Turn of the Page: 'The Great Gatsby'

by Elizabeth Ostrem and Kayla Werner

“The Great Gatsby,” published in 1925, is arguably one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best works. Set in the early 1920s, the story is told by Nick Carraway, a young man who travels to New York to learn the bond business. He moves in next door to Jay Gatsby, a peculiar millionaire known for throwing spectacular parties on the weekend, and the two neighbors strike up a friendship after Nick receives an invitation to attend one of Gatsby’s famed parties.

One day, when the two men are taking tea, Gatsby confesses that he’s in love with Nick’s cousin, Daisy, although she’s now married and hasn’t seen Gatsby in several years. At Gatsby’s request, Nick arranges a meeting between the two at Gatsby’s mansion. From that point on, Gatsby is convinced Daisy never did love her husband and seems set on rekindling their love.

A movie adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire  and Carey Mulligan is scheduled to open in theaters on Dec. 25^th, 2012.

Liz:

“Gatsby” is definitely a book you need to give your full, undivided attention to, else risk misinterpreting or entirely missing the whole point of a paragraph. There were a couple of pages near the end that I had to reread a few times to fully understand what happened, but that was more the fault of a wandering mind than the novel itself.

One thing I appreciated was how Fitzgerald made the characters realistic. Too many times I’ve been turned off a book from reading just the first few chapters because of characters that were seemingly flawless, but that certainly wasn’t the case with “Gatsby.” None of them were perfect; they all had their share of faults and shortcomings, though I still found them to be interesting. 

Although the wording threw me a few times in places, it’s a solid book that I would recommend to any book enthusiast. Just be sure to take your time when reading, so you can really enjoy the classic tale about money, love and high society life Fiztgerald created.

Kayla:

I found this book to be pretty interesting. It kept my attention fairly well, but I found some parts were confusing if you didn’t fully read over them. I found myself having to go back and read over parts because I missed something. It had many interesting parts, though. One of them that stood out to me was when Tom, Daisy’s husband, had taken Nick to meet his mistress. I thought it was kind of weird (seeing how Nick is Tom’s wife’s cousin) but, in the end, it was an enjoyable book that can really engage a reader.

“The Great Gatsby” is a book filled with riveting language, a great story line and some wonderful characters. It’s a great story to read in the classroom, or on your own just for fun. Overall, this book really does deserve to be called a classic.