What did Fitzgerald achieve by using Nick's point of view to tell Gatsby's story in The Great Gatsby?

creates
an elaborate set-up with a sole narrator whose vision of reality the reader is encouraged to
believe. Becausemeetsat the beginning of the summer, we come to know Gatsby via the same steps
he took and to see him through Nicks eyes. Nick presents himself as the polar opposite to Jay
Gatsby, but the reader gradually learns that they have numerous similarities. We can think of
the two men as alter egos. Nick emphasizes his own honesty, but in context, his statements come
across as ironic. After criticizingas incurably dishonest, a few paragraphs later, he states a
suspicion about himself: I am one of the few totally honest people I have ever
known.

In Nicks narrative, he began the summer fascinated with the mysterious
Gatsby and did not know which stories to believe about Gatsbys occupation and pastbootlegger,
killer, spy, Oxford man. In contrast, he paints himself as transparent, laying out specific
facts about his own upbringing, war service, and Wall Street job. Nick is so convincing that the
reader is almost certain to believe him. Ultimately, however, because he is the sole narrator,
he is unreliable. The entire story of Gatsbys decline and fall is filtered through Nick, so the
reader can never know what is true. He initially portrays Gatsby as an eternal optimist, with a
unique romantic readiness about him. At the end, however, the reader is left wondering if Nick
is not the greater romantic.