#5: Personal Review

The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel that we have been required to read in high school. The novel was extremely interesting and intriguing, and now I will always wish I could attend one of Gatsby’s parties. Fitzgerald’s manipulation of syntax and diction and his employment of numerous effective rhetorical strategies only adds to the excellence of this literature masterpiece. I found it unique that while the novel is written in first person from the view of the narrator, Nick Carraway, the story is centered around another character entirely, Jay Gatsby. In most other novels, if it is written in first person, the narrator is the main character and the focus of the plot is usually the narrator’s own struggles or his dynamism as a character. It was intriguing that this was not the case, and it makes me wonder why Fitzgerald chose to write the story this way. I would say it certainly added to the uniqueness of the novel and multiplied Gatsby’s mysteriousness. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism further creates an air of sophistication present in the novel. One can easily detect this sophistication primarily when Nick and Gatsby speak, for they are the most formal and grammatically correct out of all the characters’ speech. The Great Gatsby was an interesting read, and would be a something I would have gladly read on my own at home; however, it was saddening to see Fitzgerald’s most likely accurate depiction of the 1920’s and the people’s materialistic, selfish, wasteful, and careless ideals of that time period. I believe the main purpose of the novel was for Fitzgerald to reveal his disgust for the true nature of Americans during the Roaring 20’s.