Scotty -- "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther ... And one fine morning -- "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." That, for my money, is certainly one of the most beautiful things ever set to paper. I think it proves Scotty's point, if I take it correctly. The use of "we" and "us" shows a connection between Nick and Jay, a sameness of world-view, that maybe wasn't as strong at the beginning of the book -- I think Nick's admiration turned from Gatsby's social status and behavior to Gatsby's personal philosophy. Nick, I think, sees Gatsby as a tragic victim of his own idealism and Romanticism, battered by the MODERN world's indifference. By the end of the story, Nick believes in what Gatsby believed -- but he is also made aware of the consequences of that philosophy, through Gatsby's tragic "sacrifice," if we can call it that, and I certainly think we can. Nick came to this realization through the knowledge of the truth of Gatsby's past and all of the circumstances surrounding his upper-class masquerade. So, in searching out the truth, and presenting it in the form of the book (and in not pulling any punches), I think Nick is probably one of the most reliable narrators we have. I like to think of him as a prophet in a way, but that's just me. I agree with the idea that, in a way, all first-person narrators are "unreliable," in the sense that that term is normally used, because everything that the narrator reports is filtered through his own psyche, his own experience. But authors make a very determined and important choice about who is going to tell their story, and in that sense, all narrators are reliable, demonstrating the author's vision -- even if the author deliberately throws in a red herring or two. I think maybe what is more important is whether or not the narrator is being reliable to himself, and that, of course, is where Holden comes in. I'm not trying to be pedantic or have a semantic panic here on the use of "reliability." I just get excited and verbose when Gatsby raises his leonine head. Let me also add that, after tons and gobs of Hemingway talk in these hallowed halls, it is personally satisfying to me that the talk has, even if just momentarily, turned to Fitzgerald. Rick