The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

What can I even say about The Great Gatsby? Besides the fact that every time it talked about the “New Rich” my mind jumped to Nouveau Riche from Modern America last year. It is such a crazy, deep, exaggerated book. I tried to do the “learn to write” text marking, and I can tell you that was not the best idea. I definitely should have gotten a little way through the book before I decided to analyze Fitzgerald’s writing style, because I have certainly never seen anything like it before in my life: his terminology was completely alien to me and I could hardly keep up with the hidden meanings behind every little detail. Of course that’s probably the whole point of that type of annotation, so maybe I didn’t totally fail with this book.

In any case, behind his confusing dialect and ironic symbolism, I realized that Fitzgerald was really an amazing writer, with the way he could make completely unexpected connections and the way he had some deep understanding of the motivations of a human being. He could connect a personality to an earthquake, a bootlegger to a god, and a location to a person. He perfectly portrayed the ignorantly hypocritical beliefs of Nick about himself and others that is so commonly seen in our prideful and conceited society. He also created a sort of festering irritation and indignation for me with the way Tom reacted so hypocritically to his realization of Daisy’s affair, because if there is one thing I hate more than anything in the world it is an ignorant hypocrite.

To be completely honest, I could hardly fathom how this man’s mind worked most of the time. Maybe it was just the fact that he was seeing firsthand the kind of situations he was writing about, and he felt the need to make a statement. All I know is that he could take something ordinary and make it something completely different in an uncanny and precise way. I was a little disappointed at the end, though, having endured the childish actions of most of the characters and the depressing outcome of their bickering, I was hoping for a little more optimistic ending and a little less symbolically discouraging fate.