"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place on Long Island in the early 1920s. Gatz is from a lower class Midwestern farming family who falls in love with the wealthy well bread Daisy. The two are unable to marry and live happily ever after as they are from vastly different backgrounds and social status. Gatz enlists in the military and upon the end of his service is befriended by a wealthy benefactor who employs him "in a vague personal capacity". Gatz's employment provides him the opportunity to see the world, and experience life on the other side of the social strata. His adventures allow him to reinvent himself and upon the death of his benefactor, Gatsby purchases a mansion on Long Island, near the now married Daisy, and begins the process of recapturing her favors. I have read this book in my junior year of high school.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1937, June 4It was I truly memorable book because it was taught by an enthusiastic and descriptive teacher.
It's what isn't written and the hidden, subtle meanings between the lines and my potent reaction that makes this book one of my favorite classics of American Literature. Also Fitzgerald's elegant, almost dance-like, symbolic and deep prose; yes, many might react surprisingly at the word "deep" to describe "The Great Gatsby", but many simply did not see that- in portraying the shallowness of the characters. The fast-paced 1920's eastern life of the rich and notorious, and the struggles of one man-Gatsby-to rise above his past, ancestry and misplacing his meaning in life to one, undeserved woman-a well-hidden depth of meaning and understanding of what mankind should strive for and unfortunately what most miss was clearly pointed out in the novel.
As I talk to my fellow classmates about this novel, I get the...