The Great Gatsby // F. Scott Fitzgerald
The literature we study in school often comes to be the literature we hate the most in later life; unfortunately, the nature of being forced into reading something often puts an automatically negative spin on it. I got quite lucky with my assigned literature; most of it I’ve truly loved, Hardy’s Tess of The D’Urbervilles and Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Rapture’ being two such stand outs. Undoubtedly, the best was F. Scott Fitzergerald’s The Great Gatsby. I feel so in love with Fitzgerald’s beautiful unique prose that, on being assigned the first chapter to read for homework, I promptly read the entire novel. They say good things come in small packages, and that is certainly true of Gatsby; with just nine chapters, it was possibly the shortest novel I studied in school, but since first picking it up four years ago it has become one of my favourite novels of all time, a tough title to take. The story of Gatsby’s unstoppable love for Daisy portrayed so wonderfully in Fitzgerald’s glorious writing style is inescapably beautiful. The novel also does something many find very difficult to achieve successfully: it produces exciting supporting characters. Our narrator Nick, along with Tom, Myrtle and Jordan are all expertly crafted, interesting people with their own equally interesting stories to tell. The Great Gatsby has earned many a reread from myself and countless others thanks to its timeless beauty and depth.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Words by Amie Bailey
@amiebailey
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