When I first read this book back in 2016, I must admit I was incredibly bored. For as great as this book is, the first few pages are an absolute chore! If Fitzgerald was alive and if I was a male (he wouldn't have listened to women) I would ask him to give the first couple of pages a serious re-write. Don't get me wrong, I think that these pages are important in terms of introducing our contradictory narrator Nick to us, however I am so tired of reading about the type of college he went to and why he moved east.
Nick, I get that you have been thoroughly educated but I have to be honest, I don't think it has achieved much. Let me put it this way, you say "I am inclined to reserve all judgements" yet you spend the entire book judging everyone and everything! You also say "I believe myself to be the most honest person I know" which is totally bogus as you lie about "reserving all judgements". If you, the reader couldn't already tell, his hypocrisy frustrates me to no end.
The crazy thing about all of this is that I didn't notice any of it when I first read the book. This is the reason why I think that to get a true sense of this book, you must read it at lest two or three times. I guarantee that you will have a very different experience every time you read it. Moving on...
It is very easy to overlook the objectification and infantilization of women in this book, so let's move on to that hot topic. Before I lay into this book like a lion to a zebra, we must remember that this book was written in the 1920's, which was a great era for rich men but awful for women. I am a reader reading this for the third time in 2019 so for the sake of the current times, I'm going to ignore the era in which it was written. If you couldn't already tell, this book and it's author are very sexist.
Nick, once again, I'm laying into you first. When you meet Jordan Baker you say "Almost any exhibition of self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me". Why? Are you scared because she's more successful than you and is actually doing something productive with her life. Does it bother you that she is living life without a husband? Well Nick, welcome to 2019, a world of more forward thinking people. There is no rush for her to get married! She doesn't even have to get married if she doesn't want to. She could be bisexual, asexual, lesbian or whatever, have you considered this? And even if she is on the spectrum, does it really matter? Love is love! (All of this doesn't just go for women, it goes for everyone).
Tom Buchanan, don't even get me started. I could do a whole separate "discussion" purely focusing on how sexist and racist he is. What I am going to do is directly address Tom as a character. Tom, I am not intimidated by you at all, if anything I find you abusive and generally pathetic. When you can't handle a situation, you lash out. If I was you, I would keep far away from alcohol and try anger management, it would really help. Your ungratefulness is unbelievable! You have an enormous house, riches, a dead sporting career that most would kill for, some friends and a loving wife. You choose to have multiple affairs, complain when your wife gets upset by it and then try and make fake excuses. I am absolutely disgusted by your carelessness and utter lack of human empathy. You may look like an upperclassman but us readers see right through you, think of that the next time you have "a little spree".
Daisy Buchanan. I am so gutted by the way you turned out. I absolutely loved you as a character and like Gatsby, I wanted to rescue you from Tom but you let me down so badly. There is absolutely no excuse for Tom treating you as badly as he did, however there is absolutely no excuse for you initially breaking Gatsby's heart. I am talking about the time before Tom was in the picture, when you and Gatsby were young and in love. You married Tom because he offered you the most money! I will never understand why you didn't wait for Gatsby. Gatsby has twice as much heart as all the others put together and I genuinely believe that he would have treated you as an equal. He certainly would never raise a hand to you. When you re-united with him years later, you should have clearly told him that he would forever remain in the friend zone, it would have saved both of you a lot of heartache.
Not to mention that you shouldn't have let him take the blame for Myrtle's death. Letting him take the blame is one thing but not even showing up to his funeral is something else entirely, it brought you down to Tom's level of carelessness, which says a lot. I hate you so much for doing that.
Finally, Gatsby, Gatsby, GATSBY! What a character! He is definitely the dreamer inside of all of us, encouraging us to reach for the green light. Lots of readers may have criticisms of Gatsby, I do as well but I don't want to focus on them. I've had my rant, I want to focus on everything that is both great and sad about Gatsby.
First of all, despite the clear evidence in the book, I don't believe that he fell in love with Daisy for her money. If any of you have read "The fault in our stars" or have seen "Poldark", you will know that first love is a powerful thing and that everyone remembers their first love. This is the reason that I think Gatsby pines for Daisy. There is no mention of any other girls that Gatsby has been truly in love with other than Daisy, which is why I think its so difficult for him to move on from her. There is a high chance that his belief in being able to repeat the past stems from his inability to move on from his love for her. He was Romeo, unfortunately she wasn't Juliet. My heart breaks for him. He really deserved a happy ending.
Second of all, no matter what happened he believed in his dreams and did everything he could to follow them. Even though it didn't work out in the end, I felt inspired by his refusal to give up on his dreams. As I mentioned earlier, he encourages us to reach for the green light in our lives. For me that is storytelling, What is it for you? Feel free to comment on this post about your dreams and we can all reach for that green light together.
I open this discussion to all of you, what are your thoughts about "The Great Gatsby"? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.
That's all for this week, thank you for reading and stay tuned as next week I'll be discussing "Heathers" the musical...
