A student's response to "The Great Gatsby" - What do you think?

In Barry Gross’s review on The Great Gatsby, he gives the novel an unusual theme. According to him, The Great Gatsby displays a feeling of nostalgia for an attitude previous to the twenties. The attitude of heroism. Fitzgerald also felt a tension between realism and idealism and between knowledge and faith. These tensions allow for a great tragedy.

            He doesn’t just create a great tragedy; Fitzgerald also puts an American twist to the novel. When most people could find no way to define America as a production of tragedy, Fitzgerald found a way. He also took it one step further and created two characters “with the wise and tragic sense of life.” Gross says tragedy is a necessity for life, and without it life would be extinct, but with tragedy, life would be a “journey of hope”. The hope, of course, would be ruined in the end.

            Gatsby showed Nick the connection between ideality and morality, or the ability to wonder with the ability to take responsibility. Nick realizes the price of living too long with a single dream is high, but to live without any dream is even higher, not physically but spiritually.

            Nick becomes a hero of the story, when he comes to a realization on certain things. With his words and gestures, Nick shows his approval of Gatsby. He tells Gatsby he worthy of the whole bunch and he erases the obscene word written on Gatsby’s steps. Nick also takes responsibility for the death of Gatsby, which allows him to take responsibility for his own life. When he left the Midwest he never confronted the girl he was chasing after, but when he left the East, he talked to Jordan. He told her he couldn’t lie to himself anymore and learned he did not want to be like the Buchanans, who are just careless about their actions and expect someone else to deal with the consequences.

            Gatsby is dubbed the hero everyone should recognize and acknowledge, but also the hero no one wants to be. On the other hand, Nick is considered more like the reader and is the hero everyone can and must become.

            In terms of heroism, I do not see how Gatsby is a hero, rather than just a lesson to Nick. Gatsby kept failing at trying to get Daisy back, who was married. Every cute attempt he tried failed and then he dies. He will never have Daisy. I don’t see how the hero can die in the end. However, that very point right there is what makes the story an amazing tragedy. Gatsby dying was unpredictable and a great plot twist.

            I can see where Nick was a hero, but he wasn’t a hero for anyone but himself. He saved himself from the East in the end. He came to the realization that the East isn’t for everyone and was definitely not for him. By moving back to the Midwest, he saved himself from a lot of trouble.

Abbey Oster