The Great Gatsby - point of view

"I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." p. 40

I think the point of view of this novel is essential in decoding some of the scenes that unfold. This is because the narrator is an outsider. Because of this, he is able to take a step back and not get tangled up in the crazy scandals of those around him. Nick Carraway being the narrator serves the purpose of having an unbiased character tell the story. He is involved with the other characters, but he is rarely the center of the stories that he tells. They always involve the lives of those around him while he more observes. If any of the other characters told the story, I believe that there would be a strong bias and the reader could be swayed to perceive the events in a different light. At the very beginning, Nick says that he is not judgmental; which helps a great deal in understanding the events rather than one character's one-sided view.