The Great Gatsby

Recently I took a road trip to the northeast to visit a couple of friends in med school. Even though I am currently still in the middle of Gone With The Wind, the library did not have that on audiobook (on CD) for my car (and I wasn't about to shell out $50 to Amazon for it either,) I chose another book from the list to listen to for part of the car ride. The Great Gatsby seemed a perfect choice because it was short and because I was somewhat familiar with it. Truth be told, The Great Gatsby is one of those books that falls under the category of "books I was assigned in high school that I read on Sparknotes," along with A Tale of Two Cities, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Odyssey, Lord of the Flies, Huckleberry Finn, and Pride and Prejudice. This is not to say that I didn't read ANY of these; I usually started with such good intentions of this being the book that I actually finished, but time restraints usually won. Either I was too busy to actually do the reading, or the book was not interesting enough for me to bother finishing. I remember reading most of The Great Gatsby, up to chapter 6 at least. The point of that rant was a) I made it through high school by avoiding classic books, and b) I did not have to pay 100% attention to Gatsby in the car.



So, this being a particularly famous book, and one I remember liking in high school (the parts I read, anyway), I had high expectations for the book which were basically squashed. I found it surprisingly wordy and insignificant, which is ironic because that is the picture of upper class life that the novel paints. While I understand this major theme, I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

What I find most striking about the book is the evolution of Gatsby. He was a poor mid-westerner who one day made up his mind to be rich and did everything he could to achieve his goal. Not everything he did was legal, some was particularly shady, but overall, Gatsby became a wealthy man. Modern day Machiavelli? I'd say so. His rationale was a little shaky (needing to impress Daisy even though she was married) but his efforts were rewarded with money. He threw elaborate parties to impress and lure Daisy in. In the process he lured in many others, but Gatsby seemed uninterested in them, as shown by his removed presence at his parties. I admire his determined nature, but can't help but be bothered by all the emptiness. He did what he did to get Daisy, which ultimately failed, not only when she chose Tom but also when he was shot by Wilson. Gatsby did not want to be rich for himself, although he did seem to enjoy that lifestyle, and I think that's where he went wrong. While money cannot buy happiness, achieving an important goal can bring happiness. In my mind, Gatsby had a worthy goal (even though it involved money) but the reasoning for his goal was what lead him to feeling empty. And while I can admire his do or die nature, I can't help feeling that Gatsby needed some other interests, friendships, and relationships to make his life worthwhile.

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired."

I'm not sure why I like this quote so much. I guess when it comes to relationships, everyone falls into one of these categories, more or less. I also believe you can be in two categories at once. Either you are into someone, or they are into you, or both, which covers pursued and pursuing. I'm not sure if busy refers to people too busy to be in relationships, or people who are currently in relationships, but for now I'll go with both. And the tired I presume are not looking for any sort of relationship, and are perhaps bored or frustrated with that sort of thing. I'm not sure which category I fall into, maybe a mix between pursuing and busy, if that's possible. Maybe I'll do some work in this department and think about it some more. Maybe if I bring this quote up on a date I'll find out if the guy is a book geek like me, haha.

So, thus is my analysis of The Great Gatsby. Next entry will probably be getting up to speed in Gone With The Wind.