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A review by jessicamusch
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”
At its core, the Great Gatsby is the story of a man who completely invents himself, even down to his name: “The truth was the Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” Gatsby does this to become worthy of Daisy, the high born young woman he had a youthful romance with and lost contact with. To attract Daisy back into his life, Gatsby throws opulent parties attended by hundreds every night.
Descriptions of the 1920s Jazz age in New York burst off the page and paint a picture of “purposeless splendor.”
In Gatsby’s pursuit of his dreams of Daisy, he fails to realise that time changes people and that youthful desires of opulence and romance wither away to other needs like stability and security. I think that this is why the novel tells a tale of tragedy. Gatsby cannot grasp that his dream of Daisy is actually in his past, not in his future.
Fitzgerald’s writing style is interesting in that it avoids directly confronting Gastby. Instead, we learn about Gastby through his neighbour, Nick Carraway, who’s life the story is barely interested in.
At its core, the Great Gatsby is the story of a man who completely invents himself, even down to his name: “The truth was the Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.” Gatsby does this to become worthy of Daisy, the high born young woman he had a youthful romance with and lost contact with. To attract Daisy back into his life, Gatsby throws opulent parties attended by hundreds every night.
Descriptions of the 1920s Jazz age in New York burst off the page and paint a picture of “purposeless splendor.”
In Gatsby’s pursuit of his dreams of Daisy, he fails to realise that time changes people and that youthful desires of opulence and romance wither away to other needs like stability and security. I think that this is why the novel tells a tale of tragedy. Gatsby cannot grasp that his dream of Daisy is actually in his past, not in his future.
Fitzgerald’s writing style is interesting in that it avoids directly confronting Gastby. Instead, we learn about Gastby through his neighbour, Nick Carraway, who’s life the story is barely interested in.