Book Review of The Great Gatsby

Ⅰ.Introduction of the novel

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The book was first published in 1925, and it has been republished in 1945 and 1953. The Great Gatsby is one of the representative works that reflects this theme ''the disillusion of the American Dream''. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. The Great Gatsby explores themes of idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other criminal activity, is plausibly depicted in Fitzgerald's novel. The novel played an elegy for the tragic disillusionment of “American Dream”. The author said: “ the importance and value of this novel is that it stands for all the disillusionment.”

第二篇：A film review of The Great Gatsby

A film review of The Great Gatsby

20111937刘飞跃

The plot

The film told us a story about Gatsby by Nick’s tone. Nick came to New York from his hometown, and he rent a small house nearby Gatsby’s luxurious villa where hold a grand party every night. The story began with the meet between Nick and Gatsby. Nick had an exploratory interest to Gatsby and understood that there was a lost love in Gatsby’s deep heart. Gatsby and Daisy loved each other when Gatsby was young, but because of Gatsby’s poor family they were broken up. Then G. joined the First World War. While Daisy was married to Tom who was a rich dandy, but her marriage was not happy because Tom had a mistress. Therefore, the material couldn’t satisfy her spiritual empty.Gatsby was very painful and he believed that Daisy betrayed the pure heart for the money, so he resolved to be a man of wealth and a few years later he managed it. What’s more, in the opposite direction of Daisy’s house Gatsby built a mansion. In order to attract Daisy and aroused the lost love, Gatsby spent money like water. Nick was moved by Gatsby’s passion of love, so he visited to his young female cousin Daisy and told her Gatsby’s mind. Then Gatsby made date with Daisy, often. Finally, Gatsby found Daisy’s vanity, vulgar and selfish. Gatsby’s pink dream finally broke up, but he still insisted it, still retained any illusion about Daisy, and even led to his

tragedies. One day Daisy was in a drunken driving Gatsby’s car ran over and caused an accident that killed Tom’s mistress, and she planned a plot with Tom to put the crime to Gatsby. It led to the mistress’ husband shot Gatsby. Gatsby died, only his father and Nick attended the funeral. Nick witnessed the virtual mood of human reality. At the end, Nick backed to his hometown with a tragedy mood.

The characters

Gatsby: Gatsby’s personal experience symbolizes thedevelopment of America at the beginning of 20th century.He symbolizes those upstarts emerging at 1920s—very rich but have low social status.His pursuit of love and wealth is the truly demonstration of American society at that time.

Daisy : Daisy stands for the materialism.Even though she has a beautiful and pure image, her inner world is totally different: indifferent, selfish and greedy. She criticizes the morbid society, tolerates her husband’s betrayal, pays little attention to her daughter. What she only cares about is her own interest and needs.

Nick :Nick signifies young people who have great ambitions and still stick to basic moral rules for being a human. He treats Gatsby sincerely and friendly ,especially represented by holding the funeral and calling up

a few people himself. He cannot bear the indifferent interpersonal elationship and ‘money tops’ atmosphere in the East,so he goes back to the West, where emphasizes morality.

Tom: Tom represents a kind of wealth aristocratic class in America.The upper class has only one goal---to enjoy the material life. In order to achieve this goal ,they can abandon the moral rules and violate the social ethics. He despises the upstarts like Gatsby. In his heart, the inherited wealth is valued more than achieved wealth.

Jordan: Jordan stands for a new generation of woman,emerging at the beginning of 20th century. They are smart, confident and competitive, good ataccepting new things. In order to win the match, she secretly moves her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round. She also actively arranges Gatsby’s meet with Daisy.

The Unity of Color Symbols

Green : Green is often associated with hope, youth, and liveliness. Green is also the colorof American dollar bills, therefore the color green symbolizes "Gatsby's pursuit of happiness, namely, his American Dream for wealth, fame and ultimately, love". In other words, the color green signifies his hope, faith and belief-all put together into one object: Daisy

White: The color white is always the symbol of purity and cleanness.

However, it could also be a symbol for decadence. This is just to say that the color white reflects the two levels of Daisy, one is the pure and innocent Daisy existing in Gatsby's dream, the other is tile cruel and cold, bored and spoiled-Daisy in real life. The color white embodies the good qualities of human beings such as intelligence and diligence, but on the other hand , it also indicates vulgar characteristics ,like

indifference and empyiness.

Yellow : Yellow is the color of gold, therefore it represents wealth, power. In a certain sense, Gatsby is just the lover who wears a gold hat and bounce high in order to attract the attention and love of Daisy. Although this little song looks ridiculous at first sight, it tells the implied meaning behind the story: you need to be “gold-hatted” and “high-bouncing” if you want to obtain her love, in other words, you need to be both wealthy and powerful at the same time, otherwise you will never have the chance to win her favor.

Blue: The color blue has always been associated with melancholy, loneliness and sorrow. Fitsgerald uses blue to form a sharp contrast with the vulgarity and noisiness represent by the color yellow. We can see clearly that the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are “blue and gigantic”, which seem to tell us that with God as the story’s witness, even he feels

somewhat sorrowful for what is going on.