Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Great Gatsby

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

351 reviews

agenericmirkwoodelf's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4 stars! I think that this book does a very good job embodying the mentality of its time period, and creating a meaningful social commentary! While the ideas it presents and responds to are not quite as prevalent today, they still exist. If anything, it’s an excellent glimpse into the mindsets of the era! I really enjoyed the description and dialogue- they worked together well to create vivid atmosphere and character, as well as some humor!

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toast_renumeration's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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saturn_rage's review against another edition

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relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This belongs to a genre I call Men In Love with Men They’ve Never Met, which also includes Heart of Darkness. Anyhow, I never had to read this in high school somehow, so here we are. And it’s really just fine. Possibly the victim of me hearing about it for decades, but it’s really just fine. It’s funny how harsh Nick is on everyone but Gatsby, but really this is just a bunch of dull masters of the universe having drama with each other. I get it, I get the misguided desires and obsessions, but this is just fine and not really for me.

I’ve been informed there’s a retelling of this from the perspective of Jordan, and she’s gay, so I may have to check that out.

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bethanwx's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A damnation of the American Dream through the eyes of an unreliable, hard to pin down narrator. Nick is just as much of a mystery as Gatsby, changing his mind about people, judging yet connecting himself to some awful people, including the racist and abusive Tom.

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snigd_ha's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

"I hope she'll be a fool– that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart."
"I was within and without simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."
Give me a book with beautiful writing and I will gobble it up. Maybe if I hadn't watched the movie earlier and didn't know the story it would have been a five star.
Also this book is extremely racist.

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hyperchaoschidi's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

In reading The Great Gatsby, one thing becomes immediately clear--F. Scott Fitzgerald is deeply in love with his characters, particularly Daisy. His descriptions of them are lush (although occasionally he becomes too enraptured with his own internal euphoria and forgets to use some physical adjectives). As an example, here is one of his initial descriptions of Daisy:

I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.

Fitzgerald's descriptions of Gatsby's parties and the general environment of being alive and young in 1920s New York are equally lush. His greatest strength as an author (at least in this book) is making you feel like you too are part of the flushed crowds poised between swirling bacchanals. The characters are also decently fleshed out, and while there isn't necessarily any real character development, you do become interested in their internal realities, even if that compulsion is largely a result of Fitzgerald's own clear interest and a desire to understand Fitzgerald himself.

The plot, however, is extremely thin and, at least to me, not particularly satisfying; I felt fortunate when I realized the book was only 156 pages in my edition. It is slow, the threads come together in a way that comes across as extremely random, and the ending felt more like an artistic attempt to capture an ephemeral feeling of Fitzgerald's rather than an actual meaningful ending befitting the book.

In sum: a great read if (1) you are into slow character analysis and want to understand why so many English teachers feel compelled to assign this book; (2) you are seeking to lose yourself in an atmosphere of revelry and 1920s America and don't really care if there is a sustained, exciting plot; or (3) you are a book purist and want to read the book before pursuing one of its various adaptations. Otherwise, I would skip it.

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theangelssing's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Boy, what a journey! I never read this book even though I’ve heard a lot about it. I never thought the story would end like this and I’m quite shocked. Not sure if I loved this book, but it was really great to read.
Don’t hesitate to read it y’all!

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