The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1278 Words

Today, F. Scott Fitzgerald continues to stun audiences of all ages with his magically written novel about romance, money, and despair. Though The Great Gatsby was not very popular when it was first released it has made up for lost time and is now one of the greatest classics in American literature and being read in classrooms all across the United States. What actually denotes a book as a classic or great, though? In my opinion, a lot of it has to do with what a person needs at the time. According to James L. W. West III, leading Fitzgerald scholar and English literature professor at Pennsylvania State University, â€Å"[Gatsby] never seems to lose its modernity; it has that kind of staying power† (qtd. In USA Today). That’s one of the best†¦show more content†¦In the same sense, Nick was chasing his dream by moving to the East and trying to fit in with a crowd who would never associate with him, besides Gatsby. Nick was not the same type of person that the oth ers were generally drawn too, and did not participate in the activities that they did. The American dream as explained in chapter 9 by Nick was focused on the pursuit of happiness and self-improvement, which was not achieved by the characters in this novel, yet everyone continues to keep striving and moving forward as best as they can. Nick demonstrates this by saying, â€Å"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Fitzgerald 180). Though a very prevalent theme it was, the American dream was not the only one present in the novel, alongside it was the theme of society and the different social classes. Through my experience, this theme did not seem to stand out as much the first time I read it compared to the previous theme, but it became more prevalent upon each time reading it. The Great Gatsby explores two different sides of wealth in society, new money and old money. People who are the newly rich and happened to their money in â€Å"dirty business† or all at once, live