시공간을 넘어 영혼을 잇는 책 1.위대한 개츠비

English Literature: The Great Gatsby

Introduction

 When I met "my book", I felt the presence of the author in my room, writing the book I'm reading at the moment. And it seemed like I was hungrily reading sentences the author wrote at the exact same moment. It connected us, me, and the author somehow. And that's the time I figured out that this book is mine by feeling the airflow from the other dimension to me. And I call it 'destiny' which became my personal joke term.

 And I think it's a good line to introduce one of my top favorite books, 

The Great Gatsby.

 The Great Gatsby carries a lot of historical background, hidden symbols, and the author, Scott Fitzerald himself in it. That's the secret of why this novel is different every time you read it. Also, the poetic writing style which reminds us of Oscar Wild makes the novel even greater.

Historical Background

 The story's background is in 1922 and the publication year is in 1925. And both years are in the Jazz Age. The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music rapidly grew in the United States. And this all frenzy age had appeared for a reason. World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918 shocked all of the humankind around the world. It was like the largest group of PTSD in history. It was a great hole in everybody's mind and soul, blackened with emptiness and inhuman cruelty they witnessed with their own eyes that made the Jazz Age. And The Great Gatsby is catching these silent but internally swirling emotional moments very closely. 

Symbols

 The Great Gatsby is a mystical novel. When you read it, it's like walking in a forest with exotic flowers and animals. But you have to find the symbols out and think it through to truly appreciate it.

Gatsby

 Gatsby was a poor boy who works at the harbor. But he had a vision, craving for power which lead to a craving for money. He designed his perfect self in his mind and tried hard to reach it. And when he did, he set another goal, Daisy. He is a symbol of the people in 1920, who lived life to be respected, to be rich, who had hope for the after of the war. Though the war ended, all there's left was an emptiness that Gatsby also felt.

 The act of hiding the weakness and vulnerable part is the common thing that Gatsby and the 1920's people had. Gatsby hid his weak and poor past and also people in the 1920s hid their sorrow and vulnerable heart. They covered all their scars with jazz and champagne.

 And one more thing about Gatsby, he was an idealist who never stopped to reach the limit, he jumped higher and higher like the man in the prologue poem.

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!"

—Thomas Parke D'Invilliers

 Like Icarus who flew high to the golden sun, Gatsby fell.

Daisy

 "Her voice is full of money,"

 Daisy is a symbol of money, gold, richness. She is a prize that everybody praises. And also a symbol of women.

 "I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool," Daisy has nothing by herself, no money, no intelligence. She exists as a part of the social, and that was the position of women in the 1920s. So Daisy hopes her daughter to befool because Daisy tasted the emptiness women can feel in society and only fools can obliviate the emptiness.

 Also, Daisy's betrayal exposes Gatsby's vulnerable emptiness inside him. Though Gatsby built his "Greatness" for his whole lifetime, though he has a big mansion and cars, it is all just an illusion. 

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”

The Green Light

 Gatsby used to stare at the green light shimmering in the fog far away. The green light is the light that leads Gatsby, the light that Gatsby pursued but never actually touch.

 Scott Fitzgerald might symbolize happiness in it. Happiness that people sought now and then, but especially sought desperately back then in the party crowd. Scott Fitzgerald might have wondered if happiness can never be touched if it can only be pursued?

 What do you think? What do you think about happiness, about the green light?