Reviews

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

4.0

Mr. Fitzgerald Prefers keeping things short and simple, always to minimum. He will go into detail of something only if it is essential to story. He uses ‘word play’ (in positive sense of phrase) to bring the impact.

‘The Great Gatsby’ heavily banks as a novel on character of Great Gatsby. There is a whole paragraph describing the smile he gave narrator they met:

"He smiled understandingly—much more than under- standingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole ex- ternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on YOU with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."

The characters seemed to be made so god like that if it wasn't for Dicaprio, it would had been impossible to make the movie.

On the face of it, it is just another story of another die hard lover (and we know that we have too many of those) but what makes this one classic is that it is full of symbolism. The west egg is full of wealthy people and east egg is inhabited by people who are or are going to be rich. The class differences are silently pointed out through contrast of Gatsby’s extravagant parties and the over worked character Wilson. In Gatsby ,you see that desire to break down the class barriers and to reach out the blue light, his dream (which in this case happens to be his love).

The story is full of such metaphors which show degrading impact of wealth on those who inherit it, shown mostly through the parties Gatsby gave or through characters of Daisy and Tom. It is only to comment on this degradation author goes out of his way, while otherwise he is trying to economical with words.

As to it being classic, it has all the qualities to be a good one: it is short and easy to read and the kind of characters in story can still be found in one’s daily life. Above all, it made me write a review which reads like an answer to an English literature exam question.