He sees both the extraordinary quality of hope that Gatsby possesses and his idealistic dream of loving Daisy in a perfect world. Though Nick recognizes Gatsby's flaws the first time he meets him, he cannot help but admire Gatsby's brilliant smile, his romantic idealization of Daisy, and his yearning for the future.
Nick sees the loneliness in Gatsby and can relate to that on a major level. Although Nick did not fully agree on most of the things Gatsby has done but he can understood why he was doing each of his actions. This is what brought them close to each other.
Nick Carraway admires Gatsby for his ambition and determination. He admires Gatsby's ability to dream big and have the courage to pursue his goals, even when they seem impossible. He is also sympathetic towards Gatsby's unrequited love for Daisy Buchanan, seeing it as a tragic story of lost love.
When he first meets Gatsby, Nick is instantly swept away, and spends the whole novel riveted by this man's triumphs and secrets. It's obvious that Gatsby romanticizes Daisy, but Nick is constantly romanticizing Gatsby. One could read The Great Gatsby as a rationalization of misplaced love.
Nick's bias becomes clear in the earliest pages of the book, when he tells us that “there was something gorgeous about him [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.” We are inclined to see Gatsby as a sensitive genius and to side with him in the romantic triangle between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom.
Nick is particularly taken with Gatsby and considers him a great figure. He sees both the extraordinary quality of hope that Gatsby possesses and his idealistic dream of loving Daisy in a perfect world.
Through the example and actions of Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggested that the American Dream and desire for success in life had been corrupted by a fixation of wealth and material items. Although Gatsby truly loved Daisy, this love was one-sided because Daisy was only attracted to Gatsby because of his wealth and status.
This would be the end of chapter two, before he meets, and falls instantly in love with, Gatsby. He is in Manhattan with Tom, who wanted Nick to meet “his girl,” Myrtle.
Who does Nick become attracted to in The Great Gatsby?
This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick's romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people.
Tom Buchanan comes from a very rich family, while Jay Gatsby comes from a really poor family. Tom Buchanan is powerful and important in society because of his family roots. Jay Gatsby does not have the same importance and power because he comes from a lower social class.
Tone Nick's attitudes toward Gatsby and Gatsby's story are ambivalent and contradictory. At times he seems to disapprove of Gatsby's excesses and breaches of manners and ethics, but he also romanticizes and admires Gatsby, describing the events of the novel in a nostalgic and elegiac tone.
Apparently, he started off penniless and made his money selling illegal, over-the-counter liquor in his drug-store empire during the first two years of prohibition. Read: Invest in pricey cognac? Kevin Roose, for New York Magazine, calculates that with the low profit margin nature of the bootlegging business.
Nick is confused and disgusted since he began to see the reality of the delusion and corruption of ethics that they live in (the fact that Tom is openly cheating on his wife and how Jordan is acting like a little girl and gossiping).
Our narrator, Nick, playfully criticizes Gatsby's ability to impress Daisy with such ease, using the technique of sarcasm, because he is jealous of a “perfect” life that he himself does not live. Nick's ever-present jealousy is introduced during the first chapter of the novel.
Yet to understand The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway must be analyzed, for he is central to the novel, ever-present yet always hiding behind his adoration for the titular Jay Gatsby.
Without giving too much of the story away—in part because it describes almost any budding author, with that slight touch of autism that never quite connects with the world except through imagination and writing—Carraway eventually winds up back in New York.
Myrtle believes that the only reason Tom will not divorce Daisy is because Daisy is Catholic. But we learn that Tom's feelings for Myrtle are far less intense than he has led her to believe and that social pressure prevents him from ever leaving Daisy, who comes from a similar upper-class background.
Daisy does not want to be seen attending Gatsby's funeral since she does care about her image, despite the fact that she has never loved Tom. As a result, she makes the decision to abstain out of concern that she would damage both her connection with Tom and her standing in the eyes of the general public.
Gatsby, in fact, is never capable of loving her at all; he was born with a life and status too drastically different from hers to ever really connect with her in a true, romantic way. Rather, he loved the idea of Daisy and what she stood for.
Gatsby has two purposes in mind when he calls Nick 'old sport'. First, he is attempting to manufacture the sense of closeness with Nick. Everything that Gatsby does is for Daisy, including his befriending of Nick.
This quote is significant because it not only describes Gatsby's smile but also his ability to make people feel important and cared for. The smile has a "quality of eternal reassurance," which suggests that Gatsby is able to put people at ease and make them feel secure.
The purpose of telling Nick about himself, Gatsby says, is because he wants to ask a favor of Nick. He says that Jordan will discuss it with Nick when the two of them meet later for tea. Nick is annoyed because he has developed an interest in Jordan and has not planned on spending their time together focused on Gatsby.
