BookMarks #105: The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F Scott Fitzgerald

Genre: Fiction, American

Published: 1925

BookMarks

Had heard about this book a lot, thanks to the eponymous movie which had come out a few years earlier. While I had started, but could never finish the movie, the book got better treatment. Managing to finish it entirely although the start was slow, but the pace picked up later.

The Great Gatsby is considered a classic and one of the “Great American Novels”. Showcasing the life in post-World War I New York. It has the glitz and glamour of super-rich parties contrasted with the more ordinary working-class people. And yet in essence it is just a love story with a tragic ending!

There are lots of references in the book, but the author never gets to detailing them out – the flourishing bond trading (probably a precursor to the Great Depression); the class divide between neighbourhoods; fortunes made during the Great War, Prohibition & bootlegging, fixing of the World Series. The readers get barely a glimpse of the events, although all these may or may not have played a role in building Jay Gatsby’s fortune.

Here are a few lines which stood out for me from the book.

• Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had – a point to be kept in mind in this social-media triggered world
• There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired – a simple classification for all human beings
• Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead – what a simple yet profound statement.

And there were some “General Resolves” in the end. 

“No wasting time…. No more smokeing or chewing….. Bath every other day…. Read one improving book or magazine per week… Save $ 3.00 per week… Be better to parents”

If one follows these simple tips, our lives would certainly be much better!

How usage of words change – holocaust is used to describe the ending tragedy. Yet how its use has evolved post the second World War into a much bigger tragedy!

Previously on BookMarks: Mendelevski’s Box