The Great Gatsby Nick - Detached or dishonest?The Great Gatsby is a difficult book to interpret, particularly because of the style in which it is written. Not only must the reader differentiate between the distinct points of view of Nick as narrator and Nick as character, but he or she must also consider at what time period, in relation to this story, those points of view are expressed. After all, Nick the narrator is currently evaluating how his character behaved over the previous year, while allowing his character to express his opinion, as his opinion had been during that time. We learn to trust Nick as a narrator because all the information he gives us, received through symbolism, imagery, or personal reflection, leads us to make important decisions about the other characters in the novel. His character, on the other hand, cannot be considered in the same way; this can be seen as dishonest and hypocritical, but it is these negative characteristics that humanize him, allowing readers to identify with him as a person. What Nick thinks as the narrator is not always the same thing as what his character describes. By the third paragraph of this book, we learn that Nick is "inclined to reserve all his judgments (page 5)", but that his tolerance "has a limit (page 6)". Granted, his opinions may not be expressed in words, but it's important to realize that those opinions still exist. The role of the narrator is to make us aware of Nick's "judgments", as his character neglects to respond to such feelings. Different techniques allow us to draw our own conclusions, the most interesting being symbolism. The “filthy dust” mentioned throughout the novel serves to corrupt everything it encounters. It is this filthy dust that represents the lives of Daisy, Tom and Jordan. After all, they are all immoral characters. A word such as dust successfully gives off a negative vibe, but the fact that Nick goes further and states that such dust is "filthy" truly represents his disapproval of their actions. So, without proclaiming his opinion in words, Nick presents it openly through symbolism for us to see. However, even though we know that Nick, as the narrator, looking back on that summer, did not view the three as honorable people, he still spent a lot of time with them..