The Great Gatsby (Blog 15)

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

This book, along with The House of Mirth, shows that one can never truly achieve happiness by living the "American Dream."  It seems like this dream leads to the downfall of characters like Jay Gatsby and Lily Bart.  "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all-Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (Fitzgerald, 176).  All five of these characters in The Great Gatsby were trying to live the "American Dream."  However, they never really fit into the lifestyle of the West, and this eventually destroyed all of them.  Gatsby was killed.  Daisy will probably never find happiness, especially now that she is staying with Tom.  Jordan and Nick do not end up together.  All of their lives are left empty and unhappy.  Nick eventually decides to avoid West Egg on Saturday nights, as it is too hard to remember the parties at Gatsby's.  "I spent my Saturday nights in New York, because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive" (Fitzgerald, 179).  I think that this quote proves that Gatsby had a greater impact on Nick's life than he could have ever imagined.

The American Dream that was so appealing
to the characters of this novel led to their
corruption and unhappiness.

Overall, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Unlike Edith Wharton, Fitzgerald was able to consistently keep me engaged in this book.  It was simple to understand, and there were not any parts that I found to be completely boring.  I definitely enjoyed this book a lot more than The House of Mirth!