The Great Gatsby

I finally read it. Not quite sure what to make of it. I know it's supposed to be about the downfall of the American dream in the 20's, but I feel it could be summed up better as 'rich people have affairs and get into trouble while a upper-middle class man narrates and gets caught up in their problems'.

Maybe I'm biased. I suppose it does get across the feelings of being rich in the 1920's. As for the American dream, I don't think anyone can even define what the American dream is, so how could you comment on what this book says about it? Obviously Fitzgerald probably has a different opinion as to what it is than I do. I guess I believe it's equality for everyone, and Fitzgerald seems to think it's something else, maybe being poor and having the chance to become rich.

But then again, that's all it is, luck, chance. You could work hard every day and not get rich. You could work harder than the rich and those who become rich and still suffer and starve.

So I think the American dream never really existed, that sounds right to me. It's impossible. It was never shattered, there was never a green light on the other side of the bay. There's simply people on one side of the bay and people on the other side of the bay. People on one side of the bay stare all day at the other side and hope to get there, while the people on the other side never look back and only care about what's happening on their side. Some people set out on boats to get to the other side but the wind is almost always too strong for them to cross, once and a while the wind happens to favor one boat, suddenly they've made it to the other side and they never look back and claim they made it there on their own power.

If I had to say the American dream is anything, it's that: Hoping the wind is generous to you, then when it finally is claiming that there is no such thing as wind.

Obviously I'm making generalizations here, but I believe this to be true for the most part.