Just saw a group argue that 'The Great Gatsby' is a simple love story

At the library in Cedar Rapids, a book club was discussing the novel and several people kept calling it a romance about Gatsby and Daisy. I think that misses the whole point about class and the American Dream, which Fitzgerald makes clear. Do you think some classics get boiled down to one wrong idea over time?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettyperry1mo ago

Sure, next they'll say Moby Dick is just a book about a guy who really hates a whale. Boiling Gatsby down to a love story is like calling a car crash a fender bender. You miss the whole show about new money, old money, and that green light being a giant metaphor for a broken dream. It's the literary version of only eating the sprinkles off the cupcake.

wendy_ross711mo ago

Exactly, it's like they read the back cover and called it a day. The real story is in all the cracks between the big plot points. You have to sit with the quiet parts to get the full picture.

parkermorgan1mo ago

Watch people do this with real life too, missing the quiet parts @wendy_ross71.