All above are researches about the manifestation or growth of Nick’s morality, and some researches analyze the forming reasons of Nick’s morality as well。 One of the factors cultivating Nick’s moral supriority is his family, and the other his living environment(Wang Yan, 2010)。 His moral supriority shapes him a patient person, who is able to tolerate all things and people in the east at the beginning。 Of course such moral supriority doesn’t accompany him for long since he later tastes the indifference and decay of that society。 The content of Nick’s morality may simply be some traditional puritanical moral concepts like honesty, moreover, what really changes his morality should be the real essence of his morality, in other words, the real meanings under his image of a moral spokesman。 In the prior period, Nick reserves judgements in order to decide how to perform properly。 In the later period, Nick’s moral concepts of living do not allow him to oppress his own feelings like sympathy and appreciation, disgust and aversion, which seem to be more important than external etiquettes。 The real essence of Nick’s morality in this paper is concluded as reserved judgements and real feelings。
To analyze this theme more comprehensive, the background and reasons why Nick adopts such morality will be further explained。 How does it change from the reserved judgements into real feelings and its influence upon today’s society will all be expounded。
1。 Essence and Background of Nick’s Morality
1。1 Essence of Nick’s Morality
1。1。1 Reserved Judgements 文献综述
Before going to the east, Nick once said, “ I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores。”(F。Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)。 Such reserved judgements do cause some inconsistancy between Nick’s mentality and behavior。 Even though Nick possesses some negative views of others, he tends to show an objective, sometimes positive attitude。 And his explicit performance is likely to be ethical。
In the prior period, with the habit of reserving judgements when facing different people and situations, Nick is able to keep his personal moral standard and gives different responses to others according to the results of his judgements(Wang Jing, 2012)。 Nick regards reserving judgements as a matter of infinite hope(F。Scott Fitzgerald, 1925), with which he can think freely without offending anybody。 It provides Nick time and space to change his mind and attitude later。 Though being connected with all the characters, his reserved judgements makes him a person of sense who holds his moral position in that disordered society。
1。1。2 Real Feelings
Nick is not only a narrator but also a participant。 To some extent, he witnesses all the issues in The Great Gatsby。 In many researches, Nick is a narrator of detachment, objectivity and sense, opposite to Gatsby’s romance, subjectivity and sensibility。 Some opinions hold that Nick never truly make friends with anyone(Sun Xiaochong, 2015), or that Nick is likely to be the wise man who is mature enough to tell stories and offer guidance(Wang Jing, 2012)。 Actually the writer may also put Nick at the position of an emotion transporter and expresser(Li Pengfei, 2013)。 It seems that people ignore Nick’s true feelings, which may be the other part of the essence of Nick’s morality。
《了不起的盖茨比》中尼克的道德观理智与情感的叙述者(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_174791.html