For many years, high schools have been requiring their students to read the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel takes place in the early 1920s, and it has been used to teach students about life in America during the 1920s. Many people believe The Great Gatsby is the “Great American Novel.” For example, in Christopher Hitchens’ essay, The Road To West Egg, he states that he believes that this novel “outlives its abysmal weaknesses”. On the other hand, in H. L. Mencken’s essay, The Great Gatsby, Mencken states that “The Great Gatsby is in form no more than a glorified anecdote.” Is The Great Gatsby truly the “Great American Novel” that people make it out to be? Whereas there is merit in what the story is meant to
