I have to admit that I had some difficulty getting in to this story. I stuck with it, though, finishing it last night. Thanks to my pronto chat buddies for letting me know when you were going to discuss the end so not to spoil it for me!! Certainly did not end the way I was anticipating!!! I had a feeling that the driver of the car that killed Myrtle was going to be Daisy; however, I never expected that Tom would throw Jay under the bus like he did! It did not surprise me that Daisy (and Tom) thought only of themselves and left. I certainly did not anticipate that George would come over to kill Jay!!!
One of the blog "suggested" topics Mrs S posted was which character could we see ourselves in. Here's my little "snippet" of each character: Jay - trying hard to do whatever he could to win back the love of his life...even things that were not honorable; Nick - a good guy caught up in the craziness of life of those around him and doing his best to "fix" everything; Daisy - very caught up in her own life; very self-centered; Tom - arrogant, born with a silver spoon in his mouth and likes it;
Jordan - keeps getting pulled in to situations, but seems to like the drama a little bit; Myrtle - bored with her marriage and likes the excitement that the affair with Tom brings; George - doesn't have a clue what is going on..until it is too late.
I think maybe I relate a little more with Nick. He wants to be a good guy. Wants to do whatever he can to keep everyone happy and seems to get pulled down with the drama. Towards the end, he begins to see everyone for their true colors and realizes that Jay Gatsby is more than the hype surrounding him.
It is a very good story and one that takes some maturity to read. High school age readers may not fully understand the meaning behind all the characters. I think having a little life experience helps one understand this story better.
Thanks to Mrs S for having us read this story!!!
The discussion Tuesday night was certainly the most enjoyable one yet for me. I was a little sad that Mrs. S was not able to witness the incessant chatter about Gatsby! I am so impressed with all our sharing and even better is that we hardly got off topic! It is obvious that once you pressed on in the book that you came to enjoy it because you were so concerned that the end of our discussion would spoil the story! (Great blog post by the way!)
ReplyDeleteI am sad that I missed the discussion. I bet it was good. I read this book in High School, but didn't really remember it. It did not connect with where I was in life. I had no life experience. You are right. Our perspective is different as we get older making the story connect differently with us. I know I would have had a whole different take on this as a teenager. It was a good story, but I was sad to discover that bits and pieces of the story was based on the author's life and not the best parts of it. I defintitely don't think the movie coming out will be family friendly from what I read. I am interested though to see how close they stick with the book now that we have read it. Perfect timing. Thanks for sharing.
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