Silent No More

This book was a surprisingly quick and easy read. I understand why it is so highly regarded as a classic as it holds many great messages and is a time capsule that really brings to light how societies core has barely changed over almost one hundred years.

The crux of this book is the consequence of hollow ambition. Gatsby is a shallow man no matter how hard he tries to make himself seem like a romantic. His and Daisy’s relationship is founded on an unobtainable fantasy as the infamous green light represents. It’s something you see to this day, people being infatuated with ideas rather than people. Gatsby doesn’t love Daisy as she is, but as he wants her to be, as he envisioned her. He doesn’t want to run off with her because that goes against everything he has worked for. He can’t be happy with just Daisy because he doesn’t love her. He wants her to complete the life he always wanted. To say his ambition only started because he wanted to be worth it for Daisy is an utter misinterpretation of the entire book.

It is clear from the start that Gatsby has always been in search of glory and money. And then he meets Daisy, the personification of wealth, and that is all it is. I find it tragic because I view Daisy so much more human than Gatsby. I feel like she really did love him. I believe she wouldn’t have cared if he came back from war without money, I think she would’ve wanted to be with him. But in the end, she chooses to be a ‘beautiful fool’ because if she isn’t she has nothing, not even Gatsby.

In the end it was never a two-sided love story. It was never a love story to begin with. The title ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a mirage. Gatsby doesn’t exist. The book represents the American dream; a long-cultivated illusion that only leads to devastation.