I had lived the expatriate life like Fitzgerald and the other writers of the Lost Generation, all of who had a profound impact on both my writing life and emotional life.
Of course, she isn’t there but a fellow soldier who is also struggles takes him in and life, while no less bleak, takes on a different focus when Nick becomes his main carer for a period of time.
Ultimately though, nothing that Nick does changes the way he feels or his outlook on life and therefore after a period of time at home fighting the urge once again to run away, he does agree with his father that a move is needed in order to carve out a life of his own.
Obviously we will never know whether or not this portrayal of Nick Carraway would have been true to Fitzgerald’s own ideas of the narrator, but thanks to Michael’s desire to propel Nick into the limelight we do now have a back story for someone that very little was known about before.