Comparison of the Narators of the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness free essay sample

The Effect of the Narrators in the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness on the Audience The narrator has a crucial role in the development of a story. The manner in which the narrator provides the information from their perspective has a major influence on how the audience perceives those in the story. It is important for the audience to recognize the narrative style being used in order to know whether or not to fully believe what they hear. The author uses the narrator to give the reader the message he or she is trying to deliver, in the way they find most influential. In the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness the narrators of each are similar in structure and use but have a different effect on the audience. Nick Carraway is a first person narrator; however he is more of an observer and not essential to the main storyline. We will write a custom essay sample on Comparison of the Narators of the Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Therefore as an audience you feel as if you are witnessing from afar what happens. Marlow on the other hand is directly in the centre of the major events so his perspective has a greater effect on the audience. The character of Marlow is vital to the storyline along with the events that occur between Marlow and Kurtz, whereas with Nick, the events between himself and Gatsby are far less instrumental to the storyline than those between Gatsby and Daisy, or Gatsby and Tom. In each of the two novels both narrators are retelling the story of a character through their own eyes. In The Great Gatsby, Nick is telling the story of a man named Gatsby who tried to live out the American dream and how his dreams only brought about his downfall. The same goes for Heart of Darkness where Marlow tells the story of a man named Kurtz who gave in to the primitive side and how his beliefs caused him to go mad, bringing about his death. Nick idolized Gatsby and what he stood for even though most of the time he thought Gatsby a fool. At the start Marlow was fascinated by Kurtz and idolized him. He went so far as almost becoming him but then realized that Kurtz was deeply flawed and corrupted by power. Both of these narrators were able to learn from Gatsby and Kurtz who helped each of them to grow as individuals. Both narrators are biased and not completely reliable. For instance, throughout the novel Nick tries to tell the story as if he was the good guy on the outside. He tends to contradict himself, such as at the beginning he states that he is â€Å"inclined to reserve all judgements† but throughout the novel he constantly judges people. Furthermore, at the party held by Tom and Myrtle at the apartment Nick was drinking, therefore whatever he claimed to have happened was most likely inaccurate due to his drunkenness. Nick gives the idea that the rich hold true to their stereotypes and that he is much better than all of them. This holds true with Marlow, as he travels up the Congo River giving the audience the idea that Africans are all savages and Kurtz is a crazy madman. However, he is able to keep the idea of himself as an unflawed person intact. He makes the point that he was able to keep his sanity and not succumb to the darkness which had taken Kurtz. In Heart of Darkness the use of a frame style of narration is used. It begins with an unnamed narrator who creates the frame of the story. This version allows the audience to see Marlow how he was before he met Kurtz and how his journey had changed him. This frame is what keeps the story from falling apart and allows the audience to understand it better because as Marlow changes, the reader is able to look back at the beginning and notice this transformation. There is a quote made by Marlow at the beginning where he is describing himself before he changed, â€Å"to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of those misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine (Conrad, 6). This is how Marlow saw himself before his life altering experience. Once he sees what Kurtz has been up to the narrator’s perspective changes to be the new Marlow which has a greater impact on the audience than to continue with the old. This part of the story is the inside of the frame where the truth is and the audience is able to witness firsthand what happens. Through this frame style it allows the reader to understand the truth of the darkness and using the perspective of Marlow the reader is brought deep into the darkness and is able to feel exactly what he feels. The Effect Nick gives in The Great Gatsby is similar to an extent. Nick tells the story of the summer which had a great impact on him. It begins with Nick enjoying his time in Long Island where he meets Gatsby and realizes that not all the rich folk are the same. By the end of the novel Nick learns just how devious rich people can be in order to stay rich and that he did not belong there. Nick pulls the audience in for them to experience all the glamour and excitement of the roaring twenties, but with all that there also comes misfortune. The audience is able to experience the rue nature of how the idle rich were in the twenties and how corrupted people become when money is involved. They are given a taste of the good but then shown just how bad it really is. The use of Nick as the narrator gives the audience the perspective of someone who is at a crossroads of becoming someone like Tom or someone like Gatsby. This provides the audience with enough insight to give a proper judgment o n the characters. By the end of the novel, both Nick and the reader realize the fast-paced life of New York is a facade for its lack of morality (IGEngGreatGatsby). Nick and Marlow are instrumental in delivering both authors’ messages to their audience. Without these characters the audience would have difficulty understanding what it is the author is trying to depict. Both narrators were able to provide the audience with enough information to allow them to feel as if they were a part of the story and also to interpret the message of the author. The effect each experience had on the characters was important for the viewers to understand the true meaning of the novels.