Still Love You When You Are No
It takes quite a long time to calm down and clear away those cynical thoughts after scanning the book The Great Gatsby.Written by American author F. Scott. Fizgerald, who is considered a member of the "lost generation" of the Twenties.,the book was first published on 1925.It soon became a best-seller of that period,regarded as one of the most famous novels in american literature.
A young man named Nick Caraway, once in the army during World War 1,came to New York City in string of 1922. He rented a small house in the West egg in the country of New York,planing to study economics and financial affairs.After he settled down,he was accidentally involved in the life of his neighbor at Long Island, Jay Gatsby revealed to Nick, that he fell in love with his cousin Daisy before the war. At that time, he is poor. However, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, a rich but boring man of good social position. But Gatsby was still in love with her,and this served as a hidden crisis of Gatsby’s tragedy later.
In Gatsby's opinion, Daisy was the most beautiful and charming girl that he had never seen. But she was also fickle, shallow, hypocritical. She was loved with money, easy, and material luxury she seemed to love Gatsby, but just appearance and his wealth. Although Nick ,as all the readers do, know the real Daisy, Gatsby did not know her clearly,he was still in his old dreams of his old time with the old Daisy. This is the main reason why Gatsby could not get what he wanted.
Gatsby almost did everything he could to be wealthy, to be the man in the higher classes in order to reveal the fact that he was born poor and not a gentleman in tradition concern.. Large fortune was from distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. After getting money, Gatsby got luxurious possessions. "And a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden, it was Gatsby mansion."
Besides,Gatsby went to Oxford University to get further study in order to make him more elegant and noble. He changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a study straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes has established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always learning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body- he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muck shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous beverage-" a cruel body" in Nick's eyes.
Gatsby held sumptuous parties every weekend at his mansion,aimed at that some day Daisy would notice it and she would walk in the fairy land Gatsby prepared her. The party is almost unbelievably luxurious. He made friends who have outstanding fame and high position through this carnivals,and flaunted his wealth and power to the whole New York City.
Things were going just as Gatsby’s idea.He appeared in front of Daisy a completely new man with charming wealth and appearance , which were definitely Daisy’s cake.He came to enjoy the secrete love with Daisy,or the girl in his dream.That love really poisoned Gatsby,he then decided to give an end to Daisy’s marriage and took her away.This definitely enraged Tom Buchanan,Daisy’s current husband in law.As is known,they had an argument.Daisy began to sob helplessly when the two man were quarreling,she cried out"I did love him true, but I loved you too.” when Gatsby tried to convince her to leave Tom. Gatsby lost Daisy because he had no money, but he still loved her.
Daisy, driving Gatsby's car, hit and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson.Though Gatsby knew the truth, he kept silent to protect her. However, Tom told Myrtle's husband that it was Gatsby who killed his wife and intensively aroused the fake hatred. Then Wilson murdered Gatsby and committed suicide.It was the blinding love and the wealth-oriented social atmosphere that killed Gatsby.
After Gatsby's death, almost no one, including those who usually attended his parties came to his funeral. Nick was the only left to arrange Gatsby's funeral, attended by only Gatsby's father and part of the former guests. That woman who ever allowed Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle rather than attend his funeral moved away with her husband finally, without saying a word,leaving no contact address.Nick had enough of it,disappointed and frustrated,he moved back and lost his interest in the city life.
The story ends here with a broken American dream.As most youths in the US,Gatsby fulfilled his dreams by becoming rich and noble,holding the belief that by this way can he put his foot in the upper classes.But the nobility society,represented by Tom Buchanan, are not so friendly as he thought.In the climax of the story,the fierce conflict between Tom and Gatsby can be taken as a supportive evidence of it.Gatsby,who owned the appearance of nobility,was still rejected by those born-nobility,no matter how hard he tried to be one of them.It is not a imaginary plot,but the reflection of a social psychology.The youths,crowds who held the same belief as Gatsby,were doing everything they can to let their own American dreams come true,to make their fortune,to earn themselves better living and outstanding social statues.They were ambitious, but the cold reality gave them a heavy punch in the stomach.The dreams they once held were already behind them since the beginning,but some of them showed no agreement.Like Gatsby,they are still there chasing the long-lost fakes,ending their lives in frustration and mental scars.The green light Gatsby kept in his mind is the symbol of unpolluted love and hope,but it all vanished into the air when facing the conflict between wealth and love.The story of Gatsby shows how fragile humanity is when compared with physical enjoyment and social atmosphere,Gatsby is lonely,though he had a great number of the so-called “friends”.
Daisy is the main female character of the story.She represents the money-worshiping tendency of the 1920s in America.Honestly,she loved Gatsby at a short period of time,but soon she found what she really adored was the money and superiority, which were not available for Gatsby before war.After she restarted the relationship with Gatsby,she was again buried herself in the sea of unconditional love and wealth.Maybe regretted,she sobbed to admit that she loved Gatsby once,but what is intriguing,loved Tom at the same time.She needed Gatsby to flourish her life,as well as she needed Tom.In some degrees,Daisy fooled Gatsby,she was no longer the Daisy he knew.Gatsby “had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it”,but he did not want to know that Daisy and his big plan were simply an old fake.In the epilogue of the book,she went to Europe with Tom without leaving anything to Nick and the dead Gatsby,in her eyes,Gatsby was just a passer-by in her teenage dreams.
Gatsby is the representative of the American youth in the twenties. He regarded Daisy as the symbol of the youth, money and status and most importantly,his long-pursuit way of living. He thought it innocently that he can receive the last love, his dream after being rich. It was a pity. He had misunderstood the girl he loved and the boring society from toe to top. Though he would never made his dream come true,he did give out a call in the heart of the republic to do some thing to make a change in the current society.
That’s all Gatsby is all about.
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