The Great Gatsby - Chapter 1
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg, on Long Island in the United States. In the opening chapter the author introduces theme, setting and character and this gives the reader the desire to read on.
The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, who moved to East Egg, which compared to West Egg is "the less fashionable of the two". Straight away we are introduced to what Nick is like, and what his surroundings are. Right from the first page, it is suggested that Nick is very much honest, but also quite kind, as he is "inclined to reserve all judgements".
"And after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit"
This quote is another example of Nick's pure honesty.
He is admitting the fact that even he eventually gets annoyed at people. I think this may be useful information to the reader as the novel goes on. Nick goes on to suggest that he's then quite surprised at himself, when he introduces one of the main characters and says;
"Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn."
Nick singles out Gatsby here and tells us he knows he shouldn't like him, yet he does. This is foreshadowing what is to come as it's suggesting to the reader that Gatsby and Nick may build a relationship.
Nick describes his new home in West Egg:
"My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore"
This suggests to the reader that although Nicks house is certainly not attractive, it's small enough to just go past without really noticing. This is reinforcing the...