The Great Gatsby - A Forward

  I was in high school the first time I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Even then I knew there was something I loved about this novel though I couldn't put a finger on it. You see, back then I was required to read. We would have a set number of assigned chapters and then a quiz followed by some discussion of themes. We read all kinds of great book but Gatsby was one of the few I actually finished. Back then, I was too worried about girls to read books. Maybe that was what I loved about the book.


  Since then I have revisited the novel half a dozen times. Every few years I start to forget the details and a new urge to relive this story rises up in me. It is the same feeling as remembering something that happened to you many years prior that you will never forget. "Remember the time..." For me, the experience is the same. From the first sentence I become Nick Carraway and I am remembering the events of that long ago summer. "In my younger and more vulnerable years..." and so on. I can hear the sounds of Gatsby's wild parties. I see the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg piercing my skin and revealing my secrets. I can still taste the brandy and wine on my lips.

  It interests me that this story has stuck with our culture for so long. With Baz Luhrmann's latest installment, there are now four motion pictures based upon Fitzgerald's greatest work. But what is it that keeps the story so interesting to us today? It's not like there is a particular amount of action, save a few scenes. Due to Fitzgerald's attentiveness to detail, the story will forever be captured in the hustle and bustle of the roaring twenties. And yet it speaks to us somehow. There is an element of the story that seeps out to capture our attention.

  Still, with each reading I find myself among the characters as each plot point unfolds. What I think captures my attention the most, as with many readers, is Gatsby himself. Jay Gatsby, from the moment he is introduced, has a noticeable air about him. He views the American Dream differently than ever other character. While the others get caught up in the superficiality of life, Gatsby seems to think that the world can be better than it appears. He is a true romantic. And it's Gatsby's American Dream that I see as the key component of this woeful tale. It is what leaps off the pages and has a direct affect on us, the reader. To me, that is why Fitzgerald uses Nick as his main character. Although the story of Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy is meant to hold our attention, the change that takes place in Nick is what we can really relate to. It is because that change is meant to take place in us as well.

  As the years have gone by, I have finished reading most of the books that I neglected in high school. Each has had something spectacular to say that makes me wish I had not ignored them back then. But The Great Gatsby still stands above the others to me. Maybe it is the superb writing, or maybe it just holds a special place in my heart. But I truly believe that this book will always be read. Years from now people will still be retelling F. Scott Fitzgerald's tale. Each time they do, giving new life to Gatsby's American Dream.