Great Gatsby Coming of Age Novel

The unique the Excellent Gatsby isn’t your classical maturing novel a minimum of for the a lot of part. This is because Nick Caraway is the only character who in fact winds up changing by the end of the book. Furthermore maturing novels refer to a character(s) that pass the rite of passage in order to go into manhood or womanhood. Therefore this novel is about the development of maturity.

The story starts with Nick participating in supper at the Buchannan home.

Nick was at first very amazed and interested with the beauty, glamour, and wealth of Daisy and Tom. This can be seen in the quote “Their house was even more elaborate than I expected” (Fitzgerald, pg.6). This point of view is oblivious and is uninformed of the stating “it’s not what’s on the outside but what’s on the inside. However this perspective significantly altered by the end of the book.

By the end of the novel Nick can no longer even bare to stand the sight of Tom or Daisy, let alone shake their hands.

This resulted in Gatsby’s death and later his funeral to which neither Daisy nor Tom went to.

The strongest representation of Nick’s growing maturity is the fact that he realises that Tom and Daisy are both weak and gutless people. This understanding was only obtained when Nick looked for what was on the “inside”. The quote “They are careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” is really powerful and Fitzgerald is warning others about people who are like this.

The novel The Great Gatsby may not be a coming of age novel but it is a pretty darn good book about growing in maturity, following your dreams, and fighting for love. Unfortunately Nick is the only character who actually realised this and learned from it.