The Great Gatsby is set in 1922 in New York, specifically West and East Egg, where the main characters, Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson reside. The story opens as Nick goes to a dinner party with his cousin, Daisy, in this it discloses Nick’s interpersonal relationships with those around him. He eventually learns the name of a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, the owner of a gothic mansion that caught Nick’s attention in West Egg. After learning about Gatsby, Nick becomes infatuated with his allusive character, leading him to attend one of Gatsby’s famous parties. At the party, Nick and the reader are first introduced to Gatsby, where Nick and Gatsby discuss their shared experience in World War I. From there, the novel follows the development of Nick and Gatsby’s friendship. As it evolves, Nick and the reader become exposed to the various elements of Gatsby and learn about Gatsby’s various efforts to experience true love with Daisy Buchanan, Tom’s wife. The story ends in tragedy, forcing Nick to evaluate his choices and the lifestyle he chooses to pursue. Nick asks the age-old question of how money impacts one’s happiness.
Initially this book was insanely difficult for me to read, and I felt as though the words on the page didn’t make sense in the order Fitzgerald put them in. I found his writing style confusing. The way the sentences are written made me lose focus and I had a really hard time tracking the story and understanding what was going on. I kept reading, and eventually the writing style got simpler, or maybe I just got used to it. As the novel progressed, I became more and more familiar with the style and learned the characters and their personalities. One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that the characters were very three dimensional, and developed throughout the novel as the story moved along.
I’d suggest that no matter what, you stick with this book, no matter how lost and confused you are at the beginning, because it does get very interesting as the characters' lives get messier and messier.
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