Is The Great Gatsby Relevant Today

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is still relevant to today’s teenagers as it focuses on Jay Gatsby’s aspirations of wealth, love and success. The story depicts a man who throws lavish parties in the hope to attract the affection of his one true love, Daisy Buchanan. This dramatic love story, told from the perspective of protagonist Nick Caraway, follows his journey of friendship with Gatsby. Published in 1925, the novel is a fictional twist on historical facts from the Jazz Age during the 1920’s. It shows a series of parties, stories of the past and reconnected love, The Great Gatsby recounts the glory and the misery of the American dream, concentrating on how the need for wealth can corrupt the core values of an individual, resulting in the dissolution of identity. The idea of …show more content…
One being rich and luxurious while the other is poor and destitute could represent the part of his mind that embodies his hopes and dreams and the other his orthodox reality. Knowing the background of Fitzgerald really helps in understanding the characters in his novel The Great Gatsby as stated by Moon (1990) “Thus the words on the page were taken to be a mirror of real life, filtered through the author’s consciousness.” This explains that the words of The Great Gatsby can be taken as Fitzgerald’s real life thoughts in a fictional world. The Great Gatsby is regarded as a classic novel with a window into the famous Jazz Age, an enjoyable novel with glamour and tragedy. Fitzgerald incorporates his own life into the novel in each character represent someone close to him or himself. Understanding of Fitzgerald’s life allowed me to infer what the characters felt and thought when they acted along with interpreting the misfortune of the novel. I recommend the reading of this novel for teenagers and adults to experience a different time period as well as a distorted traditional love story