This is essay talks about Nicks loss of innocence and his...

Nicks Loss of Innocence and Growing Awareness In F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby, the narrator Nick Carraways loss of innocence and growing awareness is one of the significant themes. Nick moves to West Egg, Long Island, an affluent suburb of New York City, where millionaires and powerbrokers dominate the landscape, from his simple, idyllic Midwestern home. In his new home, he meets Jay Gatsby, the main character in the novel. Throughout the novel, Nicks involvement in Gatsbys affairs causes him to gradually lose his innocence and he eventually becomes a mature person. By learning about Gatsbys past and getting to know how Gatsby faces the past and the present, Nick finds out about the futility of escaping from the†¦show more content†¦(64) Nick knows that Gatsby lies because Gatsby wants people to respect him and he does not want to face the reality that he comes from a poor family. Moreover, Nick knows about Daisy and Gatsbys past relationship and how Gatsby cannot face the reality that Daisy is married to Tom. Gatsby presses Daisy to tell him that she never loved Tom. Gatsby wants to deny the truth and wants to bring back the old days he spent with Daisy. He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then (106). Gatsby cannot accept the truth that Daisy has married somebody else, and he wants to go back to the time when Daisy and he were together. Gatsby cannot move on with his life. Through knowing about Gatsbys past and how he escapes from it, Nick learns that one must live in the present and that the attempt to get back to the past is futile, hopeless, and impossible. Nick is involved in many of Gatsbys affairs and he finally learns that the American Dream does not bring any happiness to Gatsby and destroys him instead. Nick, who leaves his Midwestern life and its values, is a witness to the destruction of the American Dream. Nick comes to the East with great hope and expectations, but then discovers how the hope has been