Nick Carraway as Honest Liar in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby Essay

prick Carraway as Honest Liar in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal legalitys, and this is mine I am one of the few honest people that I make water ever known (Fitzgerald Gatsby 64). So writes Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, characterizing himself in opposition to the great masses of benevolentity as a dead honest man. The honestness that Nick attributes to himself must be a closely perfect one, by dint of both its rarity and its cardinal spirit Nick asserts for himself that he is among the about 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 concomitant a proficient liar, though he never loses his blind faith in his own pure honesty. First, Fitzgeralds choice of the word suspects indicates, and almost guarantees, a certain uncertainty about that suspicion th e fact that these are fallible (and lots 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 weigh evidently put, excepting either an unrealistically optimistic view of human nature or an extremely broad definition of the cardinal virtues, it is simply impractical to accept that all human beings everyw present exemplify one of the cardinal virtues of humanity. Some people must not cause the cardinal virtue they suspect of themselves. Nick, however, seems to forget 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 modern in the novel, Nick responds with an appeal to his belief in his own honesty-his legend about himself is that sacred. Much like 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. whole kit Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner Paperback Fiction New York, 1991.