Even though Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby he is actually not the protagonist. Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel. The book is literally called The Great Gatsby not The Great Carraway. Since the novel is told through the perspective of Nick we will never truly know what these characters are actually like because Nick is an unreliable narrator. He gets a lot of his information about Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby from gossip and rumors. Since Nick is so quick to believe these rumors from unreliable sources this proves that he is gullible. Therefore, a lot of the information we seem to know about characters might not actually be true. Fitzgerald chose an unreliable narrator to tell the story of Gatsby in order to preserve the mysteriousness of the character. If The Great Gatsby had been told from the first person point of view it would have taken away some of the aloofness and mysteriousness of Gatsby because if it was told from his point of view then the audience would know what Gatsby is thinking during situations, what he does when he’s alone, and perhaps even a deeper understanding of his experiences from the war and his upbringing. The story is not told from Gatsby’s point of view because he presents the American Dream, and the American Dream is a myth. Something that is not real cannot be a storyteller. Hence, why the novel is told from Nick’s point of view.
Primarily, Nick’s character serves as the narrator, but he also serves as a foil to Gatsby. The two are foils because Nick, unlike Gatsby, is an open book. As readers, we always know what Nick is thinking, feeling, and what his next move is since he is the narrator. Gatsby is a very mysterious person because his backstory is very unclear and low-key shady.
In addition to Gatsby being mysterious and Nick being an open book, the pair also serve as foils because Nick represents the common man, while Gatsby represents the elitists of the upper class. Nick represents the common man because he is not as financially well off as some of the other characters in the novel. He is a bond salesman and lives in a small house adjacent to Gatsby’s mansion. Since Nick is not as wealthy as his peers he is able to recognize how morally corrupt the other characters are, thus providing an outsider’s perspective. Gatsby, on the other hand, is like the ultimate insider because of how wealthy and lavish his lifestyle is. Gatsby’s fortune and lifestyle is justification for his representation of the elitist upper class.