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A review by ririkolyana
A nagy Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5.0
Out of all the books in the American canon of literature, two are most considered “The Great American Novel.”: Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huck Finn and this slender beast, The Great Gatsby. Now, I haven’t read Huck Finn since eighth grade, but I have to side with those that favor Fitzgerald’s most popular novel, perhaps not for it’s greatness or novel-ness, but because at its heart it is completely and wholly American.
The novel tells the story of a young man from the Midwest named Nick Carraway who comes to Long Island to live in the less fashionable West Egg, across the bay from Tom and Daisy Buchanan and right next door to the titular Jay Gatsby. We’re never told much about Nick except for a smidge of backstory, but the horror of his misadventures at Tom and Daisy’s house is very clear. They’re horrifically boring, dull, and listening to either of them talk is like pulling teeth. But when Nick goes across the bay to Gatsby’s, the world of the American Dream comes alive. The parties are spectacular, the liquor flows free, and, most importantly, Gatsby’s parties have Gatsby.
Gatsby serves as the main character that is what makes this book, as the title suggests, Great. He stares off at the green light at the end of the bay because it symbolizes not only his dream, but the American Dream. We think that if we just push a little hard, go a little longer, that we can reach our own green light, but we never realize that that dream isn’t in front of us. We left it behind in the dust a long time ago and creating a perfect picture of the past does nothing to create the perfect vision Gatsby has for the future. He cannot have Daisy or the life and love that he so longs for, even though he has enough money to buy gold cars and enough whisky to crash them. But he refuses to believe that, and that, ultimately is what makes this novel so wholly American.
It is hard not to walk away from Gatsby without a sense of hopelessness, after having seen a man with, as Carraway says, “such a talent for hope” get cast down, but it is also hard not to hang on to Gatsby’s hope, to believe that we, too, will be allright in the end, and that makes all the difference.
The novel tells the story of a young man from the Midwest named Nick Carraway who comes to Long Island to live in the less fashionable West Egg, across the bay from Tom and Daisy Buchanan and right next door to the titular Jay Gatsby. We’re never told much about Nick except for a smidge of backstory, but the horror of his misadventures at Tom and Daisy’s house is very clear. They’re horrifically boring, dull, and listening to either of them talk is like pulling teeth. But when Nick goes across the bay to Gatsby’s, the world of the American Dream comes alive. The parties are spectacular, the liquor flows free, and, most importantly, Gatsby’s parties have Gatsby.
Gatsby serves as the main character that is what makes this book, as the title suggests, Great. He stares off at the green light at the end of the bay because it symbolizes not only his dream, but the American Dream. We think that if we just push a little hard, go a little longer, that we can reach our own green light, but we never realize that that dream isn’t in front of us. We left it behind in the dust a long time ago and creating a perfect picture of the past does nothing to create the perfect vision Gatsby has for the future. He cannot have Daisy or the life and love that he so longs for, even though he has enough money to buy gold cars and enough whisky to crash them. But he refuses to believe that, and that, ultimately is what makes this novel so wholly American.
It is hard not to walk away from Gatsby without a sense of hopelessness, after having seen a man with, as Carraway says, “such a talent for hope” get cast down, but it is also hard not to hang on to Gatsby’s hope, to believe that we, too, will be allright in the end, and that makes all the difference.