Okay, it was bad enough reading one novel that ends in tragedy, but why two? And why the one I liked better? The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has no "happily ever after"- how could it with 3 characters dying? An accident, a murder, and a suicide- at least he's creative!
So before I go into my spiel theme and my overall final thoughts, I have to say I still don't feel satisfied. Gatsby, the namesake of the novel, still appears a mystery to me. Up until this very last section, and even still, I don't feel like anyone could really know this character. Everytime I learned something new about him, it meant that what I thought I knew previously about him, wasn't true. From how he became rich, to his family, and even his name, it was really difficult to pin this character when all we continued to be told was mostly lies. Learning about his father that was never mentioned, even though I wasn't expecting it, does not surprise me in the least.
Now we enter the subject of themes. First,. I see materialism and obsessesion with money as a theme; they don't guarantee happiness in any way. Second, I thought that Gatsby's dad spoke some exceptionally wise words when he said, "'It just shows you.'" (Fitzgerald 182). Mr. Gatz may have just been referring to his son, but how true is that for a lot of things? We don't know everything about anyone or anything, so it is never our job to judge, we just have to be trustworthy people, and never be close minded.
This book overall kept me interested. While I may not like tragic endings, it is not like I don't understand. There was no other way because Gatsby was never going to give up on Daisy; he may have been killed by a gun, but he died because of his infatuation with Daisy and refusal to let it go, even when he'd lost.
So if I learned anything, it would be that you can never really know a person for certain, and don't ever get involved with a married person- in the two books we have read, that has not gone well.
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