Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Great Gatsby (Book Review)

The Great Gatsby is the remarkable novel of Fitzegerald. He got the popularity after the publication of “The Great Gatsby.” Different people may interprete The Great Gatsby in different levels. The novel dominantly presents the destruction of American Dream.

The Great Gatsby is based on American materialistic fiction. It shows the contemporary society of America after 2nd World war where people were fully devoted to earn money to fulfill the interest and to get prosperity and happiness. They even didn’t care about their love. The novel combines symbolism with psychological realism. It gives the real picture of new American society where people have their materialistic identity. It presents the contemporary American world where the old boundaries were broken and new values were started. The novel is very significant to present the modern materialistic world.

Daisy Buchanan is the most important female character in the novel who is very sophisticated. She is absolutely influenced by materialistic values and forgets her humanity. She fell in love with Jay Gatsby. They intended to marry but Gatsby has to go Overseas and she get married with Tom Buchanan although he was old man she doesn’t care what’s love or she doesn’t know the real meaning of love. She betrays her pure lover i.e Gatsby. She is a very selfish person , her selfishness is clearly visible in everything that she does.
The most important symbol used in the novel is "The Valley of Ashes." The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the destruction of the human civilization and humanity. The Valley of Ashes is the place which is civilized ,advanced and industrialized but everything in the valley is covered with ashes.The outer environment of the place is polluted because of the industrialization.
This novel talks about the selfish nature of human being. How mean and selfish one can be to fulfill his/her desire and forget about humanity. It also focuses how harsh and hard one’s heart can be which can’t be melted even by one’s true love. It talks about the power of money and human beings being slave infront of money.

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