Week 4: The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

Poor Gatsby. What a sad tale this is. The story is about Jay Gatsby, but it is also about America at a particular point in history—its emergence from the gloom and despair of war into an era of indulgence and decadence. Indulgence and decadence that Fitzerald, who lived it, critiques as superficial and futile.

The story of Jay Gatsby is narrated by one of the most affable narrators I have encountered. Nick is perhaps the only character of decency in the entire story—and what utmost decency it is. So upright, polite and so honest, he is the perfect conduit through which the story of the much more charismatic Gatsby should be told. In the end, boring but likeable Nick was the only friend Gatsby had.

Nick, a young man in his late 20s, moves to West Egg in New York’s Long Island Sound to get started in the bond business in New York. He moves into a small house surrounded by large ostentatious ones. His next-door-neighbour is Jay Gatsby, 30 yrs old, who holds wild parties that draw huge crowds, most of whom know little about the host. The masses speculate on his character and source of wealth, but no-one really cares. They are simply happy for somewhere to go on Saturday nights. The parties are famous and people drive for miles to attend, usually not leaving until the sun has risen the next morning.


But Gatsby is not interested in the masses who flock to him and his party house. After a life of rough living as a young man, Gatsby became immensely wealthy, mainly through illegal means, such as bootlegging and illegal stockbroking. He built an enormous house in West Egg so he could have a view of the house where Daisy, the love of his life (and Nick’s cousin) lives with her husband Tom and children in East Egg. Gatsby’s short adult life has been building up to the day when he faces Daisy again, after their love affair was cut short upon him being called up to serve in World War I. Daisy is a beautiful and carefree woman. These characteristics along with her wealthy lifestyle attracted the then young and impoverished Gatsby. The parties he now holds, the monstrous house he lives in and the extravagant lifestyle he leads: all are attempts to secure status in Daisy’s eyes.


The love story that at first appeared so poignant and predestined is ultimately paper-thin, as is the veneer of sparkle and glitz surrounding the luxurious but shallow lifestyles of the characters. Daisy represents the moral emptiness of the era. Gatsby is victim of his own tunnel vision and the carelessness of the society which he worked so hard to become a part of. There is little beneath the surface of the roaring 20s in New York and the bonds that connect people in the glitz, glamour and all night-partying are weak and meaningless.


This is a great read! Places and people jumped out of the page at me - I wanted to give Tom a hiding, see Gatsby smile; I could picture Nick's girlfriend's tan and jaunty walk and I could hear Daisy's voice. I know nothing about 'literary devices' or 'narrative arcs', and I have no idea how or by whom certain books are judged as classics, but this is a damn good read.


The link to the Penguin page for The Great Gatsby is here.

Next Week: J.A is reading Therese Raquin by Emile Zola.