Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Co-Managing Editor
Throughout human existence, human beings have always gravitated towards the ways of self expression only quantifiable by the beautiful images, sounds, and words found throughout this world. Some find themselves through art, some find themselves through music. Me? I have always found myself through literature. More specifically, the great historical works of literature published by the likes of William Shakespeare, George Orwell, or Charles Dickens.
With that being said, for every incredible makeshift of words crafted by writers from every corner of the world, none of them have ever been able to reach quite the euphoric highs of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Throughout his life, Fitzgerald published four novels and countless short stories while asserting himself as the most prominent and influential writer of the 1920’s jazz era. However, while this statement comes at no discredit to the many historic novels Fitzgerald wrote, nothing from his catalog (or any one else’s for that matter) has ever compared to the crown jewel of all of his life: The Great Gatsby.
Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby served as an exhilarating yet mysterious explanation into the themes of the American Dream and class asymmetry. Told from the point of view of an every observant young man named Nick Carraway, the novel depicts the story from his point of view as he witnesses the trials and tribulations of his enigmatic neighbor Jay Gatsby and life in high class society.
Needless to say, Gatsby has earned respect and praise in the world of books incomparable to that of almost any novel in American fiction. Nevertheless, many still overlook just how important a role it played in not just the course of literary history, but the history of the country as a whole.
What exactly gives this novel a quality that has made it so appealing to so many romantics and readers alike for so long? Well let me explain it for you:
Gatsby is, first and foremost, arguably the most beautiful novel ever written in terms of language and word choice. Fitzgerald was long applauded for his stellar word selection and descriptive language, but the magic encapsulated in each and every syllable of Nick’s narration makes it simply breathtaking to read at every twist and turn. Even the widest river or the deepest valley would be unable to hold the overflow of iconic quotes and lessons stored into just an 180 page novel.
Fortunately, this style of writing does not nearly lend itself to phenomenal description of environment and story, but characters as well. The Great Gatsby has several important characters, all fleshed out and fully developed with their own unique voices, mannerisms, and tendencies for you to map out in your mind. From the sensuous and belittling Myrtle, to the ferocious and pernicious Tom, to the very title character himself the dogmatizing and mysterious Mr. Jay Gatsby, each one can be clearly imagined as if they were a real person due to the nature of Fitzgerald’s mastery.
Despite its seemingly beautiful language and tone of expression, The Great Gatsby juxtaposes the beautiful flourishing language of the story with the harsh and tragic reality that may only be represented through a story truly aware of the time period it is in. It serves as both a validation and a criticism of the American dream, simultaneously chastising yet celebrating the rich, victimizing yet disappearing the poor, and portraying the hypocrisy of American high-class society to an extent we have never seen before.
What further heightens the many conflicts and themes within the book, is the many parallels between the lives of the characters and the life of Fitzgerald himself. Similar to Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy, Fitzgerald had a similar dream to achieve in the form of his ever sumptuous and demanding wife Zelda Fitzgerald.
His criticism of American society not only reflects Tom and Daisy’s sins, but equally his own for being fully devoured by the promise of wealth and fame that his novels brought him. Similar to the way that Nick Carraway believes he is morally self-righteous and prig, Fitzgerald believed too that only both people were just as responsible for the pain and skin around them as the ones who actually perpetrated such deeds.
While it would be exhilarating to further continue explaining the many achievements of this book, to try and quantify the extent to which this book has changed the lives of people around the world would be an exercise in futility. So I will leave it at this, whoever you are, a romantic or a cynic, an observer or an adjudicator, a thinker or a feeler, read this book and watch as your imagination romps like the mind of god entrapped in the enigmatic and mystifying story of the one and only Jay Gatsby…
Jude you are such a blessing! Your language and word choice is remarkable! I am so very proud of you, Jude. I love you.