书评 陈yx
The Great Gatsby
Before reading the book, I had watched the film adapted from The Great Gatsby. From the fancy images of the film, I am fully conscious of the extravagance of the wealthy in the 1920s in the United States directly. Nevertheless, not until I had accomplished reading this book did I recognize that the majority of citizens becoming infected by money worship and hedonism which are contributed to these prosperities. Therefore, the public say that the 1920s was not only miraculous but also full of spendthrift and sarcasm. Gatsby, a New York upstart who lived in those days, was starting his love story.
I would like to give a brief introduction to the general plot of the book. The protagonist, Gatsby, used to be a needy man. His lover Daisy married Tom who is a plutocrat when Gatsby was away with her. Naïve Gatsby hopefully believed Daisy would come back to him on condition that he became wealthy, so he tried his best to get money even if some of them were illegal. Nevertheless, Daisy was not a noble girl anymore, and she was completely contaminated with money. At the end of the novel, what makes my heart hurt was Daisy shifting the blame that she killed Myrtle onto Gatsby to clear herself and protect her marriage. Eventually, Gatsby was shot by Wilson. His dream broke, and he became a victim of the tragedies of that times.
As far as I am concerned, Gatsby didn't love Daisy anymore after he said "Her voice is full of money". He acknowledged that Daisy was just a beautiful woman who singly loves money and has no affection to him. He was so vacant and lonely that he never gave up his pursuit of Daisy. It was his relentless desires for something like true love which did not exist that led to his death. Consequently, even if Gatsby was up to do something bad and failed finally, he was great. I couldn't help lamenting the injustice of the era and showing my admiration for Gatsby's bravery.
Fitzgerald, author of the novel, called "the angel of the Jazz Age", used a number of symbols to create settings for this masterpiece. As an example, the green lamp, which frequently emerges, stands for Gatsby's hopes and dreams. What's more impressive to me is that author is skilled in using colors to describe figures' characters. From where I stand, white says Daisy's former purity and vulnerability to contamination, gold writes about the extreme luxury of the magnates, and green represents not only hope and vitality but also jealousy and hatred.
From my own perspective, the great things about the novel are true descriptions and interpretations in accordance to the author's own experience. This book is aimed to show readers the American society's issues in the 1920s. In history, the US in that era was far away from the world's troubles, experiencing carefree prosperity and dizzying social change. There exist many of the same victims like Gatsby, and they spared no efforts to create lots of better lives to keep pace with this prosperous country. Nevertheless, it was tough for them to have control over money and cling to moral bottom line. Just like Nick said "I'm one of the few honest people I know". These individuals who show too little respect for morality finally were bound to experience the disillusionment of the American dreams. Afterward the Jazz Age came to an end. New era will arrive. New stories will keep on.
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