The Great Gatsby

gatsbyyyy

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bull Moose

I’m thinking about only linking to Bull Moose and Amazon in my reviews. I don’t really care for big box stores (but I like Amazon, so there’s some hypocrisy for you) but I do have a special place in my heart for Bull Moose.

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This is less likely going to be a review and more of a discussion of my thoughts on this book. It’s a classic, a ninety year old one at that, and as such, I don’t feel like it is my place to judge this book’s worth. Like, I’d probably be willing to sell my soul to write words so lyrically, so beautifully, as F. Scott Fitzgerald does in this book. (Of course, This Side of Paradise gives me hope that one day, I too may be able to write beautifully.)

First off, the words. Almost as much as I like good stories, I really love good sentences. Words that flow and melt in your brain like chocolate on your tongue, words that you can turn over in your mind again and again. Words in which you can lay back and luxuriate, like freshly cleaned sheets.

At least, that’s what I got from the book. Really pretty words. But there was substance to back it up. I didn’t read this in high school, so this was actually my first time with Gatsby & Co.

This story works on many levels, and with as many interpretations to match. My own interpretation is likely not very original, but nevertheless here is what I got from this book:

It’s a story about America.

That’s pretty general, isn’t it?

Let me try again. The Great Gatsby is a story about the illusion of social mobility in early twentieth century America (I mean, it works even a century later, so…). I own that this isn’t very original, but I really do get this from the novel.

Jay Gatsby/James Gatz is our everyman. The fabled American Joe who, through hard work and determination (and some ~business deals~), can rise up to living in a palace at West Egg. Daisy is really an archetype for money, for success, and for realizing the American Dream. (Also, what does this say about our female lead, who is representing an object? And endgame?) Tom is pretty clearly the establishment, the Old Money WASPs who really don’t want any new people in their special club. Jordan is a bit more difficult to put into a neat little box, but she’s a “jaunty” modern sportswoman who is friends with Dai$y Buchanan. New drinking game idea: take a shot every time Fitzgerald describes Baker as jaunty. I had a tally going in my notebook but I lost count, oops. Anyway, I digress. If Daisy is the symbol of actualization, then Jordan is a budding new type of actualization, perhaps for women. I think? I’ll add more here once I’ve had a chance to ruminate on the subject.

I don’t know what to do with Nick Carraway. He comes from a reasonably privileged background, he went to Yale, and he works in finance though his true passion is writing. He read like the ultimate fifth wheel. The secondhand embarrassment I got from Nick trailing along with these events was palpable. I can’t tell if Nick is a stand-in for Fitzgerald, of if he is, a different archetype for those of old money. Or is he the reader stand-in? Hmm. Nothing is black and white.

What about the Wilsons? Tom Buchanan condescends to interact with them more than any other character – is this a symbol for Old Money taking advantage of the poor? That’s a pretty progressive viewpoint. I’m simply going to assume that interpretation is mostly my own, due to how old I am, coming of age during Occupy Wall Street and during national conversations about class differences in the US.

This paragraph has spoilers but if you require spoiler alerts for a book that is almost a century old you really need to find your chill.

So, my take is that Jay, our everyman, is pursuing Daisy, the actualization of the American Dream. But she, the American Dream, is basically monopolized by Tom, by Old Money. The American Dream isn’t really available because of this. Jay, the everyman, still tries, and gets close, but he cannot get what he wants because our other everyman, Wilson, kills him. Also the American Dream is married to Old Money. That old chestnut. Tom takes advantage of the poor in more ways than one (wink wink) and that’s just my own progressive interpretation that the rich oftentimes do that to the poor. Wilson killing Gatsby through a mistaken belief that Gatsby is/was fooling around with Myrtle (that’s Old Money Tom) says a lot about socioeconomic relations and I’m sure about America in the 20’s.

I do feel that complete understanding of this book really can only be accomplished if you lived in the times in which it takes place. It’s a product of it’s time much like other classics, while it has meaning for today, it’s still largely a product of the Jazz Age.

I don’t really feel like it is my place to decide what the bad parts were in this book but it’s definitely a 5/5. Not because it’s a classic, but it’s genuinely a truly excellent book and it has something to say.

There’s a lot more I want to talk about but I could write a whole book on my thoughts.

I’m so glad I found this in my last semester, and not while in high school. Its message would have fallen on dead ears.

4 thoughts on “The Great Gatsby

  1. It was one of the first books I read when I got interested into literature. I wasn’t very impressed, actually. There wasn’t any punch to it, nothing like Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22 or As I Lay Dying. Even when I didn’t get those, there was something gripping in them.

    I need to re-read this though. The image of the green light stayed with me.

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    1. How old were you when you read it? I waited until I was older than high school to actually give it a go and I loved it. I do believe, though, that we bring a lot of ourselves and experiences to the books we read, and that certainly shapes our feelings about them. I loved Catcher in the Rye at 13, but I’m not sure how I’ll feel at 22. I loved Catch-22 as well, but I have yet to read As I Lay Dying. I’ll have to add it to my list. 🙂 Thank you for your comment!

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      1. I read it at junior high, around 13. Catch-22 still appealed to me then, but much more now after a few things that happened. I can’t wait to tackle AILD again. I wasn’t sure how to react to it, but it helped shape my view of literature

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