Blog 2- The Mysterious Gatsby

After finishing J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, I’ve started reading The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I chose this book because even though you told us that it was a hard book to read, I already knew a little about the storyline and the characters, so I thought it would be easier for me. This is because my friend read it in one of her classes last year, and she had already told me about it. She told me the entire storyline, but I vaguely remember it. All I remember is that she loved it, and I thought it sounded interesting as well. However, she did admit that since she had to take notes on it and do worksheets about it, she didn’t like as much as she would have if she had gotten to read it independently. I get to read it at my own pace and more leisurely, so I think I’m going to enjoy it more. So far, I think I’m right about that. At the beginning, the book was pretty confusing and slow, but now, the storyline is beginning to pick up. The narrator is Nick, a well-educated, hard-working man. He never specifies his age, but I imagine him to be somewhere around age 26, considering he’s done with college and owns his own house. He lives in New York on an island that he calls West Egg because it’s in the shape of an egg. The other island, to the east, is referred to as East Egg and is the “higher class” of the two, where more rich people live. His cousin, Daisy and her husband, Tom, a former college classmate of Nick’s, live in East Egg, and he goes to visit them, only to find out that Tom has a mistress, who is also married to someone else. This fact reminds me that I found it odd that everyone who knows Tom and Daisy, and even Daisy herself, know that Tom has a mistress. If it were me, there’d be no way I would stay married to a man who I knew was cheating on me openly and assumed I would be okay with it. Anyway, the next day, Tom invites Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle. Her husband, however, has no idea she’s cheating on him. Then, Tom and Myrtle take Nick to meet a bunch of their friends, and Nick doesn’t enjoy himself, but Tom won’t let him leave. (Tom’s a very demanding, brutish man.) I don’t really like Myrtle, Tom, or any of their friends. To me, they all seem very shallow and stuck-up. However, I do like Nick and Daisy so far. Then Nick receives an invitation to a party thrown by his neighbor, a man named Gatsby. He meets Gatsby at the party without knowing at first that it’s him. From what little I know about Gatsby, he seems like a generous, genuine, kind-hearted man just by the way he carries himself. For example, he doesn’t drink at his own parties because he wants to be a good, sober host who knows what’s going on with all of his guests. He also loves to see others laughing and having a good time. Right now, it seems to me that he and Nick will hit it off. However, there is a very mysterious aspect to Gatsby. No one knows where he’s from or why he’s so rich. I have a feeling he has a deep, dark secret that won’t come out until much later in the story. I’m beginning to enjoy the book more the farther I get into it, and I’m only a fourth done with it. Hopefully, it will get even better, and I can’t wait to see what happens.