Another way in which Nick changes because of his relationship with the principal characters of The Great Gatsby is that he grows in wisdom and maturity.
His growth is seen primarily in his clearer evaluation of the motivations of such characters as the Buchanans and Jordan Baker. In particular, he gains the strength to see Jordan's selfishness for what it is, in spite of the strong intellectual and sexual attraction he feels for her. As he states in his last conversation with her, “I’m thirty,” I said. “I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor” (Ch. 9).
However, Nick also gains the ability to step backwards from the particular social phenomena that he has been immersed in and take a broader view of what such creatures as Meyer Wolfsheim and the Buchanans say about America. In Gatsby's destruction, he sees the end of the American dream and the hope America once represented, dragged down by everything that had happened since:
He [Gatsby] had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him...
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (Ch. 9)
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