place to another, anything could happen, even Gatsby could happen” (p85).  This negativity towards Gatsby can also be seen when he is murdered; “The holocaust is complete” (p154).  He describes himself as a self-mythologizing story and as a pastiche of cheap magazine stories.  However, the “roaring noon” (p67) and Manhattan as an expression of Gatsby’s house and his beliefs in infinite possibilities almost summarises the need for ‘making it new’ in the twenties.

The eye’s of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg bring subtle connections between Nicks cynical view of life “distorted beyond my eyes” (p167), which is influenced by Jordan, “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (p77).  They are the all seeing, all knowing judging eyes which are meant to intimidate.

 Fitzgerald's way of indicating that the people of the 1920's were disgraceful, undignified and selfish because they spent large sums of money on themselves is shown through Gatsby’s parties where people would attend when they didn’t know the host.   This type of behaviour is why the 1920's were known as a decadent era. The eyes not only symbolise a god-like being but also Fitzgerald himself and his negative views of 1920's society, which are also portrayed through his depiction of guests at Gatsby's parties such as the two women identically dressed in yellow.

The novel investigates the theme of honesty in a new modern way which it is lacking in the characters of The Great Gatsby including Jordan who cheats at golf and when New York City is a symbol of what America has become in the 1920's, a place where anything goes, where money is made, bootleggers flourish, and where the Meyer Wolfshiem fixes the World Series.  Gatsby’s ‘old sport’ seems to invoke foul play, but seems to be more of a false affection.  However, certainly there is a sense that Gatsby hasn’t achieved his wealth honestly.

The Jazz Age was a movement of youthful rebellion and futuristic expressive modernity when the rich went to parties at Gatsby’s to indulge in the new hedonism of the time.  Nick introduces the novel describing things that are manufactured, advertised and consumed.  There are signs of the new economy (the modern capitalism) but these are in many cases also metaphors of the new materialistic mental landscapes of the ‘Jazz Age’, which the novel seeks to document. This need for the new was strong in the character of Myrtle Wilson who had her modern apartment as an attempt to turn herself into a ‘Daisy’ like modern society lady by mimicking what she had read in the “town tattle” (p29) and trashy gossip novels.  This is reflected in her party mannerisms and behaviour, her pet dog, her manufactured furniture and rugs with tapestry of “Versailles” (p31).

Gatsby's house is a rather artificial place, which was originally built to impress Daisy with his so-called wealth, which is a sign of the corrupt way of ‘winning’ love through money, and wealth.  Gatsby's house however is furnished well with old looking ornaments and a library, which is full of 'uncut' literature.  The conversation between Jordan and an unnamed man at one of Gatsby's parties’ talks about the books; "Absolutely real - have real pages and everything.  I'd thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard” (p47).  These books and antiques are just Gatsby's way of showing off his wealth to others, however Gatsby doesn't really care for materialism which is shown because his bedroom, the only room he really ever uses, is empty compared to the rest of the house.  The expression of modernity can also be seen in the way the novel draws an analogy between his house, car and his character. Owl Eyes and Nicks views of Gatsby’s interiors and analogy shows the novel draws between the eclectic room in Gatsby’s house and interior consciousness of modernity more generally.  The interior contains a range of items imported from Europe, and Daisy becomes overwhelmed with Gatsby’s variety of “beautiful shirts” (p89).

The novel shows the emergence of a mass society with pressure placed upon individual integrity from advertising and fashion to American ideals and history that are put together using cross-cultural comparisons.  There is a recurrent theme throughout the novel about the importation of European fashions, manners, and habits into the American context with are put as a disadvantage to American way of life.  When Gatsby meets with Daisy, he wears his best outfit;  “the front door opens nervously and Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and gold coloured tie hurried in” (p81).  To Gatsby his clothes create a vision of power and happiness that his money can buy.

Fitzgerald focuses on Nick as an allegorical method of expressing modernism, as well as a sense of loss for southern gentility.  Nick describes Henry Gatz as one who’s more drawn to the photograph of his son’s mansion than the house itself and his naïve belief that Gatsby would have been a man like James J. Jill.

The Great Gatsby is definitely connected to romantic commitment and a belief in the limits set by force, which in a materialistic sense shows there is a dualism between a mechanistic and organic view of the universe.  The organic universe is living and the mechanistic universe is fixed, this therefore shows that the novel is also concerned with naturalism as a modernistic technique of writing.

An observation made by Nick is that "every Friday, five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from New York.  Every Monday, these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves" (p41).  All of this is done in the name of Gatsby's parties, which shows the extravagance of buying exotic fruits in the 1920’s only to impress his guests, or rather to impress Daisy if she appears.

This is also a symbol that relates the 'pulpless halves' to the rather 'empty' guests or soulless people obsessed by image and wealth, a corruption of the American Dream. These ideals represent and personify the wasteful character of the people of the 1920’s because they assumed that they deserved to be carefree after so many years of being unhappy from World War I where they were forced to ration everything.  These representations where also shown when the food buffet came;  “buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (p.41).

The gigantic blue eyes of T.J. Eckleburg without a face look out at the valley of ashes from behind a pair of yellow eyeglasses.  This billboard advertisement, which provides its eternal presence looming above the ash-heaps, takes on added significance in chapter eight as George Wilson refers to it as God.  While looking at the giant eyes after Myrtles death Wilson reveals he had taken his wife to the window just before she died and told her;

“God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing.  You may fool me but you can’t fool God!…God sees everything”. (p152)

The desolation of the Valley of Ashes may be seen in Fitzgerald’s image as an abandoned billboard serving as Wilson’s provider of solace and ultimate judge of morality.  Following a central theme of modernism, this new God watches over his paradise, which has been reduced to ash-heaps by modern man.  The eyes however are assumed by Wilson to be God who is all seeing, but they are blind because there is no caring being who oversees actions and ensures that justice is done. The unmoving eyes on the billboard look down on the Valley of Ashes and see all the immorality and garbage of the times. By the end of the novel this symbolises that God is dead.

Wilson is a failure in economic terms and as a husband to Myrtle with few possessions.  He is ensnared as a worker, a drudge within the economic system, with no room to manoeuvre.  Wilson’s dream is to go west with his wife and begin a new life, but inevitably this doesn’t happen. 

Modernistic techniques can also be seen in the way symbolism is used in the obvious interpretation of Gatsby’s longing for Daisy, the green light.  This multi-faceted piece of symbolism proves Daisy is just a part of it and tells us Gatsby has spent his whole life longing for some-thing better.  The green light stands for all of Gatsby’s longings and wants money, success, acceptance and Daisy.  Nick talks about the green light at the end of the novel and says, “it eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms our farther…” (p172).  He connects the green light to all people because everyone has something they long and hope for.

A modern approach to writing featured in the novel could be derived from the metaphorical use of photographs, which provides a recurrent motif in the novel.  The thematic significance of the photograph is that it appears to freeze time, and frames an experience, which is preserved for later consumption.  This can be noted when Gatsby has a photograph of Cody on his wall, and his father carries a picture of Gatsby’s mansion.  These metaphors carry the vision that Gatsby is ‘great’ because he has dedicated his life to pursuit of a moment, which was actually frozen in his past when he fell in love with Daisy.

The Buchanans show how people can use their position to look down on others and live their life carelessly. They need not worry about such things because they are too good for it. Nick sees it as a kind of carelessness. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness..." (p170). They can use their wealth and position to escape whatever they choose.  The word careless also sums up one of the most important ideas in the book. Nick refers to Jordan, Tom, and Daisy as careless in one form or another, this is due to the ease of their life. These people live the decadent life of the ‘roaring twenties’ that many of the writers of this era were criticising, with the mindless, indulgent, irresponsible life style where consequence is just an afterthought.

This carelessness can be seen when Tom and Daisy run away after Myrtle is killed or when Jordan is driving Nick through the city. These people do not worry about paying for their actions so they do as they please.  Tom is not worried about hurting Daisy so he flaunts his relationship with Myrtle, his mistress and Daisy, in turn, goes off with Gatsby without a thought to her marriage. Consequence is an unheard of concept to these people so they live their lives without thinking about it.

In conclusion modernism can be noted throughout the novel especially through Nicks modernist sensibility and the way he reflects on his experiences.  It breaks away from what most previous novels had been about.  Fitzgerald achieves this by dealing with pessimism and brutality but with the gaiety of the time to make what would seem very negative into a non-depressing novel.  Also, the characters all rebel against society with Gatsby leading a secluded life and people who were married acting as though they weren’t.  Furthermore nobody seemed to work and if they did so it wasn’t very important since it was rarely mentioned.  This could be because modernism includes a reluctance to rely on society because of its failures. 

Bibliography

Bradbury, M	(1983)	The Modern American Novel	Oxford University Press
Bruccoli, M	(1993)	New Essays on The Great Gatsby	Cambridge University Press
Fitzgerald, F	(1950)	The Great Gatsby	Penguin
Lehan, R	(1990)	The Great Gatsby-The Limits of Wonder	Twayne
Ousby, I	(1979)	Fifty American Novels	Heinemann Educational Books
Trendell, N	(1997)	Icon Critical Guides-The Great Gatsby	Icon Books Ltd
Way, B	(1980)	F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Art of Social Fiction	Edward Arnold

Stage adaptations of the book The Great Gatsby

• A show based on the novel was staged in the year 1991 and it was performed by Snow Troupe and was adopted by Takarazuka Revue.
  
• The same show will be performed by Moon Troupe of the same company in the year 2008.
  
• To celebrate the 25th year of the debut of James Levine(American Pianist), the novel was staged at New York Metropolitan Opera in the year 1999.
  
• Owen Davis adopted to stage in the year 1926 under the same name and it was directed by George Cukor.
  
• In 2006, a play under the same name was performed at the opening of Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Film and TV adaptations of the book The Great Gatsby

• First it was adapted by Herbert Brenon in the year 1926. Filmed as a silent movie, it was called under the same name as the book. The movie starred Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, and William Powell
  
• In 1949, Elliott Nugent adopted the book to film version starring Betty Field, Alan Ladd, and Shelley Winters.
  
• The famous one of the film versions came in the year 1974 with Robert Redford in the title role. It was directed by Jack Clayton and the other actors of the movie are Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston.
  
• The only television adaptation of this book was made in 2000 by Robert Markowitz under the same name. This version starred  Toby Stephens, Paul Rudd and Mira Sorvino.

Satyricon, by Petronius Arbiter, was written around 60 CE. The Satyricon is a jumble of text and poems about Encolpius, a heroic adventurer and wandering lecturer. Set during the time when Nero ruled the Roman Empire, the stories focus on the worship of the god Priapus, the protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. On one of Encolpius's misadventures, he spends two days with Trimalchio, who entertains with "ostentatious and grotesque extravagance" huge parties of men of his same social standing but less wealthy. Gatsby, in the beginning of the novel, is nothing like Trimalchio. Gatsby held large parties in his home in hopes that one day Daisy would wander into one of his parties.

He does not care about any of the people that come to the parties; he is not trying to show off his wealth or power. The first time Nick went to one of Gatsby's parties, he noticed that that "People were not invited - they went there."(41) Gatsby does not even drink with his guests, but is always alert and ready for his long lost love to walk through his door. When Gatsby finally invites Daisy to his house, he reaches the point in the novel when he is most like Trimalchio. He invites Daisy to his house to show her that he is rich and powerful and wants to prove to Daisy that he could provide for her. Daisy, however, did not like what she saw. "She was appalled by West Egg."(108) With his hopes ruined, seeing that his wealth was nothing to Daisy, that it was more about being born rich then being rich in the end, "as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over."(113) This is Fitzgerald's first and only actual reference to Trimalchio in the novel, although he develops Gatsby to be uncannily like him. Gatsby starts out only trying to reunite himself with Daisy, but by the end of the novel, he declines in a form of egocentricity that he and Trimalchio share.

 Another aspect of the title of a novel is the connotation that the reader associates with the title itself. Because Trimalchio is a character in an ancient book and few people have heard of him, most people would not see the connection between him and Gatsby. When people cannot understand the title, even after they read the book, it loses its power to capture its audience. The title must be thought provoking and intriguing if the book is to sell and the writer to make money. The Great Gatsby has several intriguing connotations that fit into the novel perfectly and are easily identified by the reader. The first thought that comes to mind when reading the title The Great Gatsby is of a magician, like the great Houdini. In the early twenties and through the Great Depression, magicians were very popular. When Gatsby was written in 1925, people wanted a cheap and exciting form of entertainment. Readers then and now could find that same magical connotation with the book's title and images that occur throughout the story. Gatsby is able to conjure huge parties out of thin air and hopes that his parties will lead to "one moment of magical encounter"(110) with Daisy.

Beyond Gatsby's magical ability to conjure parties, The Great Gatsby shows Gatsby in an air of secrecy that invokes curiosity in the reader. Beyond just a mere magician, the Great Gatsby is elevated to a godly nature, "[He] sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God... he invented...Jay Gatsby,"(99) he invented himself, he made himself who he is, and he gave himself power over his own life. Gatsby's god-like conception of himself and how his rise from North Dakotan poverty to excessive riches is what leads to his title "The Great Gatsby."

Fitzgerald uses references to the Satyricon in The Great Gatsby, but the development of the characters is quite different. Trimalchio's character is flat and he undergoes no change in his role in the Satyricon. As Gatsby progresses, the character of Gatsby changes his pose and his role in the novel; the reader has a connection to Gatsby that is not present with Trimalchio. Interestingly, both novels also contain the story of another character and their experience with either Trimalchio or Gatsby. Nick meets Gatsby after he moves to West Egg as a bond salesman and Encolpius is traveling when he stumbles upon one of Trimalchio's infamous parties. Fitzgerald's use of East and West Egg in Gatsby also echoes the Satyricon from Trimalchio's conversation with Encolpius, "Mother earth is in the centre, round as an egg, and all that is good is found in her." The stories parallel in a handful of aspects, but in the end, The Great Gatsby has a clearer and more meaningful goal, to show the truth behind the American dream. If Trimalchio were a twentieth century American he would be the personification of the American Dream: he has seemingly endless wealth and power.

The title of the novel reveals important details about the story, attracts readers, and can end up deciding the fate of the book. The connotations that readers associate with a person that is "Great" helps to reveal the truth about the American Dream as a theme for the novel. Few people have ever heard of Trimalchio, so the hidden and comic meaning for referring to Gatsby as Trimalchio would be lost and diminish the lessons of the novel. The title The Great Gatsby perfectly embodies the principles of the novel unlike Trimalchio or even The Great Trimalchio ever could.

Nick as a Dynamic Character

One reason that many critics of this novel believe that Nick, not Gatsby, is the hero of this book is because nick is the only dynamic character in the story. Although many would argue that Gatsby was the hero, by the end of the book Gatsby's outlook on life was exactly the same. Gatsby still believed that he could change the past and died thinking he had. Nick, on the other hand, changed throughout the book. His entire viewpoint on the American Dream was changed by the end of the novel. He realized that the moral decay of the east had destroyed the American Dream and he had to move back west to keep that dream alive. He also realized that you “can” repeat the past. His mindset is changed and he realized that the past is doomed to repeat itself, whether it is good or bad.

Nick as the Protagonist

The second reason why many say that Nick is the hero of this book is because he is considered the protagonist. Although Gatsby comes in a close second, Nick is the most prevalent character of the book. The novel not only starts and ends with Nick, Nick, himself, is the narrator of The Great Gatsby. Nick told this story from his point of view sometime after the events had taken place and he had been able to bring all of the facts together. Because of his involvement in the story, and his narration of the story, it proves that he is the protagonist of the book. Further proving the point is Nick's antagonist, society. Society's pull tries to change Nick. The moral decay of the East during this time period is the main antagonist of the book and the character it quarrels with the most, is, without a doubt, Nick. By the end of this novel, Nick is forced to overcome society's moral decay and move back west where life is simple and morals are present.

Nick as the Main Initiator of Action

Finally, it is easy to see that Nick initiates most of the action in the book. Without Nick's connection to all of the main characters in the novel, many of the conflicts that arose would never have happened. Nick's friendship with Gatsby, and family ties with Daisy made it possible for them to reconnect. Gatsby may never have had the courage to meet with Daisy and tell her he still loved her if Nick hadn't have been there for support and to help with the planning. Nick also wraps up many of the stories in the book. Through Nick's actions and thought, Gatsby's, and many other characters', true colors are revealed and a lot can be learned about them. Nick is the main imitator of action in the story and can be exclusively linked to almost every major occurrence in the novel.

Conclusion

Nick, not Gatsby, is the hero of this novel. The critics who believe this are right in their thinking for many reasons. It is easy to see that Nick is the protagonist of The Great Gatsby, it is a fact that he is a dynamic character, and he is essential to almost every action that takes place in the novel. Nick is the hero of The Great Gatsby.