We have to read the book in school. I think that's why my opinion of the novel is as awful as ist is. We have to read it in English, but I am German. So, it's hard to understand. But I think, if I had read the novel by myself, out of school, I wouldn't have found it so boring. I think it's a thing of attitude. <br>All in all: It's ok, and it's fun reading it, if you understand it.<br>
I just read this book on the recommendation of a friend. I couldn't put it down because his characters were fascinating and I couldn't wait to find out what happened. But the end was so disappointing! I felt like I was fooled by the author. Halfway through the book I was pleased with how human the characters were, how you could sympathize with all of them and understand and forgive them for all their faults. But then at the end he suddenly springs it on you that they were all corrupt, but he never really gives any evidence of it. He just has Nick Carraway all of a sudden tell us that everybody in the book was horrible, and you feel like he knows something you don't, like Fitzgerald didn't tell us enough. My favorite part was the chapter where Gatsby and Daisy meet again for the first time in five years. I think Gatsby's love and longing for Daisy is really beautiful, but what does he see in her? And then I approved of the way Daisy refused to be unfaithful to Tom and they patched things up and were pretty happy, but then Nick says that Daisy and Tom were awful people! That was about the only good decision Daisy made all book long. As for Tom, what did HE see in Myrtle? Jordan wasn't so bad, but again Fitzgerald assumes we can figure out what went wrong between her and Nick. Maybe I'm just stupid, or not old enough to understand this book, but I felt like just about every single character betrayed me. What a useless book! It's a shame, because Fitzgerald writes beautifully.
I was required to read this book for my 9th grade English class. It was the first book we read this year, so I was barely out of 8th grade. But, I loved this book! I discovered much symbolism in this book. I'm curious, why hasn't anyone mentioned the eyes that were supposedly watching over everything that was going on. It seems to me that perhaps these were supposed to symbolize a "god" that watched everything that was going on without intervening. Perhaps that is what Fitzgerald happened to see "God" as. Something else Fitzgerald might have been trying to convey is that people are not always what they seem. That you must look past what other people say about something and find out for yourself. There were rumors going around that he was a murderer, & all sorts of other things, but, who would have expected him to be willing to give his life for the woman he loved if he was a ruthless criminal? Something else no one mentioned was Daisy & Tom's daughter. Even if they had been good people, the lack of attention they showed their daughter didn't appeal to me in the least. If anyone out there really doesn't like the book, but they have to do a research paper on it, let me know, there's tons of other analogies & whatnot if you want them.
Anyone who doesnt have some understanding of america in the 1920's should not be reading this book. The story is wonderfully written and has many themes evident throughout the novel relating to the 1920's and the "jazz age". Anyone who cant see that has got something wrong-not Fitzgerald.
If you like The Great Gatsby try reading his other 4 novels. they are The beautiful and damned, the love of the last tycoon, tender is the night, and this side of paradise. Every one of these novels is spectacular
Everything Fitzgerald wrote was autobiographical, his books reflect what he himself was caught up in. There is always a desperation like, "how do I get out of this trap?" Maybe it was a form of therapy for him to write, he was one of the very few that got to bear his heart or part of his heart to the whole world. <br>Incidently, the movie starring Robert Redford won an Academy Award for the costumes and sets and design. Redford hated that role, the Mad Magazine parody of it had him constantly trying to escape. But it is one of the few movies that stays very close to the author.
to all the people who said "i didn't like it, it was boring, bla bla bla" you are all obviously around my age (in high school) and its all obvious you're all slack and couldn't be bothered to read it. those americans being slack jeez its easier for you to get it than me im an aussie and have not been brought up with modern american values let alone than 1920 american values maybe if you looked at values from that time and tried to put some effort into empathising with the characters of the novel from a 1920's point of view and no a 2004 point of view maybe you would understand it a little better. i was made to read this book to i would probably never have even heard of it let alone read it simply because i see no point in reading old american books. but those of you who also made to read it if you have to read it at least put some effort in otherwise you really are wasting your time. i found the book and characters confusing but intriguing all the same. the fact that the author has given us nothing until at least a third of the way through the about any of the characters and that when you look back as a reader we have learnt suprisingly little about the narrator nick and only a limited amounts about the other characters, makes you have to think and infer in order to make any sense out of the book at all. after reading the book i had to do a fair bit of research so as to under stand it and to all those who don't get it i suggest you do the same. yes for kids today it is a difficault book to make sense of i'm sure not denying any one that but all that means is that you have got to put in a little extra effort!! this book really does teach us a lot about the values of 1920's america. anyone who also cares to look can alo see how values today can be linked to those of the time the book was written. for example the organised crime sindicates of today gained alot of their wealth and power from the era in which the book is set.<br><br>this was a pretty hard book to understand without understanding the time period in which it was set but once i had studied it i found it a fair bit easier to comprehend. so thats what i have to say to any one who doesn't get it research it and look at it from the time it was set not from a today point of view.<br><br>
this book doesn't really keep my intention. i must read it because i've got an examination about it. but according to me it's not very interesting and even boring. Of course there are moving passages but it's not the main point of the book, moreover to my mind the moral and the social cristiscm are a little bit simplistic and reducing.
This book teaches us a great deal about the decadence of the "Jazz Age" and the balance in our own minds involving the ever-opposing forces of good (right) and evil (wrong). Currently, I am enjoying this timeless novel for the sixth time.
I read the Great Gatsby in my English III honors class. We read this book in 2 weeks. I really enjoyed this book and would even refer to it as the "Best Book I have ever read" If it wouldn't have been for school, I don't think I would have been able to put the book down. I enjoyed every little detail of the book. I thought it was really intelligent the way Fitzgerald even thought of the green light as love and longing. I wish authors today would make more books like this one. <br><br>Thanks,<br>Lena<br>
So, I had to read this book now, and I have to write five essays on it. 1) Personality of all characters 2) sympathy towards someone in the end , who is that? 3) attitude towards wealth and sex...I think its crazy!!!I like the book, but Im not very good at anylze .
I am a High School student in Egypt, who was assigned to read The Great Gatsby for my English class. It wasn't a hard book to understand or read but i didn't like it. There were something that got my attention a couple of times, like the advice Nick's father said " Just Remeber that not all the people had the same advantages as you did". And I think the way Gatsby died sends an obvious message that Money cannot buy happiness and that you can repeat the past!
The novel was hard to understand, It most likely represented the corruption of the american dream. Because reality can not keep up with ideals. and all Gatsby did was imitate the the lifestyle of the "old money" people. Even though he symbolized the american dream, It takes lifetime and effort to reach the oppertunity of the wealthy people. If you noticed at the end of the chapter, Daisy and tom escaped from the corruption of the american dream. Whereas Myrtle and Gatsby died from it. I also realized that Gatsby didnt believe the fact that the past was gone. So the reason why he failed was because of their difference in their social status.
Because no serious scholar I know of has dissented from the view that Gatsby is about the death of the American dream, I'd like to put forward an opposing notion: that Gatsby isn't about the American dream at all, and that the fact that this view of the novel has been passed down to a generation of students is more reflective of the ideological commitments of English professors than of anything that can be textually supported by the novel itself.<br><br>No version of the American Dream of which I'm aware involves standing at the top of a flight of stairs and looking down impassively as scores of people you don't know get drunk on your lawn. You could rejoin that Gatsby is a distortion of the American Dream, but shucks, everything can be viewed as a distortion of the thing that it isn't, so if that's Fitzgerald's thrust, it's a banal one.<br><br>But I don't believe that is Fitzgerald's thrust. I think Fitzgerald is more focused on the plight of romantics in the world (and about the seeming impermeability of class boundaries).<br>
text. Even the colours of the cars are representive of peoples changing attitudes. The brightness of Gatsby's car causes it to seem gawdy and excessive, as is much of what the commercial industry was turning out at the time. This same car killed Myrtle, displaying the corruption caused by it's excess. Furthermore, perhaps the commercial car killing Myrtle suggests that perhaps commercialism was killing off her stereotype in all women at that time?<br><br>These were just a few ideas that don't seem to have been suggested as yet. I believe that people will understand this point
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