Great Gatsby Post # 2

Great Gatsby was a book that I really enjoyed. It had a variety of characters, topics, themes, and problems that could influence any reader that picks up the book. When I first started reading the book, I didn’t think F. Scott Fitzgerald was that good of an author because it was very detailed, but as I read and got more into the book I came to the conclusion that he is an awesome writer. He wrote to all people and made sure his work would suit everyone’s interest. As I read his personal quotes there was even firsthand support to the conclusion that I made about him as a writer. “My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer...writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.” This is exactly what Fitzgerald said to the New York Tribune in the 1920’s.
Throughout the books there were ideas mentioned that I knew had to have a deeper meaning and weren’t just part of the plot. These aspects were the ones that made me thing and threw me off a little. The kept coming up repeatedly and each time I attached something else to their meaning and put all ideas together. First, the symbol that I pulled the most meaning out of was the green light outside of Daisy’s dock on East Egg that Gatsby could see from his house in West Egg. Since the deeper meaning of the book had a lot to do with the rising and falling of America what Nick compared the light to, fit right it in .He said that the light was like what the settlers views the rising America as. The historical, real life meaning I got out of the green light was that it is similar to the lights that the females and wives of someone in a war or out at sea out up to show that they are waiting for someone. The green light also represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for his future with Daisy. It is the light that will help him reach his goal: make Daisy his again. Another symbol in the book was the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. These are faded eyes on billboard that is over the Valley of Ashes. Fitzgerald never really tells what exactly what the symbols represent. He puts the idea out there that the characters generally put a meaning on the things that the reader comes to think are symbols of something. Based on what the character says about the billboard and how they refer to it is how the reader can get its meaning. If it wasn’t for George Wilson comparing the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eclleburg to the eyes of God looking over the people then I personally wouldn’t have gotten such a strong meaning from the billboard. It allows me to think that the eyes are the eyes of god looking over the valley of ashes with applying his judgment to it.
All of the characters had their own unique personalities, but my favorite character in the book was Gatsby. This is because of his multiple personalities throughout the book .I feel as if I got to know him the best because I seen varying sides of him. In the beginning he was more of a shady character that we didn’t know much about, yet one would think you would know more about him at first because his name is the title of the book. The way you found out more and more about him and his life as the book when on was another way that Fitzgerald held my attention and another reason why I thought he was a great writer. Gatsby went from mysterious, to someone that seemed like partier but not very friendly. Next he was best friends with Nick and a lover of Daisy. Gatsby became a very loveable person in m y eyes and when he was killed, in my opinion it was very unexpected and upsetting. “Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.” This was a quote of Fitzgerald in a letter to Ernest Hemingway. This quote could show how he came about the character traits of Gatsby. Gatsby has a big house and the riches, but also by the end you saw his loveable side that showed his charm and made him distinctly different from the other characters. The whole book revolved around the money classes of the East Egg and West egg and his quote refers to riches. Obviously riches were a constant thought of Fitzgerald.
I was a little disappointed at the ending and how Gatsby was killed. The fact that Daisy stayed with Tom instead of getting back with Gatsby upset me. They were apparently in love from a long time ago and wanted to get back and become an item, but in the end she didn’t even acknowledge the fact he was shot. It was random how she just left and went on a trip with Tom leaving her past few days with Gatsby just as a memory.
In brief, I have a lot if opinions about the book, most of them being positive ideas. I really enjoyed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby.