For most readers, "The Great Gatsby" is a story of mystery, intrigue and deception. Even those big eyes floating on the book cover are puzzling, come-hither dreaminess. Gatsby is a mystifying character who appears out of nowhere, bought the castle, and embarked on what appears to be a crusade to get every person in the five-mile radius completely hammered. His mysterious entrance to the uber posh area of New York City sparks flurry of questions. Does he have a secret past? Is he assumed a false identity? Is the source of his income suspicious? Does he have ulterior motives? Is that his real hair?
Yup, pretty much. Gatsby mystery evaporates pretty quickly after we realized that basically everything that he suspected the truth. In fact, the purpose of Gatsby's mission is almost laughably single-minded: he wants to get a girl. Gatsby is not a complicated man, clothes, money, summer, persona, parties ... everything can be explained by the same motive. It's more than a simple can say for any other person in the novel.
Gatsby's intense determination begs the question: who is this mystery girl, and how can I get her number? Unfortunately, Daisy Buchanan is not nearly as easy to understand - and admire - as Gatsby. She was spoiled, selfish, materialistic, and weak-willed, not to mention the fact that she married someone else when Gatsby went to war. That being said, it seems to be really back to Gatsby's feelings, even if she does not have enough backbone to leave her husband. So why Jay Gatsby to make such a fuss on it? Although we can never quite decide whether it is good or bad person, Daisy exude a certain something mesmerizing, especially in the quality of her voice. (Think Professor Snape, but with multiple X chromosomes .)
As for her husband, Tom is rich, arrogant, abusive, adulterous jock - the kind of guy who kicks a dog after a bad day at work. He is incredibly manipulative and has a particular talent for exploiting human weakness. After all, even though Gatsby's personality seems more than a little suspicious of everyone around him, but Tom takes the initiative to investigate his past. After realizing that his wife has feelings for Gatsby, Tom Gatsby strategically employs truthfulness's bootlegging ways to prevent Daisy from being carried out relationships. Although Tom's despicable behavior can tempt us to believe that Daisy is more victim than villain, the fact that Daisy him elected over Gatsby forces us to question, Obi-Wan-style, which is worse: a fool or the fool who follows him [. [/ P>
Interestingly, the most fleshed-out characters from all the Great Gatsby is probably the narrator, Nick Carraway, who wears his thoughts and feeling for the world / english students everywhere to see. He starts a book with a little ol 'you-will not-not-judge, but even though the effort can schmooze with all manner of folk, he quickly tells readers a secret diary-style, as much as he despises all the high-society ingrates that surround it. Our Spidey senses can not help but perk up and take note of this hypocrisy. Of course, we are grateful for the fact that Nick was the only person who understands and appreciates Gatsby, but really, what else does the guy has going for it?
When things go south for Gatsby, Nick is very unceremoniously dumps his adventures, Jordan - apparently as a matter of principle, because it was really not guilty of anything, except for co-operation with the wrong crowd. (You know, the one Nick was hanging out with this all the time.) Nick seems to want to distance themselves from anything that is not Gatsby, but Jordan was not fooled for a second, which is alleged to be false and heartless as everyone else. Before long, we realize that the main reason why we ever liked Nick is that he loves Gatsby. Too bad being able to recognize a good person is not the same thing as one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment