There is something grand about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work that makes even the wildest individual stoic and introspective. When I first read The Great Gatsby in my freshman year of high school I’m not sure I completely grasped the weight of Fitzgerald’s message. After re-reading and watching the film (which is, unlike most novel adaptations, quite good) I started to appreciate the complexities of Fitzgerald’s love triangle and ingenious central message.
The novel itself is narrated by Nick Carraway who describes a love affair between a man named Gatsby, (a Great War veteran) and his life long love, Daisy (a kind of clueless aristocrat). While Gatsby has, for the majority of his life, pursued Daisy romantically, he has been blocked by many (often unfortunate) circumstances. The Great Gatsby is Jay Gatsby’s last attempt to rekindle his lost relationship with the, now married, Daisy Buchanan.
To me, The Great Gatsby epitomizes all that is great and evil about American society. While Jay Gatsby made it to the highest levels of society through his own hard work, he fell victim, like many others before and after him, to the harsh mistress of money. When he finally gets Daisy’s attention again, after many years, he has nothing human left to offer her. He is forced to show her instead, not the kind and compassionate Gatsby that she remembered, but the various possessions that he has accumulated through his journey to the highest levels of American aristocracy. While Fitzgerald does a great job in showing the positive powers of “true love” he also depicts, equally well, the danger of unmitigated affection. As a high school freshman, I did not glean this information from my first read. However, the ultimately enduring part of The Great Gatsby is that the book’s characters appear to change as you do. While I see Gatsby now as haplessly soulless, and Daisy as a fiend, other people, may see the roles in a completely different way. This effect, while a simple illusion (the actual lines of the book never change), ultimately makes The Great Gatsby and enduring work. In a more general way, the real power of The Great Gatsby is not its realistic characters, its plot, or the suspense of the affair, but its truthful view of love and attraction.
Read some of these
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mmm...I guess I'm ok with that. As long as they don't jack up the story. I read one review that claimed they were going to make it more about the economics of the twenties. If they do that I will be very unhappy. The story is supposed to permeate time and warn against more general concepts rather than just the economic excess of the Roaring Twenties. We'll see I guess. I'm not really sure that any modern actors and actresses could ever match the power of Mia Farrow and Robert Redford but, once again, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher from back in high school argued that while there is an excellent love and lose story being told on the surface, the main point Fitzgerald is trying to make is against the roaring twenties. All of the parties that Gatsby constantly throws are supposed to be like all the partying and wildness that consumed the twenties and eventually ended with the Great Depression. The corruption and failing economy is represented by the ongoing affair between Tom and Myrtle. All of these conflicts are suddenly brought to a monstrous crash which leaves everyone in the story devastated.
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