Nick's reliability as a narrator could be affected by his perception of wealth because he has grown up as a member of a "prominent, well-to-do" family, the Carraways. He went to Yale, and when he announced his intention to go into the bond business after the Great War, his father agreed to "finance [him]" for one year. In other words, Nick is used to being around people like Tom and Daisy, old-moneyed individuals who act...
Nick's reliability as a narrator could be affected by his perception of wealth because he has grown up as a member of a "prominent, well-to-do" family, the Carraways. He went to Yale, and when he announced his intention to go into the bond business after the Great War, his father agreed to "finance [him]" for one year. In other words, Nick is used to being around people like Tom and Daisy, old-moneyed individuals who act like the world belongs to them because, in many ways, it actually does. As one of them, Nick might be softer on them than a different narrator would be; he might allow them to get away with more than someone else might.
However, on the other hand, Nick says of Gatsby that he "represented everything for which [Nick has] an unaffected scorn." Perhaps this is because of Gatsby's incredible luxuriant new-moneyness, a gaudiness associated with his status as one who is newly wealthy. We might expect Nick, then, to be a bit harder on him than a different narrator might. On the other hand, he says that "Only Gatsby [...] was exempt from [his] reaction" even despite what he represents to Nick. Although we might normally expect Nick to be harder on Gatsby, because of what he says, it turns out that he will not be.
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