The Great Gatsby

Although I was told by many other students that The Great Gatsby was a pointless, silly book, I actually enjoyed the majority of it! I found it very interesting and captivating once I had given myself the chance to completely submerge myself in the plot of the story. However, I feel as if there is a great deal more to this book then I took away from it. There is a reason why this book is so legendary, and I’m still not quite sure what that reason is. I’m sure discussions in class will help me along these lines. =) For this book, I chose to use the annotation method which focuses on the author’s style. The very first page of the book was very hard for me to understand. I hated the style of the author’s writing in this section because it seemed so incredibly complicated and wordy. Very quickly, however, his style changed and became more “real” (for lack of a better word.) I felt as if he was talking to me face to face with complete honesty. Shortly after this Fitzgerald began narrating, and I was very glad for this transition. I liked it much better. One thing I also noticed that was a very common occurrence in Fitzgerald’s writing was the dash. He used them constantly! When I first began the book, I was highlighting each dash I found in blue. After about 5 pages, I gave up because it was soooo time consuming and tedious! Throughout the book, I continued highlighting phrases that really struck me or had a particular impact on me. Each one of these phrases represented the author’s style and how it was effective for his purpose.