"I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west--all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. Its a family tradition" pg. 69. Mostly all characterization in this novel is presented through Nick's words directly describing someone, or through a person's own words. The example above is part of Gatsby's description of himself right after he just met Nick. Since Nick serves as the narrator, it is only fitting that he is the one characterizing the people in the novel. Usually, he says exactly what the person is like which adds to his own character. By his own judgements of other characters, he provides an insight to readers of himself. What he thinks about Gatsby's parties, his reaction to Daisy's dinner party, how he acts around Jordan, and what he says about characters are just a few ways of how readers come to know Nick as well as other characters. His characterization helps to shape the novel as a whole. It is all based on Nick's descriptions and judgements.

External Conflict

Chapter 6 starts off with Jake having a drink with Harvey Stone. Then Robert comes to join them, and later so does Frances. In this chapter, the author uses direct characterization to describe the true character of Robert. We find out how he dresses, what he looks like, and how he acts like after he has fallen in love with Brett. Since this novel is in the first person point of view, Jake is the one describing Robert.

When Frances tells Jake that she thinks Robert is going to leave her, I was not surprised. Robert was already married and divorced twice so what is going to stop him from leaving the woman who is only his girlfriend?

Frances then goes into a rant that completely rips through Robert and his reasons for why he want to leave her. I found her speech very interesting and entertaining. I thought it was great how she could say whatever she felt like saying to him to make Robert feel really bad. Her use of rhetorical questions added emphasis to her argument and made Robert feel even worse. If he were to answer one of those questions, she would have gone off even more. For example, she said "You won't mind, will you?" (pg 57). If Robert were to answer that question, she would have either kept going as she was, or kept going but as even more angry. Her rant eventually made Jake walk away and leave them.