Nick Carraway as Honest Liar in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby Essay

Nick Carraway as Honest Liar in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby 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 Gatsby 64). So writes Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, characterizing himself in opposition to the revealstanding masses of humanity as a perfectly honest man. The honesty that Nick attributes to himself must be a nearly perfect one, by dint of some(prenominal) its rarity and its cardinal nature Nick asserts for himself that he is among the most honest people he has ever encountered. Events in the book, however, do not bear this self-characterization out far from being among the most honest people in world, Nick Carraway is in fact a proficient liar, though he never loses his trick faith in his own pure honesty. First, Fitzgeralds plectrum of the word suspects indicates, and almost guarantees, a certain uncertainty about that suspicion the fac t that these are imperfect (and often self-deceiving) human beings making observations about themselves make that uncertainty even greater. The fact that everyone believes to be one of the few holders of a cardinal virtue solidifies the affair simply put, excepting either an unrealistically optimistic view of human nature or an extremely broad definition of the cardinal virtues, it is simply impossible to put up that all human beings everywhere exemplify one of the cardinal virtues of humanity. Some people must not have the cardinal virtue they suspect of themselves. Nick, however, seems to immobilise this fact at the colon and starkly asserts, I am one of the few honest people I have ever known (64). The choice of am is very important here... ...themselves. Even when confronted with a disproof of his perfectly honest nature, as Jordan does late in the novel, Nick responds with an appeal to his tactile sensation in his own honesty-his myth about himself is that sacred. Much s ame(p) Gatsbys self-image, Nicks belief in his own honesty seems to spring from the Platonic conception of honesty, and, much like Gatsby, he simply ignores or rationalizes away anything that comes into conflict with his belief. Nick Carraway is far from one of the few honest narrators I have ever read, but he is a testament to the powers of self-deception that exist in both fictional and non-fictional human beings. Everyone suspects himself of one of the cardinal virtues, Nick says, and as Nick himself demonstrates, nearly everyone is wrong. kit and boodle Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner Paperback Fiction New York, 1991.