Before "The Great Gatsby" was a major motion picture by Warner Bros., it was a great American literary classic about the roaring twenties. A time before the stock market crash and subsequent depression, where the rich liked to have fun, and the poor knew to stay out of their way.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most highly distinguished, and appropriately rated writers of our time. He has this ability to turn ever line of his novels into extremely eloquent sophisticated poetry. He turns the roaring twenties into a beautiful, yet doomed era, brought to an abrupt halt by the depression.
The novel itself is class commentary on class and the shallow-seeming lives of New York elite. The protagonist Nick Caraways lives in a fictional borough "West Egg" across the pond from his cousins Daisy and Tom, who live in the most prestigious "East Egg". Which is possibly be a reference to the Manhattan/Brooklyn split. The difference between the two, being old money and new. But perhaps West Egg is becoming more fashionable due to gentrification, and college kids; like it's counter part.
The character of Tom, Daisy's husband is both racist, and pseudo-intelectual (I can't decide which quality is worse). Tom's misogyny aside, it's clear though that these are not the views of the author. He's assigned these terrible traits to Tom because he's establishing how awful he is. Tom is the closest thing we have to a villain in the novel. Unless one's consider's Daisy's flippancy, Myrtle's disgruntled husband, or perhaps the American Dream.
The character of Myrtle is similar to Daisy in that they two both love Tom - or should I say money. Myrtle's husband owns an unsuccessful auto-shop in Queens. Myrtle regrets getting involved with him because of his financial situation. In many ways Myrtle could symbolize what would have happened to Daisy had she not married Tom. It seems that when one is only interested in chasing money they'll never be happy. Even if they're successful like Daisy, or unlucky like Myrtle. both women are treated poorly by Tom, who chooses to break Myrtle's nose after she refusing to stop saying Daisy's name. Myrtle differs from Daisy is that she stands up to Tom a bit more, and seems to be more spirited.
All in all, at the heart of this novel is a love story. One between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby- wait no, I mean money.
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