What are the main conflicts Nick experiences in The Great Gatsby?

Nick is conflicted through much of the novel in his feelings about Gatsby. In retrospect, as he begins his account, he has come to see Gatsby as a redemptive force shining bright through the "foul dust" all around him, but through much of the novel, Nick isn't sure what to make of him. Gatsby tells lies (for example, as Nick knows, he couldn't have done big game hunting in the capital cities of Europe), tells half truths (he is often cagey about Oxford; the books in his library are real but unread), and is everything Nick has been taught to despise, yet some larger than life quality draws him to the man.

Nick is also conflicted about his sexuality and loneliness through much of the novel. He emphasizes his loneliness, telling of how he wanders the streets of New York after work, looking into windows, but he is uncertain about how to solve the problem. He doesn't want to marry the girl back home, even though Daisy and Tom have heard he is engaged to her: she repulses him on a visceral level, for example, with the line of sweat on her upper lip after a game of tennis. Likewise, Nick is attracted but repelled by Jordan, sometimes thinking he is in love with this androgynous woman but sometimes—and ultimately—pulling away for reasons that remain murky. The episode in which Nick ends up in a bed in a hotel room with Mr. McKee (Mc-key) and his attraction for Gatsby call into question Nick's sexual leanings, a conflict he does not seem to have resolved at novel's end.

The romantic Nick also is conflicted about his desire for purity, which to him comes to be symbolized by the midwest, and the reality of the world's sordid qualities, which he identifies with what he sees as the distorted aspects of the east coast. He wants the world to be better than it is, and finds redemption in Gatsby's grand gesture of a dream—but after all, as Nick recognizes, Gatsby's dream of Daisy was a dream.

Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, goes through the following conflicts:

• East Coast-bias vs. Midwestern-bias: Nick, who is from Minnesota, thinks that most of those from the Northeast are careless, shallow, and materialstic.  Implicitly, he believes those from the heartland are most honest.  Although he moves to the Northeast in hopes of financial success, he ultimately moves back home.
• Reserving Judgement vs. Gossiping Later: Nick confesses on the first few pages that he has been taught by his father to reserve all judgment. He also admits he is the only honest person he has ever met.  But, doesn't he reserve judgement so that he can be privy to gossip by those with loose lips?  Isn't the entire novel a kind of gossipy violation of his own principles?
• American dream: reality vs. myth.   Nick presents two Americas: one of opportunity (Gatsby's); one of exclusivity (Tom's).  In Gatsby, he gives a picture of promise and tragedy.  In the end, after Gatsby's death and Nick's migration back home, we must wonder if he believes the American dream to be a false promise.

In The Great Gatsby, what is the major conflict?

The central conflict in the novel concerns Gatsby's dream of winning Daisy back and repeating their past as if they had never been separated. Gatsby wants to wipe out the previous five years, an impossible dream. Nick tries to explain to Gatsby that no one can ever repeat the past, but Gatsby refuses to believe it:

"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can . . . I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see."

As Gatsby continues to talk, Nick begins to understand the importance to Gatsby of his dream:

He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was . . . .

The conflict is resolved when Daisy refuses to tell Tom Buchanan, her husband, that she never loved him, choosing instead to abandon Gatsby again and stay in her marriage. In the hours leading up to his death, Gatsby is still waiting for Daisy to call, refusing to recognize, acknowledge, or accept that his dream is not going to come true.

What are the conflicts in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?

The main conflict in a story, novel, play or motion picture is usually based on the protagonist's motivation. The protagonist is not always the hero, but in the case of The Great Gatsby it is Gatsby who is the protagonist. His motivation--what he wants--is obviously Daisy. The conflict--why can't he get her?--arises because of several obstacles. For one thing, she is already married. Not only that but she has a little daughter. Gatsby has tried very hard to make a lot of money and to become a facsimile of an upper-class gentleman, but his criminal career and his crooked associates work against him. It is a conflict which Gatsby ultimately loses. A story cannot be interesting unless it is dramatic. It cannot be dramatic unless there is conflict. It cannot have conflict unless somebody wants something (motivation). The thing that "somebody" wants is usually called the MacGuffin. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy is the Macguffin. Gatsby is the protagonist. He is the "somebody" who wants something and who initiates the conflict. Tom Buchanan is the antagonist. The novel is written in beautiful language, but the conflict is as old as the human race: two men are fighting over a woman. The reader, or viewer, will generally identify with a fictional character on the basis of what he or she wants. We have to care about somebody in order to be involved in the conflict and in the story. It is easy to identify with Gatsby because he is in love. Most of us have been in love and know what it feels like. Many of us have been disappointed in love, too. We really shouldn't have to concern ourselves too much with the question of why Gatsby loves Daisy. Love is supposed to be blind. He loves Daisy because Daisy is the girl he loves. It would have been a whole lot better for Gatsby if he had chosen a different girl to fall in love with, one who wasn't already married to a millionaire and didn't have a small daughter, and one who was capable of loving him as much as he loved her. But it wouldn't have been as good a story.

There are plenty of conflicts in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons the novel has remained so popular over time. All conflicts can be classified as either internal (those conflicts which a character experiences within his own mind, heart, or conscience) or external (those conflicts which a character has with elements which are outside of himself), and both kinds are evident on this novel.

The primary conflict in this story centers around Jay Gatsby. He was born Jay Gatz in North Dakota and lived his early years in significant poverty. Gatz always felt he was destined for something more (as evidenced by the lists he made about how to improve himself), which puts him in a kind of conflict with both himself and society. In his experiences with Dan Cody, Gatz is in conflict with the women who take advantage of his friend; when he changes his name and his life he leaves that conflict behind.

Gatsby loves Daisy but is too poor and lacks the pedigree to marry her, which is another kind of conflict with society and with Daisy. This time Gatsby does not change his name, but he does begin a course of action which makes him rich but also puts him in conflict with society because his actions are illegal. His primary internal conflict is the love he has for Daisy. When he does finally win her, being with her is not what he had envisioned for so long. She could not live up to his unrealistic expectations and ideals. His primary external conflict, obviously, is with Daisy's husband Tom.

Daisy has two significant conflicts. The first is external, and that conflict is with her philandering (cheating) husband. Of course his infidelity bothers her (thus the conflict), but it is not as much of a conflict as many other women would have had in her situation. She has the ability to leave, yet she stays. Her internal conflict is with Gatsby. Though she loved him, she was unwilling to marry him because he did not meet the standards set by her parents and, evidently, by herself. She could have run away with him, and even on the night before her wedding to Tom she seems to love Gatsby, drunkenly claiming she has "chang' her mine!"

Despite this internal conflict, she marries the "brute," Tom, despite knowing what kind of man he is. When she and Gatsby renew their relationship, she feels no conflict--until she is forced to choose. Then what a conflict she has.

Jordan should feel an internal conflict about cheating at her sport, but she does not.

Tom is in conflict with everyone because he is arrogant and aggressive. He treats everyone badly, even Myrtle. His ugliest conflict is perhaps with Gatsby. Even though it is short-lived, it is his aggressive feelings for Gatsby that compel Tom to tell Wilson where to find Gatsby, knowing that Wilson wants to kill Gatsby.

Myrtle is in constant conflict with her circumstances and certainly her husband. From the moment she discovered that he borrowed the suit she was so impressed by, Myrtle's life was in turmoil in nearly every way.

Wilson is not conflicted until he discovers his wife has been having an affair and then again when Myrtle is killed. Then all Wilson wants is to get revenge on the man he assumes wronged him. 

Nick's conflicts are interesting. While he hates everything Gatsby represents, he also says:

“You're worth the whole damn bunch put together!"

In the end, his conflicts are all focused on what he calls "careless people," such as Tom and Daisy.

What are examples of conflict between Nick and Gatsby in The Great Gatsby?

A first few conflicts with Gatsby and Nick occur during chapters 3-4. Nick is learning about Gatbsy's character and does so quite a bit through rumors. As chapter 4 comes around, Gatsby tries to clear up all the rumors on a road trip to New York. Nick actually grows quite annoyed with all the insinuation about a certain "matter" he wanted Nick to help him attend to. Once they get to where they were going, Nick meets a work partner of Gatsby's and feels like he is led to be involved in some dirty deals, but wants no part of it. Nick is losing faith in Gatsby.

In chapter 5, when Gatsby arranged to meet with Daisy at Nick's house, Nick is very welcoming, but notices that Gatsby is extremely nervous. So, when the two men are in the kitchen, Nick refuses to go back out into the room where Daisy is and he just has to deal with it.

In chapter 8, Nick's conflict with Gatsby has to do with wanting Gatsby to understand the reality of his new state of relationship with Daisy. Gatsby thinks everything will just blow over in the morning and everything between he and Daisy should be fine. But the fact of the matter is that he and Daisy just committed murder together. Nick struggles within himself as to how to tell this to Gatsby. Nick comes to the realization that Gatsby just won't get it, so instead he recommends that Gatsby get out of town for awhile. This is about 2-3 pages into the text of chapter 8 depending on your book.

What are the conflicts in The Great Gatsby?

One of the conflicts in the novel is the present idea of the American Dream but the impossibility of its realization. Some say that the American Dream is something like a "rags to riches" story or the idea that with hard work, one can achieve success. Although these ideas seem quite possible, it is not a given that one will always achieve the dream. In addition, when one engages in illegal or unethical means to achieve the American Dream, that dream is corrupted and not nearly as idealistic in its purest sense. 

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby engages in illegal means (gambling, bootlegging) in order to achieve some of his wealth. He also inevitably doesn't win Daisy back. Part of this conflict with the elusive American dream is the conflict between the idealistic Midwest (where Gatsby/Gatz, Daisy, and Nick are from) and the more sophisticated but also more corrupt East (the city) where Gatsby ends up trying to manifest his American Dream. 

There are a few moments where Nick realized overtly that Gatsby's American Dream is impossible to achieve. After Gatsby professes his love of Daisy in front of Tom, Nick senses that the dream is "dead" as Gatsby continues to plead his case/love: 

But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room. 

In the closing moments of the novel, Nick notes that Gatsby's dream was not just one of an impossible future; it was also the naive impossibility of trying to recreate the past. Of Gatsby, Nick says: 

He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. 

In The Great Gatsby, how does the conflict develop?

Conflict develops in several intersecting way. The most extreme and obvious way is that Tom is having an affair, and that Gatsby and Daisy have an affair. This puts a husband and wife in conflict, but it also puts old money (Tom) and new money (Gatsby) in conflict. Tom's suspicions of Gatsby leads him to research where his fortune came from, which puts Gatsby's created illusion in conflict with social expectations. Throughout this, there is a sense of Nick's conflict within himself, and of the clash between Gatsby's attempt to reinvent himself and the world's resistance. All this comes together with the death of the woman, and then of Gatsby.