The narrator of The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway, a young man from the Midwest who moves to New York to work in the bond business and ends up telling Gatsby’s story in retrospect.

Quick Scoop

Here’s the core info you need about who narrates The Great Gatsby and why it matters.

Who is the narrator?

  • The entire novel is told in first person by Nick Carraway.
  • Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor in West Egg, a Yale graduate, a World War I veteran, and a bonds salesman.
  • He looks back on the events of 1922 from a later point in time, so the book reads like a reflective memoir.

Why Nick, not Gatsby?

  • Using Nick as narrator lets the story focus on Gatsby while keeping some mystery around him.
  • Nick stands slightly aside from the wild parties and affairs, which gives him a partly outsider’s view of East Coast high society.
  • Because people confide in Nick, he can reveal Tom’s, Daisy’s, Gatsby’s, and the Wilsons’ secrets in one continuous narrative.

Is Nick a reliable narrator?

  • Many critics describe Nick as more reliable than most first‑person narrators because he is observant and reflective.
  • At the same time, he clearly favors Gatsby and dislikes Tom and Daisy, so his version is biased and selective , not perfectly objective.
  • This mix of apparent honesty plus subtle bias is what makes the narration of The Great Gatsby feel layered and open to debate.

Bottom line: When you ask “who is the narrator of The Great Gatsby ,” the answer is Nick Carraway—the Midwestern bond salesman who tells Gatsby’s rise and fall through his own reflective, sometimes biased eyes.

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