The Great Gatsby – a great literate work

For the second and maybe last time, I will start this reflection off emphasizing how I am not from the United States. This is of outmost importance as the assumptions I bring to the reading, and the judgments I make while I read – is shaped by my childhood in Norway but also the last three years I have lived here in Florida. As a legal alien, and even as a tourist before, I have only seen Florida and had the luxury of staying a short week in New York City. Consequently, and what I’m trying to say, is that the typical American (in my eyes) are defined per Floridian, which I find very different from, say, a native to New Yorker City. So when I have the chance of getting to know “another” American culture AND a historical time I find a particular interest in of course I would read it. I had to this time, butSimilarly this is why I loved The Great Gatsby. 

F. S. Fitzgerald gives the reader a very thin slice of history; a taste of upper-class Long Island in the early years of Prohibition and organized crime. Whether it is a lifestyle that attracts you or not; the author constantly challenges the morals of the reader. So it definitely is not a walk in the park kind of book – despite the seemingly lack of action.. it is more a fiction analyzes of  human behavior and tells you a lot more about yourself than many other books. For example, many people hate Tom; from the very beginning he is portrayed by the narrator as a scary and dislikable character. Still, I don’t find him half as slimy and sneaky as our above-mentioned narrator; Nick. Through him we get fooled to think he might be an outsider – that we are an outsider with him - however, as the story unfolds I realize he might not be as innocent as he puts himself out to be. Nick deliberately, I think, hides his personal life from us readers, just like Gatsby hides his life from everyone else than Daisy (and Nick in the very end). He is as much of a cheater as any of the other characters but he tries to give the reader as little a chance to judge him as one of them. Why that is I don’t know but it definitely gives an interesting twist to the story! After having turned the last page, I was left with a feeling of wanting to know more – what happened to Daisy (and her daughter), and what become of Nick? And that is always a sign that it is a good book – when you want to read more and you just cannot.