Noble Novels: The Great Gatsby

     

       At last, I am going to do something I have longed to do for a very long time. I am going to, first of all, begin a series of literary critiques on interesting, sometimes obscure, novels that I feel are worth mentioning. This is the first post I have written of its kind and I find myself indecisize as to how I should proceed. Honestly, I have no idea how to review a novel but I do love to read them and subsequently think about them so I would like to give it a shot-- please bear with me. Second of all I am going to begin with an incredibly not obscure novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and am going to do so from the point of view of a much more cynical, blunt fellow than he or she who often writes on this subject. In my opinion, this unorthodox analysis is long overdue in the world of the internet.

       I would like to begin with a detail that has irked me for some time-- of course this is solely based on my perspective so try to refrain from chastising me. The Great Gatsby is not, contrary to popular belief, a love story. I cannot tell you how many times I have found myself browsing the www when I stumble upon some trite, pitiful review about Gatsby and Daisy's irrevocable and unconditional love for each other and have buried my face in the palm of my hand. Of course, if one wants The Great Gatsby to be a romance novel one could certainly interpret it as such. However, if one looks closer and thinks about what is going on one will find that that cannot be. I will not include, in this post, any concrete details from the novel to support my claim (as much as I would like to) so as not to give anything away but I do urge the reader to keep my point in mind as he or she reads this book. 

       Of course, we can all agree that Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan have feelings for each other but those feelings, by the nature of these characters, cannot be love. Daisy is, to Gatsby, simply the final missing piece in his transformative puzzle from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. Gatsby needs to Daisy as a centerpiece in his new life to prove to the world that he can obtain a wealthy girl from a prosperous family of old wealth in order to prove and solidify his admission to the world of the wealthy. The wealth and material prosperity Gatsby acquired is wonderful for him but the fact is that he cannot truly be Jay Gatsby until he has proven able to make a wealthy, high-class lass like Daisy fall in love with him and chose him over an even more aristocratic man such as Tom Buchanan. 

       With that said, I do not mean to cast a negative light on this novel. I adore Fitzgerald's writing and I think the imagery he uses in this novel is some of the more vivid and riveting of all that I have ever read. The characters are fascinating and dynamic and the theme is blunt and brutally honest. Fizgerald had no qualms with explicitly commenting on the pestilence of high society, a topic from which most refrain to this very day and for that I salute him.

       I realize my perspective may ruin the novel for some and for that I apologize but for myself and hopefully for a few other brave readers this will make the novel all the more satisfying. This is not a novel about deep, intimate love. This is a novel about superficiality in all its forms. This is a novel about how one can throw the greatest parties in the history of New York, be wealthier than God, have everything one could ever dream of, and still have no one show up to one's funeral. 

~Nobilis Saeva