The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

As a story, this book is somewhat complex, with some foreshadow and a few jumps in the story line. However, its not as complex as some of the other classics and required high school readings. In a nutshell, the narrator is telling a story about a man who fell in love with a woman whose husband is cheating on her with another married woman. The shady morals are only hinted at as being wrong, but the overall message comes across as: when you screw around with the wrong kind of love, people die. Its kind of a morbid message to be sending to a high school English class, however there is a greater reason to use this book for educational purposes.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is a genius with the English language. His writing contains just enough sarcasm to suit my tastes, and yet appears to be an accurate image of the picture he is trying to portray. Take, for example, "the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic." In many cases, the narrator does more than simply narrate. He uses words which are not neutral, which insert his own feelings into the story.

Also of note is the following metaphor: "The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens- finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run." Many authors today use descriptive language like, "the lawn was a brilliant emerald green, and the gardens" ...etc. It is rare to find an author using a metaphor to describe the setting, rather than 15 adjectives. This particular metaphor is fascinating for its movement. It is not a passive metaphor, and a lawn, which usually just sits there, is transformed into an active and living part of the setting.

While not using adjectives is refreshing, Mr. Fitzgerald's use of adjectives in other, surprising places is another reason I love this book. "And now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music." Yellow music? In some strange way, it really does tell you what kind of music is playing.

Rather than bore you with everything in the book that I underlined in fascination, I'll simply give you what I consider to be the author's crowning accomplishment: "Mr. Wolfshiem swallowed a new sentence he was starting and lapsed into a somnambulatory abstraction." If more authors were capable of using words like somnambulatory in a sentence, and more high schoolers were made to read things like this, our society would learn to quit using curse words and begin to actually express themselves (for real!). We'd have less people depressed and unable to share their emotions. We would have more potential, as a country, to do great things.

I recommend this book to everyone, especially those who feel they received a less-than-adequate high school education.