The Great Gatsby (Erika Ask)

Book Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Number of Pages: 180

Star Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩

Why this Book has Value:

The Great Gatsby takes place in New York during the roaring twenties.  The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway who lives in the house that neighbors Jay Gatsby’s mansion.  Gatsby is is a mysterious man that throws huge parties every Saturday night.  Nick receives a personal invitation from Gatsby’s butler asking him to attend one of the upcoming summer parties.  Nick and Gatsby start to form a “friendship” and soon Nick learns that Gatsby’s entire life revolves around his fantasy of getting back together with Nick’s cousin, Daisy.  However, Daisy is Married to a man named Tom which creates a series of problems.  As Nick takes you through the story, you are able to uncover more of Gatsby’s mysterious past and discover how he got the where he is.  As you read, you experience the wild ride and depressing fall of the 1920s.  

Throughout the story, the colors, yellow and gold are continually brought up.  Green and Gold are referring to money which was a large part of the culture during this time as well as today’s society.  Wealth is a very present subject matter throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby.  "All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the »Beale Street Blues« while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust."  This quote shows not only the droning party atmosphere, but the wealth of the people during this time which is represented in the colors that they are wearing.  In America, your place and power in society is largely based off of how wealthy you are.  Even if you are not wealthy, you may try and play it off like you are.  “It was a rich cream color, bright and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns.”  The color yellow is present in this quote.  It represents a fake gold.  It may appear as though you are wealthy, but in reality, you are not.  The wealth in this novel also lead to the “hallowing” of the upper class.  The upper class were able to avoid all of the problems that they might have had or gotten themselves into because of their money.  Gatsby and other’s like him during this time period can easily be connected to the present because of how materialistic everyone was and is.  People are changing.  Rather than get joy from love or friendship, people fill the holes in their hearts with material possessions.  However, everyone knows where this road leads.  

The most prominent theme throughout this novel, was the decline of the American dream in the 1920’s.  America had just won the first world war, and the production and determination that the American citizens once held had decreased drastically.  In this novel, the attitude of the roaring twenties was depicted.  Americans were only interested in living fast and partying hard.  “All I kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘ You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.’” This quote is important because it depicts the live fast, party hard, mindset during this time.  Up until this time, the American people had always hoped to achieve the American Dream.  Most American’s had previously dreamed of buying a house, raising a family, and having a meaningful life.  After the war, the people lost their drive.  All that mattered was how many parties you went to.  People began to lose their way and lead lead empty lives.  The decaying of their moral values led to greed and the pure pursuit of pleasure.  People became consumed in the roar of the twenties and ended up going to riches to rags.    

Jay Gatsby, about whom the novel is based around, has a very interesting character development.  In the beginning, you know nothing more about Gatsby than his neighbor, Nick Carraway.  Gatsby says to Nick, “‘You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad thing that happened to me.’ He hesitated. ‘You’ll hear about it this afternoon.’”  This is important because it helps you to understand why people are so fascinated by Gatsby; he is mysterious and avoids giving direct clues to his past.  You only know the Gatsby is “an Oxford man,” and that he may have acquired his wealth through bootlegging (the sale of alcohol during prohibition).  Early on in the story, you are led to believe that Gatsby has almost everything he wants and the things that he doesn’t possess are easily obtainable by him.  As the story progresses, you begin to learn more about Gatsby’s mysterious past and how he got there.  As you get to know Gatsby, you learn that even the richest of the rich can’t have everything.  

The Valley of Ashes in the book, The Great Gatsby, is a desolate place between West Egg in Long Island and New York.  The Valley of Ashes is a large mass of land that is almost uninhabited because it was used as a dumping ground for industrial ashes.  One of the few people that live there is Myrtle, Tom’s mistress.  “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour.”  This desolate stretch of land represents the moral and social decay of the people during this time.  The wealthy were only interested in filling the void in their life with a never ending pursuit of pleasure.  The drive that Americans had once had is represented by the absence of new industrial endeavours in The Valley of Ashes.