Nick Carraway is the narrator in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nick grew up in the "middle West," in a wealthy family that was "something of a clan". His family made their money from a wholesale hardware business his grandfather's brother began after sending a substitute to fight for him in the Civil War. Nick attended Yale, like his father, and then fought in WWI.
Upon his return, he found the Midwest incredibly boring and so set off for New York to become a bond salesman: "I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe — so I decided to go east and learn the bond business". This excerpt shows that Nick is not fully content with his life.
Nick Carraway takes up residence in West Egg, in a small house next to Gatsby's enormous mansion. The year is 1922, the stock market is booming, and Nick has found work as a bond salesman.