Nick: '"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life"'
Nick
Reluctant participant
Simultaneously attached and detached from the dominant action
Both an outsider and a participating party in the novel's events
Nick: '"___"'
Nick's quote
Portrays his attraction to the glamorous facade of the Jazz Age but also his disgust at the reality of the 1920s; the bootlegging, careless rich people
Theme
Illusion (the jolly parties) versus the Reality (the suffering poor people who have been brushed under the carpet)
