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A review by ioanna_reads06
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3.0
At first I didn’t like this book. I found for the length of it all the characters were shallow and underdeveloped. The whole book made very character so unlikeable I felt no connection to any of them. The end wasn’t tragic as I felt that we never had any emotional relationship with either Daisy or Gatsby. However, I think I missed the whole point of the book the first time around; the characters are meant to represent the hollowness of the upper class, rather than being badly written.
It sounds stupid to say after a day of thinking about it and reading spark notes my opinion towards the book had changed drastically but it is true. Whether or not Fitzgerald wrote the book with the idea of Daisy being a metaphor for the American dream doesn’t matter? Once I though of it that way the book developed greater meaning and I felt better discussed social attitudes at the time. No matter how much Gatsby chases and desires (and seemingly gets) Daisy (the American dream) she is never fulfilling and always ends up being shallow and elusive. Gatsby loved the idea of Daisy, rather than daisy herself.
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . “
Furthermore, the subtle messages of anti-consumerism and American attitudes towards women are expertly placed so that one has to read slightly deeper to understand the full extent of Fitzgeralds message.
Finally the ending line and allusion earlier on to it was incredible. The motif of time and it’s manipulation is hugely significant to the plot of the book. The word “time itself” is mentioned 87 times in the book, highlighting just how important it is to our understanding of the book as a whole.
Nick says to Gatsby in the middle of the book “You can’t repeat the past”, to which he responds “Why of course you can”. Throughout the book Gatsby becomes obsessed with remaking his past memories and romance with Daisy instead of enjoying the present. When he meets Daisy again he smashes an old clock (a subtle metaphor for time stopping for Gatsby and him being stuck in the past like a broken clock). It was details like these which convinced me to rate the book higher as I didn’t notice this until I reread parts of the book.
Finally the last line was beautifully written.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The wordplay of current being the present time and the struggling water helps finish establishing the theme of time and Gatsby’s futile attempt to manipulate or relive it. It also creates a sense of finality that I have not found at the end of most other books.
It sounds stupid to say after a day of thinking about it and reading spark notes my opinion towards the book had changed drastically but it is true. Whether or not Fitzgerald wrote the book with the idea of Daisy being a metaphor for the American dream doesn’t matter? Once I though of it that way the book developed greater meaning and I felt better discussed social attitudes at the time. No matter how much Gatsby chases and desires (and seemingly gets) Daisy (the American dream) she is never fulfilling and always ends up being shallow and elusive. Gatsby loved the idea of Daisy, rather than daisy herself.
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . “
Furthermore, the subtle messages of anti-consumerism and American attitudes towards women are expertly placed so that one has to read slightly deeper to understand the full extent of Fitzgeralds message.
Finally the ending line and allusion earlier on to it was incredible. The motif of time and it’s manipulation is hugely significant to the plot of the book. The word “time itself” is mentioned 87 times in the book, highlighting just how important it is to our understanding of the book as a whole.
Nick says to Gatsby in the middle of the book “You can’t repeat the past”, to which he responds “Why of course you can”. Throughout the book Gatsby becomes obsessed with remaking his past memories and romance with Daisy instead of enjoying the present. When he meets Daisy again he smashes an old clock (a subtle metaphor for time stopping for Gatsby and him being stuck in the past like a broken clock). It was details like these which convinced me to rate the book higher as I didn’t notice this until I reread parts of the book.
Finally the last line was beautifully written.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The wordplay of current being the present time and the struggling water helps finish establishing the theme of time and Gatsby’s futile attempt to manipulate or relive it. It also creates a sense of finality that I have not found at the end of most other books.