The Great Gatsby is one of those incredible books that you read and you begin to question really what the rich life is like. The book is about a cool dude named Nick who lives in kind of a crappy apartment next to Gatsby who is a very rich man. Gatsby is very popular and has a lot of parties in his own house and is really loud. One day Nick gets an invitation to one of Gatsby’s parties, which is kind of rare, and goes to it, meeting Gatsby, which is also kind of rare. They become really close and have a really good time with each other.
This story is kind of like a really good book about economy and how even though you are rich, you can still feel empty inside. I really love the metaphor to the human condition that is in the story and I love how Nick doesn’t start out rich and inside of the rich life, but when he gets into the rich life, he begins to notice how different it is and doesn’t enjoy it.
Even though there aren’t many characters in this story, the main characters have a lot of development and aspects to them. The reader always manages to take away a new trait of each character each chapter. I really love in this book the chemistry that Nick and Gatsby has and just the incredible relationship that they develop just because of the invite to a party. I also enjoy that even though Gatsby is rich we see more to him than just an older rich person that has worked hard for his earnings.
This story is very good at bringing up questions of morals to the readers. There’s morals that comes into play with each character that can impact the reader. From the actual intentions of Daisy to the real feelings of Tom to the deep truth of who Gatsby is, F. Scott Fitzgerald never fails at growing these characters in a positive or negative way. I think the character arcs and development of each character is executed extremely well and that his storytelling ability and sensory details were very defined and pinpoint in this story. Faulkner manages to show a lot of his talent through this wonderful story and it definitely shines throughout.
I do enjoy his way of tackling topics in the real world in this story. Cheating, being rich, and maybe even exploration of yourself when you are older instead of a coming of age from a teenager. I believe that he did a great job at doing a coming of age portion of the story while avoiding the cliche of it being about a teenager and a group of kids who are experimental, emo, and trying to understand who they are. Faulkner dodged a lot of cliches in this story, and maybe even invented some from this story. He added his own flare and originality to affairs and the rich life and it definitely shines through.
I highly recommend reading this book. It’s great.
