Viewpoint

"Angry as I was, as we all were, I was tempted to laugh whenever he opened his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete." (pg. 137 Nick talking about Tom) The Great Gatsby is told (almost entirely) by Nick's narration. The audience perceives the actions through how Nick experiences and tells them. In the quote above, Nick is describing the scene when they are all in the hotel room and Tom and Gatsby are fighting about Daisy and every little thing they can think of. If the novel was narrated by either Gatsby or Tom, it would be biased and would not hold the same effect. But since Nick is the narrator, he is portraying the scene as a completely objective third-party viewer. This is also seen in the scene of Nick's tea party where Gatsby and Daisy are invited. He vaguely knew their background together so the whole thing seemed awkward. Then Nick steps outside so the readers don't know what happened between Gatsby and Daisy in Nick's absence. Nick's perspective on the novel was a major contributor to themes and attitude of the work as a whole.