了不起的盖茨比 书评

A book report on

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

While reading, we occasionally run into extraordinary sentences, which are

unforgettable and kept in mind deeply. The previous excerpt is from the last

sentence in book< The Great Gatsby>, and I chose to read the book because of that

good sentence. Although there are various version of this book, they are equally

good and worth reading.

About Author----- “Gatsby in reality”

was written by American writer Francis. Scott. Fitzgerald in

1925, which was grounded in New York in 1920s as novel. It lays the status of

Fitzgerald in modern literary history, which made him the representative writer in

“Jazz Age” and “ the lost generation” in 1920s. At the end of the twentieth century,

the American academic authority selected one hundred most prominent novels in

English literature, and ranks high in No.2 .

It is acknowledged that art originates from reality, so does this novel. The

writer’s family was poor because of the violent world war one, and later he fell in

love with one rich girl who would marry him only if he can earn money to live on the

habits of the time. So after Fitzgerald received high contribution fee, the girl Zelda

agreed to marry him and the two happy couple had very wealthy, extravagant life,

just like what he had described in . But after the great

depression happened in American economy, Fitzgerald went bankrupt and Zelda left

him for her mental illness and emotional break-up. We can see that Gatsby

concentrates the half life experiences from Fitzgerald. The true experiences makes

the novel more impressive and can resonate with the readers. Just like the

description of the extremely extravagant scenes in the novel, that makes the readers

feel unbelievable but reasonable.

About “Jazz Age” ----- Ostentatious

Fitzgerald named year 1919-1929 as the “Jazz age”, an era with money spent

like water, an era with cynicism. We can tell this from this book. The whole novel is written in the narrative of Nick. He lives in Long Island, and becomes friends with his

neighbor Gatsby who is ambitious enough and becomes extremely wealthy by selling

bootleg liquor. He often serves extravagant banquet to attract his old lover Daisy as

well as to win her heart back. It is because Gatsby once joined World War one and

Daisy married Tom Buchanan who was born in old noble family. Daisy yet couldn’t

bravely admit her love with Gatsby, one day she hit Tom’s mistress to death by

Gatsby’s car after she got really drunk, but she and Tom impute the responsibility to

Gatsby, which leads to the tragedy of Gatsby’s death. In the very end, Nick leaves

New York and Daisy moves on her life with Tom.

The writer uses massive passages to describe the voluptuous life in the novel.

Gatsby hosts extravagant banquet every night without knowing his guests. Daisy

casually brings her golden pencil, “ her voice is filled with money.” When Fitzgerald

writes about Tom’s meeting with his mistress, the lower class woman Mrs.Wilson,

they have the same binge drinking, and lousy life.

The writer also uses condensed language with rich lyric, drawing a picture of

“ Jazz age”---from the alive to the dead. He combines the plot, character,

conversation, scene, theme and other elements into one perfect artwork. Whatever

classes they are, the people are after money, pursue pleasure, believe that money

can perfect the world in a better way. Daisy and Tom belong to “the upper class”,

and they are completely assimilated by money, they extremely despise bounders.

Gatsby doesn’t understand this, he constantly pursues wealth, and dreams about one

day he can obtain his ideal---Daisy. Even having acquired physical contentment, he

still can not get rid of mental loneliness and sadness. The more temptation we face,

the more we need to figure what we really need.

About “ American dream”----- As though they rally true to false

After World War one, America entered an era of unprecedented prosperity.

“American dream” like a big colorful balloon floating up the sky which made

Americans entranced. Just like Fitzgerald said,” This is American’s most colorful,

spreeing time, there are lots of things can be written about this era.”

If one novel simply writes about how dreams are shattered, this can not bring

excitement. The valuable point is the novel itself expresses the tenacious vitality of

“ human’s last and the greatest dream”. The last sentence of