The Great Gatsby

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Summary: Thoughts on the Great Gatsby
Review: The novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald ranged between the two extremes of liking the book then hating its ending. The characters of the book were excellently described, from Tom Buchanan's enormous size and temper to Jay Gatsby's strife for prestige to wealth. The story line was well written, except for the disappointing ending. My favorite parts were of the great parties Gatsby threw and of the confrontation between Gatsby, Nick, Tom, Jordan, and Daisy in the hotel room; this is where I was totally tuned in as a reader. These incidents portrayed the intriguing, lavish lifestyle that Gatsby enjoyed and the turmoil of the lovers' quarrel. The thing in this book that just irked me was how fickle some of the characters turned out to be, and how easily swayed by their emotions. This really upset me, but what also bothered me was how Nick appeared spineless in the face of defending his friend. Yet, these two dislikes do not add up to my hatred for the ending. It left me disappointed in all of the characters and mad at the senselessness. Even though, it was a good book overall.

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Summary: Loaded with good lines
Review: This is an excellent novel, filled with fascinating characters and recognition of superficiality. Gatsby (born Gatz) is a man of mystery, almost like Kurtz of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Much like the Conrad book, a certain aura surrounds Gatsby--he is a man of mysterious abilities and unknown origins. I would recommend to anyone this story about a bootlegger whose prepetual party comes to a fatal end.

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Summary: Best of Fitzgerald's Work
Review: THE GREAT GATSBY superficially is the story of what happens to Nick Carraway, and the conclusions he draws from his experiences. Yet the very experiences of his own become the theme of the book. Nick, as a narrator, becomes significant in the thematic content.

Like many American novels in the same time period, THE GREAT GATSBY relies heavily on variety of symbols. A symbol may function on several levels at once. A symbol may represent an idea but also function as an idea throught the book.

One of the central idea that stands out and persists throughout the other novel is wealth. Fitzgerald's persoanl life has contributed a greal deal to this idea of wealth. In fact, his own life has more direct pertinence to his work than the lives of most writers. The idea of wealth ocuupies a great deal and achieves a central role in the novel, as well as Fitzgerald's life.

Nick Carraway is able to see the self-destructive nature of fascination of wealth. Maybe this is the message Fitzgerald wants to get across as he was deeply possessed by such fasination of materialism.

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Summary: classic
Review: A very good story to say the least but it was a little hard to understand. I had to re-read paragraphs to get a grip on the story a little better but I assume the book reads like that because it was written so long ago using the "language" of that era. I read this along with my daughter as suggested by her English teacher. The book did spark conversation about the early 1900s and some of the "symbolism" in the story, which was enjoyable. It's a classic and worth reading but it's not what I call a page turner.

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Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a must read book. I give it 4 stars because of the dramatic scenes and situations that Fitzgerald depicts. The book is an epic love story between Jay Gatsby and the lovely Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby who lives in a large mansion would throw tremendous parties that he hopes will enable him to win back the insational love of the married Daisy Buchanan. During this story Gatsby follows his dream of getting Daisy back at any cost......even death of other people or himself as well. Fitzgerald's strong values and beliefs were clearly presented which is a very entertaining style to read. One thing I would criticise about this book is that the action of the story does not start until the fourth chapter, which discouraged my interest greatly.

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Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: I usually do not enjoy reading but this book caught my attention a lot. In my opinion "The Great Gatsby" is not an outstanding novel but it is quite good. I would recommend this book for teenagers from 15 to 23 years old. "The Great Gatsby" is one of the best love stories I have ever read and it is also a suspense story. On the one hand we are encountered with the love between Gatsby and Daisy, which grows bigger as the story develops, and on the other hand we have Gatsby's secret; nobody really knows Gatsby but everybody enjoys his big parties. Once we find out why he organised them and why he surrounded himself with glitter, we admire him for his total dedication to his dream and for his endless search of love. Gatsby is a character with which we can easily identify because he is the embodiment of the American dream. in my opinion, the book shows how this dream will never came true because of careless and cruel people such as Tom Daisy and Jordan, who are materialistic. I would rate it with three stars because although the story is interesting the book is written in a very complex way. The only thing I would criticise about it is that the action does not start until the fourth chapter, which encouraged my reading.

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Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: I did not like the novel entitled "The Great Gatsby" very much. I really found it disappointing, for before reading this book I thought it would be interesting enough to capture my attention. This did not happen because those parts that would be considered the climax were not interesting (I found theses scenes dull and predictable).

Furthermore, I would like to say that most characters were not good at all. I consider that some scenes, such as the one in which Daisy starts crying on Gatsby's shirts, are meaningless (perhaps because what these parts want to symbolise, is not clear enough). Moreover, I think that the story should not have been told in the first person by Nick, because by doing this Fitzgerald gave no possibility of including an account of the emotional relationship between Gatsby and Daisy from the time of the reunion to the catastrophe.

Finally, I would like to make clear that my opinion should not be taken as an insult towards Fitzgerald, who is a worldwide well-known writer, but as a personal comment in which I highlight what for me was wrong in the setting and development of "The Great Gatsby".

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Summary: An entertaining book
Review: I would grant four stars to the book "The Great Gatsby", since in my opinion, the book was good and very amusing in some parts, but at the same time very boring in others. I would recommend this book to a specific group of people, because I believe that this book is not one that any person can read, because other individual's help is required to understand some parts. The book in my opinion was not entertaining in its first parts, when the characters are introduced and you begin to know each one of the lives of the different main characters. When I could overtake half of it, my opinion towards the book started changing, because as the different events started to be introduced in the story, I began to involve myself more and more with the book. Finally, when I reached the end, which from my point of view, is the most interesting part, I realised that it was a good book to read, but if I had the opportunity of reading it again, I would not do so.

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Summary: Gatsby¿s dream, the American Dream
Review: I had to read this book for school. I really enjoyed it and would like to recommend it to anyone who has a dream. The book is very clear and I only had a minor problem with the vocabulary which I found a bit difficult. Apart from that, on the one hand I was very happy to finish reading the book because it was extremely interesting but, on the other hand, I was sad because I had got involved myself with the characters and now I "miss" them. It is important to know what the book is about in order to know why everyone admires its beauty. Fitzgerald wrote this novel as an example of the famous "American Dream". The story is based on a man who has devoted his life to the fulfillment of his platonic conception of himself. Jay Gatsby had chosen Daisy to incarnate this dream, but nothing would be easy for him. The book's plot is well developed and suspense is kept till the last chapter. Moreover, many of you will feel identified with one of the characters and will not regret at all having read "The Great Gatsby".

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Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: With flowing prose, Fitzgerald depicts through the simplest of plots the univervsal needs of every person. The success of this book does not simply lie in the fact that this author portrays the ideals of his time so well; applicable to today's society, it is the destruction of them as seen through the profound observations of the narrator that places this book among the elite. The impact of these observations is what highlights Fitzgerald's impressive skill. Not only does this author portray the historical pressures of society at the time, but he also interweaves advice through a simple plotline of love and greed. This advice does not act to accentuate the story, but to create it; it is the questioning of the push for the perfect life and what we define it as that allows this novel to stand alone. Read not for the sake of entertainment and strictly for the qualities of a good novel; look beyond the obvious into the social implications stated through the author's voice. Only then, will this novel become what it was intended to be - a helpful tool written to assist us in broadening our views on society. It allows us to continue to "beat on, boats against the current," but with more knowledge than ever before.