Great Gatsby: My Professional Opinion

I really liked The Great Gatsby.

Well no that's not exactly true. I really liked the last three chapters of The Great Gatsby. I've got to say, the book didn't really catch my attention up until the "Myrtle-gets-run-over-and-dies-horribly!" part of the book. After that, it was FANTASTIC. 

I feel like virtually nothing happened in the first, oh, six chapters of the book. It was simply kind of... stale. Very stagnant, as though everyone were trying to accomplish something specific to only them, and by doing so ground the entire operation of life to a halt. And then their issues catch up to them, and everyone ends up dissatisfied, or dead. But it was very dramatically carried out, the way everyone got their not-so-just desserts, and I think that was the primary reason for my fondness.

Though I must admit, I'm a sucker for pretty writing, and those last couple of chapters were nothing but.

 

All in all, my Professional Opinion is that one should slog their hardest through the beginning of the book, and much of the middle, because the payoff at the end more than makes up for the stagnant beginning.

Comments

[Elissa B.]

I agree, the first part of the book was a bit boring. After Myrtle was run over by a car the book became much more interesting. I was very dissappointed when Gatsby was shot because I wanted to see what would happen with his relationship with Daisy. I did not enjoy the end of the book and was unhappy that Gatsby had to die.

[Tyler R]

Elissa,
While I too was rather depressed by Gatsby's untimely demise, I liked the end of the book overall because it become so much more emotionally stimulating. I don't think that would have been possible had Gatsby lived.

[Vaishali C]

I agree with how the story overall was good, but it took a long time for the action to start. Fitzgerald wrote the story well, however, he dragged out the introduction of the characters for quite a long time.