The Great Gatsby

           The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about a man named Nick who moved to New York and experiences "The American Dream" but soon realizes all the scandals that come with it. Nick lives in a wealthy, but unknown area, with the exception of his neighbor; Gatsby who throws well-known parties every weekend in his mansion. His cousin, Daisy, lives with her husband, Tom, in a neighborhood nearby where Nick traveled one day only to discover the tangled love web between the couple. Tom was having an affair with Myrtle, who lives in a lower neighborhood on the way to NYC and Nick meets a woman named Jordan who he begins a relationship with. She later talks to Gatsby after they were invited to one of the parties and learns he has a long term love for Nick's cousin Daisy and has been trying to impress her for years. Nick agrees to arrange an environment for them to meet only leading to more disaster after they fall in love again. Tom can tell that Gatsby is in love with his wife and, though hypocritical, confronts Gatsby about the affair convincing him that him and his wife will stay together because of their past together; which Daisy agreed to. On a car ride home Daisy, ironically, crashes her car into Myrtle, killing her. Gatsby takes the blame and then is later shot by Myrtle's husband. Nick ends up leaving New York to get away from all the lust and greed that is found in the wealthy area and learns it's not worth it.
         This book was a little confusing just because there were so many characters that were all connected in some way. It helped to code the text as reminders of who's who and how they are connected. This book was filled with irony, which makes the story as known and famous as it is today. The language was much easier than the Heart of Darkness, which was nice, but still made me have to think about what was behind the text and what Fitzgerald was really trying to convey. I didn't really have any prior knowledge to what the book was about, and i didn't think it would be half as interesting as it was, so that was definitely good, and it surprised me the whole way through which kept me interested.