What is the point of The Great Gatsby? When we read books, we usually come away
from our reading experience a little richer, having given more thought to a particular
aspect of life. What do you think F. Scott Fitzgerald intended us to gain from reading his
novel?
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7 comments:
If you’re not the master of your own destiny, your compulsions, obsessions and unexplained desires will be. Gatsby had lost his integrity when he made conquering Daisy the object of his life. As a result, he had become entwined in a society that believed themselves above the laws of justice and nature. They were basically above morality and suffered the consequences of such.
I disagree with Danica. I believe the main purpose on his novel was to never expect something to stay as it is. This is shown by the actions of Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, Wilson and so on. By showing it through the eyes of a neutral character (Nick) we can experience all the events which changes in ones character. A few examples include: Tom expected Daisy to stay loyal to him and be a good wife while he had an affair in the outside world, Myrtle having an affair without the “gullible” Wilson unaware of it, Gatsby thinking that Daisy would come back to him and leave Tom. In the novel The Great Gatsby, many themes that we can learn from, but I think that what he wanted us to gain from this was to never expect something to stay the same that there will always be sudden changes to everything.
I will have to say that I agree with both Danica and Min Jae in their ideas. The Great Gatsby does teach numerous lessons. If one cannot be the master of one's life, then yes, other negative factors will overpower one and gain control. Min Jae disagreed with Danica, but what Danica said is part of what Fitzgerald wanted us, the readers, to learn from his novel. However, what Min Jae said is definitely right as well. In life, there are always changes caused by outer forces. What was sweet yesterday can be bitter today, just like Tom's feelings towards Daisy from the beginning of the novel to the end.
As in what I think Fitzgerald wanted us to learn from The Great Gatsby, is that human nature will never change. Novels written during 1900's, or earlier, always have events which the causes still exist today. The way this novel was written shows the reader how the characters made their decisions based on love, hate, desire, and other feelings that will always be present in a human being. Fitzgerald wrote this novel with those three feelings present in the events. Gatsby took Daisy's blame because he loved her, Wilson shot Gatsby because he hated Gatsby for killing his wife, and also because Wilson loved Myrtle. These chains of feelings created the chains of events in the story, which could have been what the author wanted from the beginning.
I think that the point of The Great Gatsby is to show how powerful money is. How money can change everything. Money discriminates people from poor to rich and in the book, its even bigger than love. This shows how people are so caught up in artificial things that everything else seems so low and useless. Something that I gained by reading this book is that I should never let the power of money overcome anything.
I believe that the point of The Great Gatsby is to show us we shouldn’t hang on to things for too long. What Gatsby did was fall in love with a young girl who five years later isn’t the same woman. Throughout the time they hadn’t seen each other Gatsby kept an image of her, he completely idolized and made her perfect in his mind. As more time passed the real human Daisy he knew began to fade and only the beautiful parts of her stuck. This happens to people when we hold on to an idea for too long, we forget the small things that we don’t like and only the good things stand out. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald wanted to tell us not to do that because we will probably be disappointed in the end.
I think that the novel intended us to learn that life keeps going. Life isn’t constant, in the contrary; life is changing and turning constantly. It revolves and it will never stop. You can never assure what will happen in 10 years, anything can happen and you cant pretend to know what is waiting ahead. You have to change with life and revolve around with it; otherwise all you will find is disappointment. And as life changes, people do too. They find new reasons to change their opinions, they learn new things that change their minds, we grow more experienced and with that we decide to act. Thus, we shouldn’t stay stuck in our minds or our past. We must stay in the present and not expect things to be as we want them to because they never will.
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