Great Gatsby HELP

[Eric]

The idea behind The Great Gastby is certainly a respectable one: A man with a dream, a man determined enough to reach against the current of time to bring that dream to the present. The interplay of events, such as Wilson's attack, Gatsby's reaching for the green light, and Tom and Daisy's interplay with Gatsby himself, were all well thought out. Had this idea been the subject of another writer, I would have enjoyed this book.<br>However, I did not enjoy this book. Why? Simply because F. Scott Fitzgerald is a terrible writer (comparitively). He spends far too much time seting up circumstances and events instead of actually telling about them. When actions and events actually happen, they are well developed (almost rediculously well developed), but the actual number of events contained in this read could have been contained in a short story without having detracted from the story itself. Prehaps I'm just impatient, but I believe Fitzgerald ruined his book by rambling on and on about events that we would have gained alot more from by simply seeing them.<br>

[SickofReadingthisSh*tforschool!]

I had to read The (Not-so)Great Gatsby for my English class, and I have to say it is one of the worst books I have ever read. All of my friends agree. It is boring and has no point to it! The book looses me on several spots, especially when he is talking about the journalist and James Gatz. Book was the worst waste of time! Who cares about Myrtle or Daisy or Jordan or Tom or Nick OR EVEN GATSBY! To hell with Wilson and everyone!<br><br>Sorry, but this is the most boring book, I have ever read. I will never read it again. It wasn't worth having the school make me waste $12 on a book that is only 189 pages, and a sucky one at that!<br><br>This book gets a -10 of a scale from 1-10<br><br>

[iridescence]

I just got finished reading The Great Gatsby for a school assignment, and there is one thing that i just can't figure out. Why is Daisy so enthralled with Gatsby's shirts that day he shows her his estate? I understand that it shows his wealth and position but that still leaves out the fact that she was so delighted over shirts when her excitement was less so over the granduer of the house itself...Maybe there was some indication of what the symbolism of the shirt was in the book and it just slipped over my head? If someone could clarify this, I would be really thankful. ^.^

[limetree89]

It does not say this but perhaps Daisy's fascination with the shirts is superficial. Perhaps she is saying in a woman kind of way that she likes him. Saying he has lovely shirts naturally implies that he looks lovely in them.

[ReadWatuWant]

Ur totally right. and schools r crap for makeing us read books that r extreamly boring.but it's also u choice to read it... half of my grade 12 class didn't read they just relied on the teachers notes and the book and we all got good grades. but u do have to admit that even thought the book and moive r deadly boring the story line is intestesting.

[ArcherSnake]

I also disliked this book when I read it in school, but it may have also been due to the fact that I had a horrible teacher who analyzed it all to death, not only because of the book itself. I'm still not crazy over it, but I did enjoy the movie version with Robert Redford.

[beckstar06]

Hey Im doing the great gatsby for school aswell n we have the same question. The answer is that Daisy cries so stormily because when gatsby is displaying his beautiful shirts, "it makes her sad because i've never seen such beautiful shirts before" (p.89)

This basically confirms that Gatsby is a very wealthy man, and she never expected him to be. It shows that if she had had a life with him, she would have gotten such beautiful items just like the shirts.

Hope that helped i registered just to reply to you lol cya

[Valentine]

Well I think it was because she said, 'I've never seen.' As though she had never experienced. I though the shirts represented everything that she though she may have never had because she had married Tom the man she half loved and not Gatsby the man she trully loved. As in 'OMG what have I been missing all my life,' kind of thing

[Valentine]

Yuh-hu you said it! Every time you walk into english it's like, 'prepare for the snore-a-thon' I don't see why intellectual, symbolic books, have to be as dull as dishwater. I think the aim of this book was to find out who had the energy to stay awake and listen, it wasn't testing knowledge, but boredom thresholds. lol ok over the top, but at least it has the fuel in it to write loads for exams and stuff.

[litlearner]

Shirts, I wondered about this myself. Maybe it has to do with Tom's class. He is upper class, old school, very snobby and taken with himself. He is conservative and his fashion sense would reflect that--maybe tweeds, white shirts--nothing--trendy[/I]--that's for sure. He is also cheap!--remember his conversation with Mr. Wilson? Daisy may be somewhat taken with the Jazz age; Flappers, dancing and all of those exciting things that marked the "Roaring Twenties." A beautiful shirt may be symbolic of the times and represent a release from possessive, old stoggy Tom and his "superior" class. Merely an educated guess, what do you think?

[Scheherazade]

I thought the scene with the shirts is an indication of 'shallow' nature of Daisy (maybe of her class as well). She is more interested in clothes one wears than the person who actually wears them. What are clothes/shirts but mere shells? However, Daisy, very superficially, gets carried away with them, not what/who Gatsby is. For her to be able to be interested in Gatsby, he needs to wear all those expensive clothes.

[litlearner]

Daisy is more interested in appearences--the outside--a shirt--than what is inside--a person, like his heart--very superficial--I agree. Hey, isn't that the name of a song? Is Daisy like Dr. TJ in this respect? All eyes and no brain? HA!
Actually, I have some, not much but some sympathy for Daisy. She is not happy. Who knows what might have happened if Gatsby had lived?

[Imnotasoldier]

I loved it

[fatblueserpent]

When assigned a book, try reading it as if you want to. Maybe you can fool yourself into enjoying it. Most times it works for me.

I had to read this book for a class as well. I didn't read it until the school year ended and I was stuck in summer boredom. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's now one of my favorites.
You certainly can't enjoy a book if you don't try.

[Sandrine]

I always find it fascinating that so many people neglect to get the point of The Great Gatsby. Whether you enjoyed reading it or not, it does have a point.

The Great Gatsby is a story that is still told every day on TV, in movies, in raps songs...Have you ever seen Scarface with Al Pacino? Very similar plot from a different point of view. Both of them are cautionary tales of class struggle and the dangers of debauchery and excess.