Nick Carraway is the narrator of the novel by Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby”. Throughout the novel, the emphasis of this narrative is put on the wealthy of New York and it’s adjacent neighbourhoods. However Nick, who tried hard to distance himself from the social classes and financial based drama of society, was himself a member of the capitalist society that had engulfed the United States of America. Nick came from a financially secure family of the midwest of
America, but became less wealthy as a result of his migration to the East Coast. However, he never truly deviated from what many would call middle class. The middle class of society is strangely ignored in this novel, in parallel to the ignored personal details of Nick Carraway himself. Nick Carraway, in his lonely, hardworking, uninspiring everyday life, represents the dying middle class of capitalist society in America.
Nick finds himself pinched between the poor of the Valley of Ashes and the unreasonably wealthy of East and West Egg. He only vaguely hints at a scant number of people able to earn a similar amount as he did. His loneliness and lack of similarly wealthy friends plays on the idea of capitalism’s tendency to chip away at the middle class. This is exemplified in today’s capitalist society, while, based on the writing found on Marxist.com “Median income has fallen for 4 consecutive years [...] [while] Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high” - (Socialist Appeal - USA). This growing gap between the two extremes of financial well being leaves Nick and people like him inside a financial bottleneck that is middle class that continues to shrink. Nick’s social circle is filled with people who found very little was beyond their financial grasp, such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and those whose only hope at improving
their lives was working hours upon hours through illness and boring remedial tasks, such as George Wilson. This is reflected in again America today, where, according to Marxist.com, “ 60% of the jobs lost during the last period were considered ‘mid-wage’ jobs, while 58% of the jobs created over the same period have been ‘low wage.’” - (Socialist Appeal - USA) Much like today’s middle class, Nick sees himself fighting off the possibility of losing his “mid-wage” and being sucked into the world of the Valley of Ashes, or the servants who pay with their labour for the ability to live. This fight is done through, in his case, listing the quotations on an “interminable amount of stock”. (Fitzgerald 21).
Only through hard work work and a little bit of luck has Nick been able to fend off the persistent chipping of capitalism to keep his spot in middle class. He now is only surrounded, both in geographically and socially, by the carelessly rich, and desperately poor. This is likely why he has been chosen to narrate this novel, as his perspective brings him dangerously close to both the scary fall into poverty, and the light dream like state of being wealthy.
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