There are certainly many different aspects you could point
to. However, one of my favourites is seeing how Nick is different when he sees Tom
Buchanan for the last time at the end of the novel. Although initially he is very cold
with him, he suddenly has almost an epiphany concerning them and their natural
propensity to destroy things. He says, famously:
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they
smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back itno their money or their vast
carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up
the mess they had
made...
Nick, after this
realisation, decides to shake hands with Tom, because he felt as though he were "talking
to a child." Thus part of Nick's coming of age is an accurate understanding of
upper-class characters like Tom and Nick, and how they operate and the chaos they leave
in their wake. Instead of being enchanted by such riches and glamour, Nick now has a
very accurate idea of what their characters really consist of, and is no longer dazzled
by them.
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