Literature Review: "The Great Gatsby"

The Great Gatsby

By

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is by far one of the most interesting yet congested books I have ever read. I feel as if the story is shifting as soon as I was able to tell what was happening. One idea that was constant was the themes, symbols and motifs used throughout. Love and the seduction of money, to me, were the most influential themes that I noticed in the book.

Instead of picking them apart I would like to combine them. They worked in synchronicity, together, to define the environment, characters, style of life during that time. When I say that time, I mean the 1920’s American life style. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters were only interested in money, like many in that time period. To them, becoming rich is the main goal in life and nothing will stand in their way. This also affected love. Love became materialized, which resulted in all the relationships not about love to fail and in the novel, all the relationships that weren’t about love failed because they were materialized. A perfect example of this is the relationship between Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Tom uses Myrtle for sex and in return she receives money and gifts. There is no actual love between the two, just the lure of material possession. The reasoning behind this is Myrtle is sick of here husbands lack of success and longs for wealth, which Tom has. Tom who is from the West Eggs, looks down on anyone not in his “class” there fore treating Myrtle like trash, you could even say just using her. This theme is continued when Tom marries Daisy. The marriage is not about love, yet again, it is about wealth and all the way to the end of the story with the death of Gatsby. Daisy only loved Gatsby because he...

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...engeance. This is ironic because Gatsby was not in the car at the time. Going back to the theme of love, Daisy and Tom conspire against Gatsby, framing him for the murder of Myrtle and also being Myrtles lover. There was never any love for Gatsby, coming from Daisy. So the Valley of ashes really just represents every wrong road an individual can go down, literally.

Unfortunately, I did not get to appreciate this book more. I was too consumed by watching out for annotation and themes in the book to build a connection with the characters. I will re-read this book to get a better understanding of the story, not just the structure of it. I am still amazed by this book though. It’s one of those rare masterpieces that everyone has to read some time in their life. Fitzgerald masterfully uses different theme, symbols and motifs, to beautifully bring his story together.