Did anyone else get stuck reading this book in school?! 😂 And HATED IT!? 🥴
Well, I recently stumbled upon The Great Gatsby for a second time in my life, and I decided to give it another chance... To my surprise, it wasn't that bad! 😃👍
Now, I definitely think there is something to be said about this classic: it is tragically romantic... 💔 It is a tale as old as time. Unrequited love, and the consequences born from refusing to let the delusion die.
Jay Gatsby is perhaps one of the most tragic heroes I have come across in literature, and that's including Shakespeare's plays! His love for Daisy is almost pitiful. A young man, bred from nothing, who becomes immersed in a world of ritz and glamor. And, perhaps Gatsby is to blame for his poor decision-making, and therefore his downfall: he was infatuated with Daisy and gave into his delusion.
At the same time, haven't we ALL made a decision like this while young and naive?... I, myself, can recall a time when I was in love with a young man, who was in love with ANOTHER young woman! 😵💫 Despite this knowledge, I attempted to pursue my heart's desire, on the belief that foolish hope would grant it in time. I cannot fault Gatsby for doing the same...
"He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was..."
With no other guidance, and no other purpose in life, Gatsby made his infatuation his life's pursuit. For years, he held onto a superficial dream, about a vapid young woman. And Daisy may have loved Gatsby at one time, but her love for comfort and security was greater -- SO great, that she allows her husband to cheat rather than face the unknown! Daisy had never known a life outside of having her every whim catered to, and she did not want to. I feel absolutely no sympathy for Daisy -- after all, she ultimately receives exactly what she wants! She gets to be a fool.
"'And I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.'"
They are all detestable people, every last one of them! To have the entire world in the palm of their hands, and to not only be unsatisfied with that, but THEN to cause additional chaos and destruction for the ones that don't deserve it. In this case, George Wilson and Jay Gatsby.
It is what makes Gatsby the tragic hero. He was the only one who had to work for what he had, the only one who ever disciplined themselves enough to have morals. Throwing lavish parties for guests who dragged his name through the dirt... In the end, Gatsby is left with nothing, and no one -- not even his so-called "friends" can be bothered to attend his goddamn funeral! 😠 They use and discard the most honorable man among them -- and are STILL just as depressed and unsatisfied.
"At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others. ... I felt a sinking in my heart."
The ending absolutely breaks my heart... Not because we finally discover just how truly alone Gatsby was... No, it was the notebook from his boyhood that breaks my heart.
It shows just how purely good-intentioned Gatsby was, how focused he was even in youth. The world lost a good man, and a good man was lost to his hopeless dream...