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Summary: The hollowness of the American Dream ...
Review: This slim novel of simple prose by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered by many to be the greatest American story, the tale of what an empty life one can lead if one adheres too strongly to the American Dream. Jay Gatsby has risen to prominence in a method right out of a Horatio Alger novel. Born a Westerner of no consequence, Gatsby has acquired his millions and moved to Long Island for the single goal of marrying Daisy Buchanan, a woman he romanced for a month in his youth.However, Gatsby's single-mindedness is his downfall. Every action, every acquaintance, every acquisition over a five-year span has only helped him to romanticize his quest. Gatsby fails to question whether he wants to belong to Daisy's world, and he cannot comprehend that Daisy's daily concerns about her wealth may temper her love for him. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, another misplaced Westerner, but one with his feet firmly planted in the less-manicured lawns of reality, Fitzgerald weaves a tapestry of the excesses of New York in the Jazz Age. It is a world of people bonded together by "their money or their vast carelessness" who "let other people clean up the mess they had made." Gatsby could not find fulfillment in his elaborate hoax because he is too honest to enjoy the illusion he created.
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Summary: Exquisite Little Classic
Review: Yes, The Great Gatsby is a true classic. It is such a beautiful little novel, and its themes transcend the century. Most people know the story. Nick, who narrates, has just moved to New York, and his life becomes entangled with that of his mysterious neighbor, the rich, self-made Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan, Nick's cousin, who is married to Tom Buchanan. The plot follows the telling events that take place between this small group of the Jazz Age elite. The entire novel is so exquisitely constructed. The prose is beautiful, the plot is an emotionally moving degenerative tragedy, and the symbols are intricately woven in to deftly illustrate the theme. And that theme is so relevant as Fitzgerald laments over the fall of the American Dream. He reveals the wasteland that is, the America made hollow by the embrace of materialism and a set of false ideals to adhere to their materialistic longings. There is so much that Fitzgerald says, and reading the work, one feels that the Jazz Age has yet to end. We are still reeling in the languish Fitzgerald described.
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Summary: The great Great Gatsby
Review: I suppose we could go on forever telling you how great this story is. I'll simply say that you must read it. It is one of the greatest pieces of literature in history.
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Summary: I hated this book!
Review: and I stayed up crying for hours after the ending! Even now if I see a copy of it in a store I cringe. I won't tell you why because that would ruin the story for you. So why am I giving it five stars? Because the writing is *truly* remarkable. If you want an example of excellent literature, this is it.
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Summary: THE GREAT GATSBY: A Dream Gone Sour
Review: During the hedonistic go-go years following the end of the First World War, F. Scott Fitzgerald was plainly alarmed by the cultural and financial excesses that marked America's new and what was for him, a perverted interest in the historically rooted American dream. In this dream, begun by Ben Franklin in his autobiography, he lists, as does Jay Gatsby in THE GREAT GATSBY, a shopping list of virtues whose goal it is to inculcate those values that both Franklin and Gatsby thought would lead to material success. The difference between Ben Franklin and Jay Gatsby has more to say about the use of those virtues than their origin. With Gatsby, the American Dream is not simply pulling himself up by his bootstraps from poverty to riches, but in his warped vision of that dream, Gatsby symbolizes what can go wrong when any upwardly mobile American allows another to recast that dream according to the competing dreams of another. Gatsby believes that he loves the incredibly alluring Daisy Fay, a teenage society deb--beautiful, sexy, elegant--whom he sees as the ultimate goal for his life. They meet, they fall in love (or do they? This is arguable) and they break up because Gatsby is too poor for her to marry. Up to the point that they meet, Gatsby is pursuing the Franklinian version of the American ideal, which can be summed up as hard work + true grit = material success. Gatsby wants success, but he wants it for himself. After meeting and being rejected by Daisy, Gatsby now sees his dream as the means to achieve a higher dream: securing the affections of a woman whose limitations in taste and fidelity were obvious to all but him. During the years of their separation, Gatsby worked hard to build his criminal empire that brought him the money and possessions that he truly saw as the missing variable in the romantic equation that would convince Daisy to be by his side. Gatsby is wrong is so many ways that the reader is not sure whether to laugh at him for his emotional myopia or to pity him for the same reason. Those critics who analyze Gatsby's role in the perversion of the American dream tend to focus on the Gatsby side of the equation, yet to understand the inner tragedy of this dream's deconstruction, one must also examine Daisy's role. Exactly who is this Daisy Fay? To begin with, consider her last name, which is an aberrant spelling of 'fey,' which means a doomed vision. Those who connect with her, both Gatsby and her brute husband Tom, are doomed to a life of trying to relate to a woman who cannot return basic human kindness. Daisy is shallow, frivolous, and easily impressed by the very qualities that Tom showers her with (a $350,000 ring) and Gatsby shows her (those silk shirts that cause her to weep). It is almost as if Daisy is auctioning herself off to the highest bidder. Daisy's dream is the flipside of Franklin's. She wants the rewards of hard work without incurring the demands of the work itself. In the collision between these contrasting dreams, it comes as no surprise that buried somewhere in Daisy's soul is just enough of a link to harsh reality to remind her that Tom, despite his affairs and animalistic nature, is still preferable to a Gatsby, who offers only the illusion, not the reality of love. When Nick tells Gatsby that the past cannot be reborn and reshaped into a present more to his liking, Gatsby stuns both Nick and the reader by saying, "Of course it can." Gatsby's entire life and by extension his dream of success that is to include the questionable charms of Daisy, is seen as so flawed that whenever his dream meets a competing dream that has at least some root in reality, his dream of a green light that can blink into any color he wants will crash into a tragedy that resounds even today.
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Summary: This is Tasty
Review: This book is a fine example of books that will be entertaining to those who like to read and those that are inapropriate for School purposes. this is a more pature book and i believe that it was writen with great passion and this is shown in Mr. Gatsby himself. with all the tragety in this book and the love story that is displayed, i would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a classic but not to anyone looking for just any old book and doesn't give it the respect it deserves. Blindspot is the best band in the WORLD.
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Summary: Ms. H
Review: This book was a pretty good one which kept my interest and did not put me to sleep. More action could have been used but the romance was nice and the ending was Clutch. The willingness of Jay Gatsby to Stick with Daisy was exciting and i liked the passion that was put into writing it. Well done Mr. Fitzgerald.
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Summary: The 1920's Are Over
Review: They say a book can never get old, and with age they become classics. The Great Gatsby is a prime counterexample of this. In my opinion, a book that is entertaining and exciting needs to stretch the mind. It needs to use great imagination. Imagination makes mystery and murder novels scary and thrilling. Imagination makes a sci-fi interesting. What is there to imagine about The Great Gatsby? There are murders, but not very unique ones. If I wanted to read a good murder mystery, I would go to Thomas Harris. As for the love story The Great Gastby is placed around, I see this as the only conflict in the book. Every event in the entire book was based on this unrealistic relationship between Daisy, Tom, and Jay. To conclude, I would expect this story in a 1920's newspaper rather than being a mass produced as a "classic" novel. The only use I have for this book is a sleeping-pill substitute.
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Summary: Why to Read Gatsby
Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald took place on Long Island. This book was a very good example of the roaring 1920's. After studying the prohibition that happened in that decade and the depression in the following decade it really shows how the stock market really can change the world. The Great Gatsby is a good example to what happened during the prohibition. It was never said in plain English what was going on but if the reader knows the events of the 1920's it was very apparent.
While reading The Great Gatsby, I was amazed by all the money that was spent. One example was when Jay was having large parties and driving very expensive cars. It also occurred to me that Jay Gatsby has a very dark side that nobody knew about. The people that did know about his income weren't willing to talk. This was one reason that the 1920's are called the "High Times" nobody cared how much money they spent or how they made money.
I enjoyed reading this book. It was very easy to follow and had a lot of descriptive clues about the time period. It seemed like the whole book was an adventure because Fitzgerald never paused on one subject for a long amount of time. I liked how Fitzgerald wrote it on the events that really did happen in the 1920's. This gave the reader a glimpse into what a person at that time could have been doing or was doing to have fun or make a living for his family.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone that is studying or going to study the 1920's. It is a very good example to what could have happen to someone during that time period. You won't regret reading this book once you start it.
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Summary: My favorite book
Review: Although I am not exactly old enough to read some of the other classics, The Great Gatsby is my favorite book of all time. Its plot is tightly knit, so when Fitzgerald goes out on what seems to be a tanget, he knits it back into the story miraculously. Gatsby himself is one, if not the, most memorable charater in all of literature.
The Great Gatsby has it all- drama, suspense, irony, romance, and comedy. The reader can see how the past affects the future and how amazing and sometimes foolish human nature can be.
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