What is the name of the novel's narrator?

The narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is Nick Carraway. He tells the story in the first person, describing his summer in 1922 and his encounters with his wealthy neighbor Jay Gatsby and his cousin Daisy Buchanan.

Nick comes from the American Midwest, graduates from Yale, serves in the First World War, and moves to West Egg on Long Island to work as a bond salesman. His modest house sits next to Gatsby’s mansion, placing him close to the parties, secrets, and conflicts at the center of the novel.

Because Nick is both an observer and a participant, readers see Gatsby, Daisy, Tom Buchanan, and Jordan Baker largely through his perceptions. He presents himself as tolerant and nonjudgmental, but the novel also invites readers to question his reliability and biases. His narration gives the book its reflective, elegiac tone.

A common mix-up is choosing Jay Gatsby because the title names him, or Daisy because Gatsby’s longing for her drives much of the plot. Neither is the narrator. Nick is the character who records and interprets their story.