Personal Review

    For me, The Great Gatsby was an interesting read. It was very easy for me to fall in love with Gatsby, the man who achieved perfection in everything except what he desired most. Although he as much fame and money that he could ever want, there was something that was missing, and that was Daisy. In my opinion, Daisy, although she is seemingly charming in every way, was the character I was most disappointed in at the end of the novel. Daisy was only a tool to her husband Tom. She was an item of status that everybody recognized and easily became infatuated with. However, the whole town also knew of Tom’s affair, and Daisy would just try to brush it off and ignore it. I wish she would have stood up for herself a little bit, though, in hindsight, Tom might have caused her harm had she dared to speak up against him. The only time we truly see Daisy happy and carefree was when she was with Gatsby, and when he dies, she does not even attend his funeral. Maybe it was because she was trying to patch things up with Tom, or maybe it was because she did not want to believe that the only source of her true happiness was dead. Another character that I really connected with was Nick. He is just a simple guy trying to make a name for himself in this world, and I think everyone can relate to him on some level. He got sucked into all the drama that was not his, and yet he did not run away from it, rather, he stayed in it because he was intrigued by the characters involved. He was intrigued with Gatsby’s circumstances, so he remained a close friend to learn the true story of this interesting man. He was intrigued with Daisy and her welfare, so he stayed to see if Gatsby would make her happy. In the end though, he is left alone to make his own decisions and continue on to create his story. I think I enjoyed the book more the second time reading it, because when I first read the Great Gatsby, I was not really paying attention. I got the gist of the novel, then moved on. This time, when I read into the book more, I found the story much more likeable and relatable to my own life. This novel makes a heavy statement about the lies and deception behind high society that I thought was very intriguing.