Title of Book: The Great Gatsby
Author: F Scott Fitzgerald
# of Pages 193
Star Rating: ★★★★★
Why This Book has Value: The Great Gatsby by itself is an American classic, but some believe that it might have outlived its stay in the educational system. I disagree entirely, it holds lessons not taught in today's system and delivers them subtly, often without the reader noticing at all. Let me show you what I mean.
This book revolves around Nick Carraway, a business man who moved in next door to the mysterious and very extravagant spender Jay Gatsby. Gatsby threw the largest parties in all of New York, ones that everyone who was anyone would go, no matter what. All of these parties were to seduce and attract the attention of Daisy, who was Nick's cousin twice removed and married to Tom Buchanon. So already there's some love affair tomfoolery* going on, and we have our plot. This goes on back and forth for a while with indirect fighting between Gatsby and Buchanan over Daisy and Nick just gets to witness it. The ending is completely unexpected and leaves the reader with a sense likened to that of just witnessing Murphy's law in action.
It deals heavily with the avariciousness of the twenties and what sort of problems arise from one man's greed. It also serves as a very accurate historical depiction and really brings to life what the twenties were, between the swinging parties and the bone crushing mornings after. “I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” - Daisy (Pg 21 Fitzgerald) shows the attitude of how people should ignore what the world wants and enjoy themselves before the high ends. That was the embodiment of the time and nobody could want it less.
It truly is a timeless story that needs -- no, Deserves a place in the educational system to teach the youth about what the past was like, and to teach them what happened shortly after... cheers!
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