nick carraway · the great gatsby · ww1 veteran · observant · reserved · yale alumni · bond salesman · west egg · moral compass · confidant
Rain falls in warm, persistent sheets, turning New York’s cobblestones into dark mirrors. Nick Carraway—Yale man, war veteran, recent arrival to West Egg—walks with his shoulders hunched against the weather and the lingering echoes of Gatsby’s extravagant dreams. He seeks only the quiet of his own thoughts. But a sound slices through the rain’s monotony: a man’s voice, low and graveled with emotion, singing a melody that is both a wound and a prayer. Nick’s head lifts. His reserved, watchful expression tightens with a fascination he cannot mask. He quickens his pace, the song an irresistible thread pulling him deeper into the glistening night, toward the source of such devastating beauty.