姓名：何学强            班级：06英语2班         学号：200630451122

Last night with a great relief I finished the book The Great Gatsby. It is not so much a long story as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but the reading still spanned nearly a month, mainly owning to the “mysterious” plot setting and unfamiliarity of the underlying background-materialism. Many authoritative commenters admitted that it was a great story which in no doubt was a milestone of American literature. I approve the saying too. But being lack of adequate power of observation and background knowledge, I properly miss a large proportion of the “greatness”-the profound thought contained in the story.

 Through my reading, I focused most attention on Gatsby-the protagonist. Actually, I was always looking for him. I was not alone, though. Maybe the whole world was looking for him, including the characters in the story-Nick, Tom, Daisy, Jordan, even Gatsby himself. What kind of person Gatsby really was? It was a mystery, which was a gift conferred by the author-F. Scott Fitzgerald, and which would be revealed as the story progressed. If you ask me whether I have found the answer, I don’t dare to say “Yes”. But I discovered a truth, which really gave me a surprise, that actually Gatsby was just a simple guy with a simple dream, a sort of dream which could be properly held by some ordinary boys. The splendid house, the luxurious car, the bustling parties, the celebrities, all these are just an illusion. It seemed a hopeful world, a colorful and satisfying life, but within Gatsby heart there was barely emptiness. His soul was stole; his dream was twisted, his love was eroded, all by inflated materialism

The whole story is a tragedy. All the characters in this story had their own tragedies, because they were confused about the past, the present and the future. They didn’t know what and how to pursue. There was a confession by Nick in his suddenly-reminded thirtieth birthday which can illustrate such confusion and emptiness, “Thirty-the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”(page169) At the end of the story, in the pool, Gatsby seemed to understand something and see the light from a brand new world- a world with true dreams and hope and faith. But the bullets of the “madman” extinguished the faint light of the new world and threw the story into a kind of grave tragedy.

Gatsby reminded me of Rochester in another worldwide famous book Jane Eyre. Much similarities happened to them-they were rich; they held many parties in which they didn’t really enjoy; they were kind of lost in their life. But they had a significant difficulty that Gatsby met Daisy who just extended the emptiness in his heart, while Rochester met with Jane who kindled worm humanity and love in his cold world. Apparently, after World War, as the economy developed in a dramatically speed, American went too far in materialism. They needed a soul as pure as Jane Eyre’s, as well as a moral standard which was justified by nature, also as that one which guided Jane for her whole life.

Gatsby was dead, followed by a funeral without a handful of visitors. But the author still regarded him “great”. I agreed with the author too. He was smart, hard-working, brave and integrated. But the society, the influence of people’s misguiding perception and the twisted lust hid in his heart but aroused by the bursting lust pervading at that time turned his promising life into tragedy. He tried to struggle. And he almost succeeded. But power of fate was so overwhelming that he inevitably fell. And his effort should be appreciated and continued.