The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was published back in 1925. This novel is set in a Jazz Area in New York, and it is all about the tragic story of the self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of a wealthy young woman Daisy Buchanan whom he loved while younger.
So, you may ask yourself why The Great Gatsby is a classic, or why it is so popular even nowadays. Well, a classic novel is a story to which a man and a woman can relate from any generation or culture. It allows people to understand the world around them through timeless themes and universal topics. This is definitely the case when we talk about The Great Gatsby.
Despite the fact that the first edition of The Great Gatsby is almost a hundred years old, students are still reading it, doing research on it, reading essay or paper examples for college, and even writing their own essay samples on this topic. Basically, it does not lose its relevance, so it is no wonder that in many free essays on The Great Gatsby, this novel is called a timeless classic. But besides the fact that it is known as a timeless classic, The Great Gatsby is also ranked Great American Novel. Let’s see why.
- It is the most American of stories. It is a self-made story that runs in the DNA of all Americans. It is all about a mythic figure that pursues and fulfills dreams. In other words, it basically describes the “great American dream.”
- The romance of the roaring 20s. The 1920s are the most fascinating era in the whole American culture. Everything started to change in those years. Today’s parties of the reach and famous have nothing with the ones that were happening then and the ones described in The Great Gatsby.
- Imperishable prose. For the fans of the novel, it is all about the language because there is no a single flabby sentence in the whole book.
- Crazy love. Another thing that makes this book one of the best is that it is not a romance novel like many others. In The Great Gatsby, the millionaire doesn’t win back the girl of his dream. But instead, it is all about a narcissistic obsession because Gatsby doesn’t see Daisy as a woman but as an object he wants to get back, which explains all of his actions taking place throughout the novel.
- It remains relevant. The base knowledge about this novel has been taught to students for decades, and it still doesn’t lose its modernity. And that is because many people can relate to it. Plus, it offers them many life lessons.
Lessons that students can learn from The Great Gatsby
Optimism is a noble yet useless trait
Throughout the novel, Gatsby is described as a helpful character, despite all the lies he constantly tells and the adversity he faces. Nick even idolizes him, despite all of the dubious morality. And at the end, he turned out all right, implying that he even passed away nobly, fighting for his possessions.
Money can’t buy you, friends, or love
Gatsby tries to amaze Daisy with all kinds of parties and his amazing home, but he still fails because Tom informs her that all of Gatsby’s fortune is made illegally. And in the end, no one, aside from Nick who attended his parties, shows up at his funeral.
It is not easy to leave your past behind
The novel’s poetic closing lines give the readers the knowledge of why the past can be a messy thing to escape. Because Gatsby tries so hard to shrink his reputation as a bootlegger, he still doesn’t succeed in doing that.
Don’t critique others
There are parts in the novel where Nick professes that he is unable to critique anyone who is less fortunate than him, which later on shows the readers why he is actually emphatic toward Gatsby. The fact that he is so open-minded and has a deeper perspective on the people around him actually protects him from falling into the glitzy materialism of the 20s.
Assuming is not always right
Many of the terrible events in this novel are simply based on false assumes. For example, when George discovers that the reason for his wife’s death is that she was hit by a car, he assumes that Gatsby was the one who hit her and wanted to take revenge on him. Although the actual truth was that he was just covering up for Daisy.
The Great Gatsby is indeed an important work of art, not only in the literature world but also in the entire world of culture.