Summer Reading Reaction

For summer reading I chose ‘The Great Gatsby’. The author is an American called F.Scott Fitzgerald. I chose this book only by the impact of the title. I know that this is not a good reason for choosing a book but the title ’The Great’ somewhat made me interest. Also I sometimes hear the name ‘Gatsby’ in my everyday life. For example, the name of the hair wax, which an famous star advertizes is called as such. Moreover, the exam test I attended in ICU this year was about this book.

The story is about the new rich in America of the 1920s. The main character called Nick Carraway moves to an island in NY, where the new rich gathers. In the island he meets a friend from his Yale University Tom Buchanan and his wife Daisy. He also meets the couple’s friend Jordan Baker, who after wards falls in love with Nick. Next door to his house,  there lived a man called Jay Gatsby. He lived in a huge mansion and held gorgeous parties every night there. Gatsby was kept totally in secret and people knew nothing about him so they told rumors. As the story continues it comes to light that Tom had a lover Myrtle Wilson in NY and Daisy used to be in love with Gatsby. The reason why Gatsby held gorgeous parties was that he wanted to attract Daisy’s attention and moreover he wanted to be in love with her again. When Gatsby and Daisy were driving, they run over Myrtle. The car was owned by Gatsby, however the driver was Daisy. Gatsby protects her from saying that he was the driver. George Wilson, who is the husband of Myrtle shoots Gatsby at his mansion and after wards he shoots himself. Nick holds a small funeral for Gatsby and breaks up with Jordan. He leaves the disgusting island, where the people are fascinated by wealth. He realizes that the American dream is vain and only its surface is gorgeous.

The theme of this story is American dream. As I wrote above, the American dream seems gorgeous from outside but its content is empty. Gatsby tried to attract Daisy by his wealth and that plan succeeds. Most of the characters in this story are twisted around by wealth with romance. They are not watching the content of a subject but attracted by the surface or its looks. The desire can’t be thrown away easily as long as one is a human. I assume that the author wanted to tell and make the realize that human are always charmed by the reputation from the world and the appearance of a subject.