Why is The Great Gatsby Great?

Gross, Dalton. "Literary Analysis: What Makes The Great Gatsby Great." Understanding The Great Gatsby. (1998): 1-17. Print.

Dalton Gross explains in the article that Nick's experience throughout The Great Gatsby and what he learns from others is what makes the story. Gross explains that Nick doesn't narrate the events in the order that they occur. Fitzgerald presents the events in the way that he wants them. Nick presents these events but sometimes Fitzgerald presents them in a manner that is not Nick's. Sometimes they are not from Nick's point of view. We question why he does this. Gross explains that Fitzgerald wants us to accept Nick's judgments and maybe to do this he switches the narration up at times. Gross thinks at times Nick is honest and reserves judgment at times. I don't see this because I think Nick is constantly judging others around him. In the article, Gross states that Nick tells the story of Gatsby by isolating everyone else but Gatsby himself. Every person that is explained in the story, is leading up to the discovery of Gatsby no matter what view we are looking in at the story from. The first person narrative told by Nick then changes to focus on Gatsby. It is confusing in why Fitzgerald has chosen to write his story this way. Gross also states that the reader is led through the stages of Nick's growing to Gatsby and tells the juxtaposition of the earlier and later Gatsby. We are shown all of Gatsby's life through Nick and through Gatsby himself. The disillusionment is cosmic. To understand the techniques that Fitzgerald used, using other people's point of views helps us to broaden our minds.

This article is very helpful to understand the narration techniques used. It explains that Nick is constantly focusing on Gatsby and the main story is told to center in on him. Nick starts out telling the story and narrating us through The Great Gatsby and then later we see him through third person and are not getting his take on the book. Understanding this narration is the real question when breaking down the book. Reading the article helps us to understanding Nick piece by piece and viewing what others say about The Great Gatsby can help us to form our own opinions as well. We tend to understand the first person narrative as someone telling the story from his/her point of view, and we also know that third person is the narrator saying he/she instead of I. What we can't figure out is why Fitzgerald uses both of these techniques to tell the story. It could be used to help us dig deep into all the characters to find out who Gatsby is instead of using only the opinion of Nick himself. Fitzgerald ways of writing this could be easy to understand, but we just have to look deeper than just seeing there are two different narrative techniques in the story. Gross also helps us to understand why the story is so focused on Gatsby and how we see him through Nick's eyes and others as well.