Nick Carraway

In his narration, Nick Carraway explains that he was born in the Middle West. The Carraway Family owned a hardware business (opened in 1851) and were something of an established family. Nick served in World War I in the Third Division. At a young age his father advised him to reserve all judgements on people. After the war he moved from the Midwest to West Egg, a wealthy enclave of Long Island, to learn about the bond business. He takes up residence near his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her affluent husband Tom, who was Nick's classmate at Yale University. They introduce him to their friend Jordan Baker, a cynical young heiress and professional golfer. She and Nick begin a brief romance.

Another neighbor and Daisy Buchanan's lover, Jay Gatsby, invites Nick to one of his legendary parties. Nick is immediately intrigued by the mysterious socialite, especially when Gatsby introduces him to the gangster Meyer Wolfsheim, who is rumored to have helped Gatsby make his fortune in the bootlegging business. Gatsby takes a liking to Nick, and confesses to him that he has been in love with Daisy since before the war and that his extravagant lifestyle is just an attempt to impress her. He asks Nick for his help in winning her over. Nick invites Daisy over to his house without telling her that Gatsby will be there. When Gatsby and Daisy resume their love affair, Nick serves as their confidant.

Nick later discovers that Daisy struck and killed George's wife (and Tom's lover), Myrtle Wilson, in Gatsby's car. Tom then tells George that Gatsby had been driving the car. George then kills Gatsby and then himself. Nick holds a funeral for Gatsby, breaks up with Jordan, and decides to leave West Egg and return to his native Midwest, reflecting that the era of dreaming which Gatsby represented is over.[1]

Fitzgerald scholars and fans of The Great Gatsby frequently interpret Nick Carraway as being gay or bisexual.[2][3][4] Many queer interpretations of Nick’s character hinge on a scene at the end of Chapter 2, in which an elevator lever is used as a phallic symbol. There are then ellipses - the only time they are used in the novel - followed by a brief scene in which Mr. McKee, described earlier as a “pale, feminine man,” is “sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.” Edward Wasiolek argues that this scene is evidence of Nick’s “homosexual proclivities,” and he claims that “I do not know how one can read the scene in McKee's bedroom in any other way, especially when so many other facts about his behavior support such a conclusion.”[5]

Additional evidence for Nick Carraway’s homosexuality stems from a comparison of his descriptions of men and women within the novel. For example, the greatest compliment that Nick gives Daisy is that she has a nice voice, and his description of Jordan sounds much like a description of a man. Conversely, Nick’s description of Tom focuses on his muscles and the “enormous power” of his body, and in the passage where Nick first encounters Gatsby, Greg Olear argues that “if you came across that passage out of context, you would probably conclude it was from a romance novel. If that scene were a cartoon, Cupid would shoot an arrow, music would swell, and Nick’s eyes would turn into giant hearts.”[6] Near the end of the novel, Tom also says of Gatsby, “that fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust in your eyes just like he did in Daisy’s,” demonstrating Nick’s attraction to Gatsby and how this attraction prevents him from forming a critical judgment of him. Nick’s generally obsessive tone toward Gatsby throughout The Great Gatsby also supports a queer reading of the novel, particularly the conclusion that Nick is in fact in love with Gatsby.

Different authors draw different conclusions regarding the importance of Nick’s sexuality to the novel - Olear argues that Nick idealizes Gatsby in a similar way to how Gatsby idealizes Daisy, Noah Berlatsky sees Nick’s sexuality as emphasizing both Jordan and Gatsby’s dishonesty,[7] and David Giunta views the scene with McKee as alerting the reader to the fact that Nick is in fact not “this wholesome, honest person who is fed up with the immoral behavior seen in New York.”[8] However, as Daniel Herman puts it, Nick being gay or bisexual “seems incontrovertible. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how this has not, in the decades since the book became a pillar of high school English curricula, gained a deeper foothold in our collective consciousness.”