Literary Journal - 3 : The Great Gatsby

   First of all, The Great Gatsby has been of the my favorite novels of all time. I believe most of you who are reading this post have read the work.

   Powerful images and motifs were used throughout the book. I will not necessarily list all of them in this post, but I will look into some of them to show how this book was built to be a masterpiece. I can still remember the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg looking down on the Valley of Ashes. As F. Scott Fitzgerald had been trying to show the misery of the "Lost Generation," the book is full or negative images and themes. It is a sequence of failures. For instance, the "Dream Girl" Daisy Buchanan is someone Jay Gatsby cannot ever gain.
 
   The wealthy characters throwing crazy parties and showing off their fancy automobiles and clothes are a complete contrast to the other middle class characters like George and Myrtle Wilson. Greed is what causes all conflicts in the story. As punishment for their greed, failures, chaos, destruction of families and even death(Myrtle) follow.
 
   T. J. Eckleburg is a god-like figure looking down all the conflicts going on in the town. It is irrelevant but after finishing my summer readings, his eyes also remind me "Their Eyes Were Watching God," except the difference is that the characters in the G. Gatsby don't even seem to realize there is such a sign. I'm not sure if it's from the book or just from the 1974 movie but the most memorable scene to me was when Gatsby starts throwing his shirts from England(according to his description) to Daisy and Daisy starts crying. When you think about it, how weird is that? But after thinking over that scene many times, it was easier to recognize that this scene is closely related to the great theme of the novel. Materialism and earthly matters dominate the characters.

   It was a little difficult for me to understand the themes of this book when I first read it. I didn't know that much about American history or culture as a Korean kid who just came to this country. But coincidentally, I was taking American History at the same time and it was very interesting to see how American writers actively related their current issues (of that period) to their works. They used literature as a tool to reflect their society. American novels always excite me because they usually don't tend to trick their readers and the themes are relatively straightforward. I am not sure if I will go to GB one day and will start liking all of their literature, including T. S. Elliot.