A subjective opinion on what makes Fitzgerald's novel great, case study The Great Gatsby Free Essay Example

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The Great Gatsby Essay

The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in a time period filled with jazz, sex, and alcohol – The Roaring Twenties. Written in first person point of view from Nick Carraway, the story recounts the events of a summer filled with parties hosted by Jay Gatsby, and Gatsby’s love for a woman named Daisy. Though the plot just stated did not sound awfully boring to me, I did not think it sounded interesting either.

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I selected this book simply because it was a shorter read than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Sometimes, though, books may surprise a person. I believe The Great Gatsby deserves the renown it has achieved because it displays a wonderful message, beautiful descriptions throughout, and surprising twists.

During the 1920s, most of America was consumed with the selfish desire for money and sex. Although The Great Gatsby does accurately portray this aspect of the time period through the affair between Tom and Myrtle, the book also reveals that money is not everything.

Jay Gatsby, who is rich enough to host a party full of strangers every week at his mansion, cannot have the one thing he truly wants; he cannot have Daisy, Tom’s wife. Even though Daisy does claim to love Gatsby, she abandons him in the end. She and Tom abscond briefly after the incident of Myrtle’s death. During Daisy’s absence, Gatsby is killed by Wilson, Myrtle’s husband. Despite Nick’s attempts to reach Daisy, and whether she knew Gatsby was dead or not, she does not respond or come to the funeral.

The woman Gatsby loved most greatly left him and did not look back. His money could not buy him love. In fact, Nick could scarcely find a person who would agree to come to the funeral. Gatsby was rich only in the most material sense, as is shown by the fact that he knew hardly anyone who cared enough about him to come to his funeral. In the end, his money did not matter. That is what gives the message that money is not everything.

As an aspiring writer, I believe any book that can not only deliver such a rich message, but can also leave me in awe at the words strung together to make such breath taking descriptions, does deserve renown. F. Scott Fitzgerald has such an incredible sense of how to use words. For example, Fitzgerald describes Gatsby by saying, “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (p. 2). The comparison of Gatsby to a seismometer is very strange, but it works perfectly when I consider it. Gatsby is so tuned into “the promises of life,” it is like he can literally detect the greatness of it. The phrase “promises of life” is such an interesting, out of the box way to describe everything good in life. He’s personifying life to give a promise, and I feel most authors would not be able to write in this way. Fitzgerald’s best other descriptions are of Daisy’s voice and Gatsby’s smile. He says, “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain” (p. 85). I wish I could write such a brilliant metaphor. He makes me desperately want to hear Daisy’s voice so I can experience the tone of it. On page 108, Fitzgerald describes her singing. He says that she “brought out a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again” (p. 108). Words have set meanings, and to be able to change them with the tone of a voice is a gift. I really enjoy the idea that Fitzgerald believed Daisy had such a gifted voice. Regarding Gatsby’s smile, Fitzgerald says, “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 external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.” Fitzgerald did not need to explain Gatsby’s smile to the readers in this way. He was not required to, and he could have just said that Gatsby had a smile that was very charming. However, he chose to go beyond that. He did the same thing with Daisy’s voice. He could have simply said she had a pretty voice, but he again chose to go beyond that. He could have merely said that Gatsby picked up on the good things in life, but again, he went deeper. Fitzgerald is an author who wants his readers to appreciate his descriptions and whose readers do appreciate his descriptions. For this reason, The Great Gatsby does deserve its renown.

Sometimes, before reading a book, I do not know that the book will have a great message or descriptions that will make me want to drop the book and start writing again myself. Just as I did not know The Great Gatsby would surprise me on the two previous accounts, I did not know it would surprise me by including so many plot twists. Part of what made the book so great was that a lot of the events that occurred were so unexpected, particularly Myrtle’s death. Even though I did not expect Myrtle to die, let alone die being hit by Gatsby’s car, I was even more surprised that it was Daisy who was driving. The fact that I did not pick up at all on what Fitzgerald had planned made this twist so much more incredible. Gatsby’s death at the end and Daisy actually abandoning him were also twists for me. For an author to be able to write a story and surprise the reader in such a good, though sad way with the things written is something that deserves renown.

I realize many people may say that The Great Gatsby deserves renown for reasons such as its historical significance, but I do not think that is what is important in a book. Few people want to read a book because it describes history. That is, after all, what history textbooks are for, not novels. Most people want to read a book for the reasons I have listed: a great message, descriptions that can leave a person in awe, and shocking twists. The Great Gatsby deserves renown for the same reasons a person would want to read it for. The book is exceptional in all three of these aspects, and it is something everyone should read.