Robbie Levin
Gatsby Journal
The Great Gatsby is a very interesting and useful book to read. There is no static reason that there is value in The Great Gatsby because there is no static meaning to the book. It is potentially valuable on different levels to many different students and this is why it is important to continue teaching it in school. First of all, the obvious benefit from the book is knowing what life is like in the 1920s. When reading it, you get a great feel to the empty, nihilistic context of upper class America during this time period. Fitzgerald did a phenomenal job of portraying this setting in great detail. This is the objective benefit and even though I don't think that this is enough to make a case of why it's valuable …show more content…
I hear all the time that Gatsby is a horrible, meaningless book that was a complete waste of time. I have even said this myself. The interesting thing about this book is that it got way more interesting after you read it. The story itself isn't super exciting, but the meaning of the book was extracted during discussions, reading articles, and thinking about it. Since it is a very hard and boring book to read it is very understandable for people to not like it at first, but after you understand the meaning of the book it becomes super interesting. Even if only a couple students grasp a deep understanding of the text, it is still valuable because that is important knowledge to have for those individuals and it potentially changed the way that they think about the world. The Great Gatsby has personally impacted the way that I view America. I wouldn't say that I haven't completely changed my mind about everything that I believe, but the book made me question traditional American ideals. To me, this book was depressing, but to others, this book could be positive. Others could see the book as an inspiration to work hard and strive to be economically successful and use Gatsby as their motivation. There are countless ways to interpret the meaning and all of those interpretations are meaningful. My interpretation of the book in short was that no matter how much material wealth you
Gatsby Journal
The Great Gatsby is a very interesting and useful book to read. There is no static reason that there is value in The Great Gatsby because there is no static meaning to the book. It is potentially valuable on different levels to many different students and this is why it is important to continue teaching it in school. First of all, the obvious benefit from the book is knowing what life is like in the 1920s. When reading it, you get a great feel to the empty, nihilistic context of upper class America during this time period. Fitzgerald did a phenomenal job of portraying this setting in great detail. This is the objective benefit and even though I don't think that this is enough to make a case of why it's valuable …show more content…
I hear all the time that Gatsby is a horrible, meaningless book that was a complete waste of time. I have even said this myself. The interesting thing about this book is that it got way more interesting after you read it. The story itself isn't super exciting, but the meaning of the book was extracted during discussions, reading articles, and thinking about it. Since it is a very hard and boring book to read it is very understandable for people to not like it at first, but after you understand the meaning of the book it becomes super interesting. Even if only a couple students grasp a deep understanding of the text, it is still valuable because that is important knowledge to have for those individuals and it potentially changed the way that they think about the world. The Great Gatsby has personally impacted the way that I view America. I wouldn't say that I haven't completely changed my mind about everything that I believe, but the book made me question traditional American ideals. To me, this book was depressing, but to others, this book could be positive. Others could see the book as an inspiration to work hard and strive to be economically successful and use Gatsby as their motivation. There are countless ways to interpret the meaning and all of those interpretations are meaningful. My interpretation of the book in short was that no matter how much material wealth you