The Great Gatsby
After much complaining and debate about The Great Gatsby, I decided to reread it and update my opinion on it.
As most people know, The Great Gatsby is the tale of lost love in a time after the First World War. The short novel has something to say about status back in those days. East Egg is for the high class, and the West Egg is where the slightly lower class live. Anyway, this is what I was told the story was about.
In rereading it, I certainly got sort of a different perspective.
I originally asserted that the book was unnecessarily slow because the author labored trying to validate the narrative. Why was the story not told through Gatsby’s eyes? When I first read it, the fact that the story is told from Nick’s point of view, the first-person narrator, rather than an omniscient narrative, confused me to no end. I felt I was missing parts of the story and then patched in on those moments long after the fact.
Also, in my first read, I couldn’t figure why I was reading many of the events I was reading. People told me about the commentary the book had on society. My response to them had always been, man, I still don’t get the whole thing about Gatsby.
Upon rereading it, I realized how short the story is. Not even two hundred pages.
It’s true. It is a classic. The nature of the narrative is not only sound but also unique. I doubt such a style and narrative can be duplicated or for lack of words, rivaled. The angle F. Scott Fitzgerald takes on social situations he writes about in Gatsby is authentic and entertaining.
However, I still have some nitpicks, going back to my original points.
Instead of going through it issue by issue, let me cut to the main one. I wish someone would tell this story through the eyes of Gatsby. I wouldn’t mind seeing him meet Daisy for the first time. I don’t want to hear about it from somebody else or years after the fact. I want to see him go through those events that lent him the strength and power to finally make the long-term plan to land his forever love.
I want to see his fake empire crumble while he’s planning these extravagant parties, not just hear about it. We can still have all the commentary on the social economic state of whatever, but I want the story to be about Gatsby, and through Gatsby. Here is why. Sometimes Nick gets information that is hacked, and you can’t really rely on it, because, at some point, we understand that Gatsby is a little shady and doesn’t tell the truth. Nick even knows it. While this unreliable narrative is interesting, I don’t think it was meant to be unreliable. I’m under the belief that Nick’s word is supposed to be gold here, although, like I’ve pointed out, he doesn’t get his information firsthand all the time, and when it’s directly from Gatsby, we don’t genuinely believe it. It’s just convoluted.
My real question is this? Why don’t more readers want what I’d like? I’ve had people tell me how well edited ‘Gatsby’ is, how deep it is. How would they know? They’re never in the protagonist’s head. We’re not in the head of the protagonist. We’re missing a substantial amount because of the narrative decisions made.
With that being said, tell me why the story is better told through the eyes of Nick instead of Gatsby. What are the benefits? Yes, it’s a classic. Yes, it’s a narrative worth shining a light on, but is it effective as it could be? I’m not so sure.
