The Great Gatsby: The Beginning

F. Scott Fitzgerald begins his The Great Gatsby by indirectly introducing the reader to the first-person narrator Nick Carraway (but the reader doesn't find out his name for a while, not that his name i very essential to the story line). Fitzgerald gives a little background about Carraway, like that his family "have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations" and that he is in the bond business (Fitzgerald, 3).  The beginning of The Great Gatsby is quite engaging, Fitzgerald employing several techniques to engage the reader.  He first establishes that the story is told from this man's point of view and that it tells of past experiences.  He gives a slight clue as to the title of the book, "Only Gatsby,the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction--Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn" (Fitzgerald, 2)  It seems that throughout the beginning of the book, Fitzgerald tries to make Gatsby seem as mysterious as possible, a good implementation of suspense that was really the only thing that got me interested.  And then Fitzgerald also applies a lot of foreshadowing to imply future events, this added to my curiosity.  He writes, "I came East, permanently I thought, in the spring of twenty-two", possibly hinting at something that might later occur (Fitzgerald, 5).