Book Report on The Great Gatsby

A Shattered Dream of Vanity

——Book report on The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a masterpiece written by a famous American writer F.Scott Fitzgerald. The book is published and reprinted in "Penguin Classics" 2000 in England.

It is a story of the main protagonist, Gatsby, set in the early summer of 1922 in West Egg, Long Island, and told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, Gatsby's friend. After reading the book, I think The Great Gatsby is about Gatsby's shattered dream, a shattered dream of vanity.

Gatsby buys a big mansion in the West Egg, across the bay from Daisy's house. He holds luxurious party every week, in order to draw the attention from Daisy, who he had loved since 5 years ago when he was a poor lieutenant. He was asked to leave for World War ?, but Daisy didn't wait for him and married to Tom Buchanan, a rich aristocrat. Tom has a mistress outside, George Wilson's wife, Myrtle. Nick is Daisy's cousin and Tom's fellow student in Y ale. Moreover, he is coincidently a neighbor of Gatsby and the one who arranges the date between Gatsby and Daisy, whose love seems to be back again. However, their affair is revealed soon. Daisy chooses to go back to Tom, and Gatsby's dream is over. On the way home, Daisy kills Myrtle in a car accident. Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy and is killed by Myrtle's husband, George Wilson, who is incited by Tom. Up to now, we can see Gatsby's dream is disintegrated. He becomes the victim of others' greed, selfishness, and coldness.

As a masterpiece of American "Lost Generation" literature, The Great Gatsby is far not only a story of love. In fact, it encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope about the grand background of times. It concerns about the American era of unprecedented prosperity, the comparison between the newly rich and the old aristocracy, the moral decline of the upper class and so on.

Here I want to focus on the profound meaning of this book on the perspective of Gatsby's shattered dream.

Five years ago, Gatsby was a poor lieutenant, who fell in love with the aristocratic girl, Daisy. He lied to her that he himself was from a wealthy family so that she would consider him as worthy of her. After the war, Gatsby tries to gain fortune, even by smuggling, to win her back. For Gatsby, Daisy is his dream: beautiful, charming,

graceful, that kind of girl of sophistication, wealth, and aristocracy which he values and pursues. Nevertheless, Daisy falls far short of Gatsby's ideals. She is beautiful and charming, but also material, fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money. Later even Gatsby himself realizes her voice is "full of money", though he never gives up his dream of Daisy from beginning to end.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about American dream: discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. But this dream is corrupted in the 1920s, an era which portrayed by Fitzgerald, "decayed social and moral values, cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure". Tom and Daisy, and those guests attending Gatsby's parties, the indifferent, ruthlessness aristocrats all stand for the eroded social aspects.

On the opposite side, Gatsby processes moral qualities in the novel. He is innocent, sincere, loyal, and good-hearted. He claims he is the driver to take the blame for Daisy, remains outside Daisy's window until 4 a.m. simply to make sure that Tom does not hurt her. He is lovesick, though worthless, and holds a hopeful dream and persists in his dream of true love. Many people may not find out that, Gatsby's dream is truly also a dream of vanity. America of early 20th century was pursuing wealth, pleasure, but resulted in the decline of morality, stuffy, empty, and hypocrisy. Comparatively, Gatsby, from his early youth, despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophistication. Daisy reflects his worship of wealth and aristocracy. But his dream of vanity is finally ruined, revealing the corruption that wealth causes and the unworthiness of the goal, the goal driven from his value. After Gatsby died, rather than attend the funeral, Daisy and Tom move away, leaving no forwarding address. Gatsby's dream of vanity finally crumbles, and having witnessed the whole story, Nick decides to return to his hometown, where American values have not decayed.

After reading The Great Gatsby, reading his shattered dream of love, of vanity, I do not only have known the conception of the American society in early 20th century, but also know that the value of a time, a nation, and an individual is so significant. There is a very conspicuous symbol in the novel, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. It is a warning that our development and morality will always be stared upon and judged by God. Remember it.