The Great Gatsby

Have you ever read "The Great Gatsby"? One of our members want to share his thoughts and ideas on the book. Anyone can comment on this article, feel free to do it! 

The Great Gatsby

Seunghyun Kim

Political Science & Dipolomacy

Yeungnam University

The Great Gatsby is one of the most famous works of literature from the United States of America. Some people may ask why "The Great Gatsby" is famous and even considered masterpiece. The reason is that the Great Gatsby shows the situation of the U.S.A. and the thoughts of young people in the 1920s.

As we know, The U.S.A. is made up of immigrants, and most of them had the American Dream when they decided to immigrate to the U.S.A. This work discusses the early immigrants’ hopes that anyone could be rich. It shows this dream with the Green Light. From now, we will summaries and discuss some features 1920s through the Great Gatsby.

The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby's neighbor in West Egg. He visits his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom. Like Nick, Tom Buchanan graduated from Yale, and comes from a privileged Midwestern family. When Nick returns home, he sees Gatsby gazing at a mysterious green light across the bay. One day, Nick attends a party at Gatsby’s mansion and meets Gatsby.

Before the party, Jordan Baker, a beautiful young woman with a cold, tells Nick that she has learned some remarkable news. Later, Gatsby asks Nick to arrange a meeting between himself and Daisy. Nick realizes that Gatsby wants Daisy to renounce her husband and her marriage. Thanks to Nick, Gatsby has a reunion with Daisy. Daisy invites Gatsby, Nick and Jordan to lunch at her house, and she tells Gatsby that she loves him. As soon as Tom notices this air, he forces the group to drive into the city: there, Tom and Gatsby have a bitter confrontation.

 On the trip back to East Egg, Gatsby allows Daisy to drive in order to calm her nerves. Passing Wilson’s garage, Daisy swerves to avoid another car, but her car hits Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. She is killed instantly. Nick advises Gatsby to leave town until the situation calms, but he refuses to leave. George Wilson, driven nearly mad by the death of his wife, is desperate to find her killer, and Tom tells him that Gatsby was in the car. Wilson shoots Gatsby before committing suicide himself.

The work ends with the death Gatsby. I think that Gatsby’s death represents one side of the American Dream; in other words, early immigrants tried to get a lot of money, but most of their attempts ended in failure. Besides, we know that Gatsby made his money by selling bootleg liquor. Notably, Gatsby’s party displays a lot of young people who tended to live meaninglessly; many young people focused on meaningless things such as drugs, drinking, sex, etc. in the 1920’s. Like these, we are able to understand situations and people’s thoughts in those days by reading literature. Finally, understanding the cultural or economical situations of those days is one of the best ways to read literature.