Book Review: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is reviewed here.
In today’s society, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel of modern literature that is frequently studied in schools. The themes of avarice and disappointment with the American Dream, which were explored in The Great Gatsby when it was first published in 1925, continue to influence readers now, as these themes may be applied to those who are attempting to attain success today. Despite the fact that Fitzgerald’s novel is intended for adult literary readers, it is a good book for readers of all ages (teens and up), both for classroom study and for leisure reading. That the language is excellent, that the characters are engaging and psychologically deep, and that the location provides readers a genuine understanding of the social class differences that existed in the 1920s on Long Island and in New York City are all reasons why this book is so excellent.
Fitzgerald was already a well-established novelist by the time he wrote The Great Gatsby, having previously penned the novels The Beautiful and the Damned and This Side of Paradise. As a result, he possessed the talent necessary to pen a work of American fiction that would become a classic. It is evident in Fitzgerald’s writing style that he had exceptional ability. Fitzgerald’s lines are written in the style of a poetry, from the beginning to the end. Many times throughout the novel, readers may pause and reread lines because the words are so enticing to the ear. For example, the novel’s final sentence, “So we pounded on, boats against the river, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” is extremely expressive: (Fitzgerald 189). What makes this statement so compelling is not just the lyrical quality of the language, but also the imagery that is used in the sentence. The image of a boat straining against the river and going back into the past alludes to the themes of the novel, which are explored further throughout the novel. Additionally, the statement makes readers realize how much the past may weigh on a person, even when he or she is attempting to move forward. Powerful sentences like this one recur throughout the novel, making The Great Gatsby an excellent tool for introspection and meditation.
Other strengths of The Great Gatsby include Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the novel’s principal characters, particularly Jay Gatsby, and the novel’s setting. The character of Gatsby is what makes the novel work, as it is his love connection with Daisy that propels the plot along. Gatsby is haughty because he is a member of the newly wealthy on Long Island in the 1920s. Even while the reader may find his pompous banter with the novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, irritating at times, perhaps Fitzgerald is attempting to make Gatsby dislikeable at first, only for the reader to sympathize with him and his demise later on. Even Gatsby’s famous phrase, “old sport,” which he uses frequently to refer to Nick, becomes ingrained in the reader’s mind over time. For example, at one point in the novel when he greets Nick, Gatsby says, “Good morning, old sport. “I know you’re having lunch with me today, so I thought we could ride up together” (Fitzgerald 68). By the end of the novel, the reader has gained a better understanding of Gatsby, which corresponds to Nick’s own mixed feelings for him throughout the novel. The interaction between Nick and Gatsby creates interest and emphasizes the difference in social class between the rich and the middle classes in the 1920s New York society.
Fitzgerald achieves his primary goal in The Great Gatsby, which is to explore the disappointment that might result from pursuing the American Dream to its conclusion. For example, academic scholars Mojtaba Gholipour and Mina Sanahmadi write, “The Great Gatsby is an example of the American Dream in which people begin to seek pleasure and power instead of individualism.” “The Great Gatsby is an example of the American Dream in which people begin to seek pleasure and power instead of individualism,” they write. Wealth is easy to come and it is used as a tool to obtain other desire” (51). As the above quote mentions, “power” can often replace “individualism,” and this theme is featured in the narrative. The novel is set following the events of World War I and just before the Great Depression, and it effectively explores the bitterness many feel at pursing the American Dream. When it comes to the upper class, as seen by Tom and Daisy Buchanan in the novel and in society at the time, they are free to act however they want and treat others unfairly, always utilizing their wealth as a means of gaining power. Others who are not part of what is referred to as “old money” (established and wealthy families) must make do without money, and many, like Gatsby, resort to crime in order to survive, as does the narrator. These ideas come through clearly in the novel, so Fitzgerald’s objectives are met in the narrative.
The intended audience of The Great Gatsby is adults, especially academic people, since Fitzgerald wanted to be taken seriously as a writer of important literature. Because readers had criticized him for being a “blubberingly sentimental” writer in his first two novels, Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to reach the “intellectually elite” (Kerr 407). Despite Fitzgerald’s efforts to impress older, educated readers, The Great Gatsby is also a good book for any high school or college student to read, since the writing is really well done. Judging by his interest in rich people’s excesses and reckless behavior, it is evident that Fitzgerald also meant to engage a younger audience. As a novel that seeks to expose the ugly side of the Roaring Twenties, when sudden economic growth filled young people’s minds with new goals and aspirations, The Great Gatsby can serve as a loud wake-up call to all those adolescents who equate wealth to happiness. As fabulous and exciting as Jay and Daisy’s lives may seem, neither of them is truly happy. On the one hand, Jay has to resort to crime in order to make enough money to impress the woman he loves, as if wealth could bring him the affection he seeks; on the other hand, Daisy has everything that a woman could dream of, but her life is far shallower and depressing than Jay thinks. In fact, one could even argue that Jay’s love for Daisy stems from his obsession with status, power and wealth (after all, Daisy is a graceful young woman from an upper-class family). By allowing young, ordinary people to see how dull and uninteresting rich people’s lives really were, Fitzgerald clearly meant to remind his youngest readers that the best way to achieve happiness is to embrace moderation and learn to enjoy what one has.
During his lifetime, Fitzgerald never received a lot of money for The Great Gatsby, and it would not be until many years after his death that the book would become the success of American fiction that it is today. Nevertheless, The Great Gatsby is a great achievement and a benefit to readers of many ages, for both academic reading and for pleasure. The book succeeds because its writing is interesting to the reader, its characters are psychologically complex, and its setting reveals how difficult it is to achieve the American Dream in the 1920s New York. Therefore, The Great Gatsby is a highly recommended book that will be hard to put down.
References
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. (1925). Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Gholipour, Mojtaba and Mina Sanahmadi. “A Psychoanalytic Attitude to The Great Gatsby. ” International Journal of Humanities and Management Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 51-53. http://www.isaet.org
Kerr, Frances. “Feeling ‘Half Feminine’: Modernism and the Politics of Emotion in The Great Gatsby.” American Literature, vol. 68, no. 2, 1996, pp. 405–431. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/
