Is The Great Gatsby overhyped, or does it live up to its claim? This weekend I made my family watch the movie The Great Gatsby. At the end of the movie, my dad says, “That was so close to being great, but it just wasn’t there.” This got me thinking, is The Great Gatsby really a great topic, or is it just something that has been around for centuries that it can’t get out of the spotlight?
Let me start with all of the reasons it is a great novel. First off, Fitzgerald does a great job with his use of figurative language. As a reader, I am able to picture every scene in the book through his descriptive words. This also helped the novel be turned into a movie not once but twice. Second, Fitzgerald wrote Nick Carraway as the perfect unreliable narrator. Throughout the whole novel, it is up for interpretation by the reader whether everything we are reading is true or if it is being filtered through Nick’s mind. The characters are also extremely well-written. I feel as if they are real-life characters and actually grow an attachment to them throughout the novel. Jay Gatsby’s character comes across as a hopeless romantic who would do anything to get the woman he loves, including dying. Nick Carraway comes across as a true friend who would stick up for anyone. Daisy comes across as a hopeless fool who does not truly know what she wants in life. All the characters’ points are able to be read easily, which I think, in turn, makes The Great Gatsby an amazing novel.
On the other hand, there are some downsides to the novel. For example, it is rushed. The book, in all, is only nine chapters. The first two chapters are slow. We are getting to know a little of Nick’s backstory and meeting Tom, Daisy, and Jordan. We don’t even meet Gatsby till chapter three, and he is dead by chapter eight. That means that he and Daisy reunite, they get together, and Tom finds out what happens in just five chapters.
Another downside is we don’t get a happy ending. Most romance novels end with the couple getting together, but in this case, they definitely don’t. We start to fall in love with Gatsby and Daisy as a couple after we see everything he has done to get her back and how badly she is treated by Tom. Gatsby would’ve done anything for Daisy, but by the end of the novel, we see that is not reciprocated as Daisy lets Gatsby take the blame for her killing Myrtle which ultimately ends in his death. As a romantic myself, I think the novel would have been better if Gatsby and Daisy had ended up together.
While there is no right answer to whether The Great Gatsby is “Trash or Gas,” it is still a classic novel that everyone should read at least once in their life. You will thank me later.
Dinner Party, Pinterest, Accessed October 1, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/18788523439193389/