The Great Gatsby seen by an International Teenager

The great Gatsby is a pillar of modern American Literature. The version that I read even goes further by describing the book as “ A classic, perhaps the supreme American novel”, John Carrey, Sunday Times. The version that I have is the one that we have here at OIS. Said version comes with an introduction made by Tony Tanner. Tony Tanner is a rather famous scholar who is known to be one of the main actors in the acceptance of American literature in the UK. This comes at a time where American Literature was not particularly studied and he advocated for it to be added to multiple syllabuses and was one of the first teachers of American literature at the University of Cambridge.

I will be completely frank and I will not tell you that I read the 100 or so pages of introduction that he wrote for the book but I did go to the back of the book to read the insights that he brings to the story (he often added asterixis over proper nouns). What I did read was the book. The book is very well known and you all probably have or will read the book. This book review is not meant to explain the book but rather tell you my experience reading it.

To understand the point of view that I am coming from you need to understand that my mom makes me read over summer. As an annoying teenager that means that I am rather reluctant to read said books so she lets me choose what books I want to read. The two books that I read are “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway and of course “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read the first since it is a book that was often recommended to me and the second since it was part of my reading list for summer. I enjoyed reading both but for different reasons. I enjoyed the first as it is a style of writing that I enjoy a lot where the whole story revolves around one person. The book itself talks in the third person focusing on one person which I find to be very amusing to read.

The second is the one I am here to talk about. To give you a quick outline of the story, a man moves to Long Island, West Egg in the book, and rents a house. Next to his house is a very big House owned by the mysterious Gatsby who throws huge parties all the time. He then discovers that Gatsby is in love with the main characters cousin and you then follow their life.

What makes this book different than others you might say. Well for starters the space-time context of this story is very interesting. The story takes place 1922, just after the end of the Great War. The whole subtility of the book is to show how the end of the world placed the United States as the prominent power in the world. We follow the lives of clearly rich or at least upper class people living a lavish lifestyle all while in Europe they are having a hard time rebuilding. The story about these rich people in the US is happening around the same time that the famous tv series Peaky Blinders is taking place. This comparison is interesting as you see in what state the UK is in after the war where even the rich don’t seem to be having fun, which was probably the case to a bright summertime in the US where people are having fun, being joyful and living their best lives. This comes form the fact that the US did participate in the War but did not fight on their own soil and did not get attacked as much as in Europe, which is normal.

The next aspect of the story that I find very interesting is the actual character of Gatsby. It reminds me a lot of the Count of Monte Cristo which is a very famous French revenge story. I say that because they are both very rich and are both very mysterious. No one really knows who they are and no one truly understand them. We always hear these crazy rumours about what they might’ve done in the past and what kind of crime they did to get their money. The main difference between the two is that The Great Gatsby is a book around 180 pages and the Count of Monte Cristo is more than 1000 pages long. That means that the actual of the character is much shorter and in my opinion, it almost adds more mystery and novelty to the character of Gatsby. By this I mean that you come in knowing about the character but you discover who he is at the same time as everyone else which adds some engagement to the book.

The final part that I found very interesting and fun to read was the whole book. By that I mean the way that Nick, the main character is introduced to this whole new world. He moves into a new city and meets new friends who are often a lot richer than he is but more importantly, from a very different world. He meets these people who clearly have a lot of money, or at least more than he does. That being said he clearly has money, he is far from being poor. It reminds me a lot of my experiences when moving. You move to a new city, you have this sentiment of not belonging but very quickly you make yourself your own friends. This aspect made me feel much more connected to the actual story and made it so I finished the book very quickly.

In conclusion I truly recommend you reading this book as it is not only a somewhat interesting story but more importantly a interesting depiction of a not so old society. You understand how the United States reacted to the end of the war and how they adapted. It gives you a lot of insight on modern society as the ending is also very true to this society. That ending is in my opinion a bit rushed but what it is a life lesson but that’s for another day.