The Great & The Grumpy

About a week before I got my copy of The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite writers commented on how it wasn't really all that great. It was just a quick comment, not a snide remark or anything, and even complimented Fitzgerald, but it gave me my doubts. Feeling a bit cheated by the almighty powers of AP Comp, I resigned myself to reading Fitzgerald's fiction.

And you know where I'm going with this, but I have to say it anyway--I love this book. It's this beautiful mixed bag of sweet and shallow and snarky plot and people that leaves me simultaneously delighted and uncomfortable. Yes, The Great Gatsby is full of empty conversations and superficial characters, awesome alliteration and all, but it confronts you with a force that is undeniably human. It seems that all of my favorite books have given me that emotion at least once.

With all these "America Is..." presentations, I thought about Gatsby. He is the American Dream personified. He rose from poor obscurity into money's limelight. Gatsby had it all, except for Daisy, and so he shifted his priorities from the present to the past. To me, Daisy seems to demonstrate the "good old days"--charming and innocent, easily able to rivet you with (ridiculous) words, and full of promise and potential. When Gatsby tried to return to the past through any price, any risk, he ran into consequences. If America only focuses on what was instead of what could be, there's no doubt that She will fall.

I also enjoyed Fitzgerald's Wilson character. A poor man among the ashes of industry whose wife goes after the very man keeping their income on tenterhooks--it reminded me how America feeds on others. Our claim to capitalism keeps us assured that we are doing it for their economy, to help them, really. However, that's a load of crap--we're just using them for our own ends. And when those places revolt, we won’t hesitate to shove the blame aside to save our own skins.

On that cheery note, thanks for reading, and may Dr. T.J. Eckleburg be with you!


(If you're feeling especially literate or curious or bored, check out one of my favorite writer's stuff here!)