The Great Gatsby Essay, Research Paper

Psychological evaluation

Patient: Nick Carraway

Session: 1

Time: 5:00 Wednesday

Toady a new patient came in named Nick Carraway. Carraway is a struggling bond salesman that just moved next to that big place on the island, Gatsby’s place. He seems to like his new home, but he often talks about how the homesickness he feels is relating back to his fathers conduct. “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth”(Fitzgerald 6). It kind of struck me how Carraway’s attitude could be shaped by a simple code of conduct. He began to talk about how this person eluded some moral standards. “I wanted to no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart . Only Gastby, was exempt from my reaction”(6). He said that he gave this a reason because Gatsby was, basically, everything Carraway hoped to be. I thought a while before I gave my reply. I explained to him that life was about how rich a man was in experience, not how much material he has. He kind of shrugged it off like it was a cheap psychiatrist line. The more he told me about Gastby, it seemed the more he felt he needed to emulate him. He then began to talk of a Mr. Tom Buchannan. Tom was not to Carraway’s liking. He seemed harsh and too masculine to have any relation in Nick’s life. Nick is simple, innocent, and he is just starting out. From what he has told me about him, Tom seems to be a bigot of sorts, not to fond of Nick’s existence in this side of town at all. How does tom fit in to all this, I asked myself. Tom is Daisy’s husband; Daisy is Nick’s cousin. Kind of confusing, eh? Carraway started to finish up the session with a story of how he and Tom took a trip to Manhattan. On the way they stopped at Wilson’s Gas Station to meet “Tom’s girl.” I was shocked by this finding. Nick carried a new burden upon his shoulders. Should he tell Daisy about they affair? I told him not to worry and to wait until next week.

Session: 2

Time: 5:00 Wednesday (a week later)

The session began usually how all others do. Some preliminary banter settled the mood; however, Carraway quickly rose to the point that had been troubling him. The same point that ended the conversation last week.

“What can I do? He asked. “I mean do I tell Daisy or not. It’s kind of important…her well being I mean. If tom isn’t happy she should know, right?”

“I can’t tell you what to do,” I retorted “however I can help you with options.” He sat there with a blank face. “What I mean is this,” I began again” maybe you don’t have to tell Daisy. It is not your job to get into their affairs, but family is family. Please continue about Tom’s girl. She’s Wilson’s wife, correct?”

“Yes,” he answered. “She is in her middle thirties. And faintly stout, but she carries her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can”(29).

“Continue,” I asked him.

“Her name is Myrtle. That’s really about it.”

“Well maybe you could help Tom realize what he is doing. He is supposed to love Daisy. From what you told me Tom is the kind of person that will do the good if good is called for.”

“Will he?” he answered. “He broke Myrtle’s nose that afternoon.”

I asked Carraway about his relationship with Gastby. He told me it really hadn’t changed. Parties become more and more frequent.

Session: 3

Time: See above time (two weeks later)

Nick seemed more troubled than before. He had told he that the man that held his hopes and his dreams in the palm of his hand let him down. Gatsby, that man, was a bootlegger.

“A lot of people have been bootleggers. I’m not justifying the behavior I’m just saying it was the thing to do,” I told him

“People say ‘One time he killed a man’”(65). He explained to me that Gatsby is an Oxford man. Nick didn’t really believe him. He also received a Metal of Valor, Gatsby did, for his service in World War One. All this seemed to calm nick down. He focused on the better things rather than the bad. He then informed me about Gatsby’s desperate fight for Daisy. It has gone so far that Gatsby asked for a tea party to be arranged so he might “accidentally” stop by and “run into” Daisy. Gatsby’s feelings grew to the extent that he fired his staff to spend more time in is pursuit of Daisy.

“Myrtle’s dead,” he told me. I sat there dumbfounded. “That’s why I took a week off. ‘Auto hit her. Ins’antly killed’”(146). He continued and explained how this started a new spark between Gatsby and Tom. Between all the parties and runs to the city, Carraway really didn’t know what to make of his life. I responded by telling him things will clear up. This is the storm. The clouds will part and you will see that all of this is happening for a greater good

Session: 4

Time: The next day.

I was awakened by a freighted call. Carraway sounded torn and all out of faith. I told him to come down and once. He came down and informed me that Gatsby is dead. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, killed him and then killed himself. Tom told him that that Gatsby was having an affair with Myrtle and he, Wilson, killed Gatsby. Daisy receded with Tom and things were back to where they were before. Parties became less frequent. Nick was beginning to “sober up.” He noticed that the society around him was not what he wanted, but it intrigued him so much that it killed him not to be a part from it. The “can’t live with it can’t live with out it” scenario. Carraway has reached an understanding that dreams are in the eye of the beholder and hopes is the lens that those eyes gaze through to look upon the dream.