了不起的盖茨比英文读书笔记

The Great Gatsby

Review

The Great Gatsby

is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald' s greatest novel--a book that offers

damning and insightful views of the American

nouveau riche

in the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby

is an American classic and a wonderfully evocative work. Like

much of Fitzgerald' s prose, it is neat and well-- crafted. Fitzgerald seems to have had

a brilliant understanding of lives that are corrupted by greed and incredibly sad and

unfulfilled. The novel is a product of its generation--with one of American literature's

most powerful characters in the figure of Jay Gatsby, who is urbane and world-weary.

Gatsby is really nothing more than a man desperate for love.

The Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His first

novel's success made him famous and let him marry the woman he loved, but he later

descended into drinking and his wife had a mental breakdown. Following the

unsuccessful

Tender is the Night

, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood and became a

scriptwriter. He died of a heart attack in 1940, at age 44, his final novel only half

completed.

Overview

The Great Gatsby

is a story told by Nick Carraway, who was once Gatsby's neighbor,

and he tells the story sometime after 1922, when the incidents that fill the book take

place. As the story opens, Nick has just moved from the Midwest to West Egg, Long

Island, seeking his fortune as a bond salesman. Shortly after his arrival, Nick travels

across the Sound to the more fashionable East Egg to visit his cousin Daisy Buchanan

and her husband, Tom, a hulking, imposing man whom Nick had known in college.

There he meets

professional

golfer Jordan Baker. The Buchanans

and Jordan Baker

live

privileged

lives,

contrasting

sharply

in

sensibility

and

luxury

with

Nick's

more

modest and grounded lifestyle. When Nick returns home that evening, he notices his

neighbor,

Gatsby,

mysteriously

standing

in

the

dark

and

stretching

his

arms

toward

the water, and a solitary green light across the Sound.

One day, Nick is invited to accompany Tom, a blatant adulterer, to meet his mistress,

Myrtle Wilson, a middle-class woman whose husband runs a modest garage and gas

station in the valley of ashes, a desolate and run-down section of town that marks the

convergence of the city and the suburbs. After the group meets and journeys into the

city, Myrtle phones friends to come over and they all spend the afternoon drinking at

Myrtle and Tom's apartment. The afternoon is filled with drunken behavior and ends

ominously with Myrtle and Tom fighting over Daisy, his wife. Drunkenness turns to

rage and Tom, in one deft movement, breaks Myrtle's nose.

Following the description of this incident, Nick turns his attention to his mysterious

neighbor,

who

hosts

weekly

parties

for

the

rich

and

fashionable.

Upon

Gatsby's

invitation

(which

is

noteworthy

because

rarely

is

anyone

ever

invited

to

Gatsby's

parties

—

they just show up, knowing they will not be turned away), Nick attends one

of the extravagant gatherings. There, he bumps into Jordan Baker, as well as Gatsby

himself. Gatsby, it turns out, is a gracious host, but yet remains apart from his guest

—

an observer more than a participant

—

as if he is seeking something. As the party

winds down, Gatsby takes Jordan aside to speak privately. Although the reader isn't

specifically told what they discuss, Jordan is greatly amazed by what she's learned.

As the summer unfolds, Gatsby and Nick become friends and Jordan and Nick begin

to see each other on a regular basis, despite Nick's conviction that she is notoriously

dishonest (which offends his sensibilities because he is

he has ever met). Nick and Gatsby journey into the city one day and there Nick meets

Meyer Wolfshiem, one

of Gatsby's associates and Gatsby's link to

organized crime.

On that same day, while having tea with Jordan Baker, Nick learns the amazing story

that Gatsby told her the night of his party. Gatsby, it appears, is in love with Daisy

Buchanan. They met years earlier when he was in the army but could not be together

because he did not yet have the means to support her. In the intervening years, Gatsby

made his fortune, all with the goal of winning Daisy back. He bought his house so that

he would be across the Sound from her and hosted the elaborate parties in the hopes

that she would notice. It has come time for Gatsby to meet Daisy again, face-to-face,

and so, through the intermediary of Jordan Baker, Gatsby asks Nick to invite Daisy to

his little house where Gatsby will show up unannounced.

The day of the meeting arrives. Nick's house is perfectly prepared, due largely to the

generosity of the hopeless romantic Gatsby, who wants every detail to be perfect for

his reunion with his lost love. When the former lovers meet, their reunion is slightly

nervous, but shortly, the two are once again comfortable with each other, leaving Nick

to feel an outsider in the warmth the two people radiate. As the afternoon progresses,

the three move the party from Nick's house to Gatsby's, where he takes special delight

in

showing

Daisy

his

meticulously

decorated

house

and

his

impressive

array

of

belongings, as if demonstrating in a very tangible way just how far out of poverty he

has traveled.

At this point, Nick again lapses into memory, relating the story of Jay Gatsby. Born

James Gatz to

seventeen,

about

the

same

time

he

met

Dan

Cody.

Cody

would

become

Gatsby's

mentor, taking him on in

times

around

the

Continent.

By

the

time

of

Cody's

death,

Gatsby

had

grown

into

manhood

and

had

defined

the

man

he

would

become.

Never

again

would

he

acknowledge

his

meager

past;

from

that

point

on,

armed

with

a

fabricated

family

history, he was Jay Gatsby, entrepreneur.

Moving

back

to

the

present,

we

discover

that

Daisy

and

Tom

will

attend

one

of

Gatsby's

parties.

Tom,

of

course,

spends

his

time

chasing

women,

while

Daisy

and

Gatsby sneak over to Nick's yard for a moment's privacy while Nick, accomplice in

the

affair,

keeps

guard.

After

the

Buchanans

leave,

Gatsby

tells

Nick

of

his

secret

desire:

to

recapture the

past.

Gatsby, the idealistic dreamer, firmly believes the past

can be recaptured in its entirety. Gatsby then goes on to tell what it is about his past

with Daisy that has made such an impact on him.

As the summer unfolds, Gatsby and Daisy's affair begins to grow and they see each

other regularly. On one fateful day, the hottest and most unbearable of the summer,

Gatsby and Nick journey to East Egg to have lunch with the Buchanans and

Jordan

Baker. Oppressed by the heat, Daisy suggests they take solace in a trip to the city. No

longer hiding her love for Gatsby, Daisy pays him special attention and Tom deftly

picks up on what's going on. As the party prepares to leave for the city, Tom fetches a

bottle

of

whiskey.

Tom,

Nick,

and

Jordan

drive

in

Gatsby's

car,

while

Gatsby

and

Daisy drive Tom's coupe. Low on gas, Tom stops Gatsby's car at Wilson's gas station,

where he sees that Wilson is not well. Like Tom, who has just learned of Daisy's affair,

Wilson has just learned of Myrtle's secret life

—

although he does not know who the

man is

—

and it has made him physically sick. Wilson announces his plans to take

Myrtle out West, much to Tom's dismay. Tom has lost a wife and a mistress all in a

matter of an hour. Absorbed in his own fears, Tom hastily drives into the city.

The group ends up at the Plaza hotel, where they continue drinking, moving the day

closer and closer to its tragic end. Tom, always a hot-head, begins to badger Gatsby,

questioning him as to his intentions with Daisy. Decidedly tactless and confrontational,

Tom keeps harping on Gatsby until the truth comes out: Gatsby wants Daisy to admit

she's

never

loved

Tom

but

that,

instead,

she

has

always

loved

him.

When

Daisy

is

unable

to

do

this,

Gatsby

declares

that

Daisy

is

going

to

leave

Tom.

Tom,

though,

understands Daisy

far better than Gatsby does and knows she won't

leave him:

His

wealth

and

power,

matured

through

generations

of

privilege,

will

triumph

over

Gatsby's newly found wealth. In a gesture of authority, Tom orders Daisy and Gatsby

to head home in Gatsby's car. Tom, Nick, and Jordan follow.

As Tom's car nears Wilson's

garage, they can all see that some sort of accident has

occurred. Pulling over to investigate, they learn that Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress,

has been hit and killed by a passing car that never bothered to stop, and it appears to

have been Gatsby's car. Tom, Jordan, and Nick continue home to East Egg. Nick, now