Question

Which excerpt from The Great Gatsby best indicates that Nick is not fully content with his life? He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. Father agreed to finance me for a year, and after various delays I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two. Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business. I had a dog—at least I had him for a few days until he ran away—and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.

Answer 1

"Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business".

This excerpt from the Great Gatsby best indicates that Nick is not fully content with his life. He is describing the place where he lived as "the ragged edge of the universe", and that clearly shows his discontent towards the Middle West. The reader doesn't know if the reason behind his discontent is the place or something within him that affects the way he sees it. However, either way, one can conclude from this quote that Nick is unhappy with his live. Nevertheless, he sees the East as a place that will be able to make him happy.

Answer 2

The correct answer is the following: option C. "Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe - so I decided to go East and learn the bond business." is the excerpt from "The Great Gatsby" that best indicated that Nick is not fully content with his life. The use of the term "ragged edge to the universe" to describe the Middle West shows that Nick was not content with his life and the place he was living it at, so he made the decision of making a drastic change and move to the East to pursue a new career. All of these choices show how the character was in need of something new, something that would take him out of his discontent.