The Great Gatsby

(1925)
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Finished Reading: 06.2009

Such a happy time, the decade between the two World Wars. The time is ripe for a love triangle.

Jay Gatsby is in love with a married woman named Daisy. Her husband Tom has a mistress named Myrtle. She, in turn has a fool of a husband named George. But Gatsby is no fool, only a man in love, and that circle comes back to him in a bad way.

Until recently Jay Gatsby was quite poor. But over the last few years he has accumulated vast amounts of money, perhaps in a shady way, and is now considered among New York's elite. He has created a life for himself to reflect this accumulation, with a big house, nice cars, and a crazy pink suit. Most summer nights he hosts a big party at his grand home on the bay. Lights sparkle brightly and hundreds of strangers pass through his doors and drink his liqueur, listen to his music, and swim in his pool. They are thoroughly impressed with this man whom they do not know, but take what they can get from him, and say impressive things about him. The name of Gatsby becomes great very quickly, but Jay Gatsby quietly hopes only to attract sweet Daisy, whom he has lost after many years of secret love and rejected attraction.

So as to not ruin the plot, I'll skip to the end and make my point. Gatsby is gone and no one cares about him in the least. Dust to dust, and all. His memory is forgotten by all those who thought him so great due to his great accumulation of wealth. His possessions now sit quietly in an empty mansion and are now meaningless to those who would use him only as a means for access to his things.

Gatsby isn't even his real name, and he didn't get the girl. It all goes to show that in the end it isn't what we have, but who we are, and if someone wants what I have he will take it and then he won't need me any longer. But if he wants to know me for who I am, then I might be greater than Gatsby.