After finishing The Great Gatsby, I found that I enjoyed it more after reading it a second time. In my sophomore year of high school, I was required to read this novel as a part of my English class. Although I enjoyed it then, I believe that my teacher guided us through the entire book, which took away from the imaginative aspect that comes to a person while reading. While reading this in high school, my teacher pointed out the sections and themes that held some significance. Although these parts were important, I feel that it overshadowed other areas of the book. Now that I was able to read it a second time without step by step guidance, I found that there are many underlying themes throughout the novel.

            As I finished the novel, I noticed that while the main theme focused on the connection between Gatsby and Daisy, many subjects were addressed that were rarely spoken of publicly during the 1920’s. One of the “taboo” themes that was discretely addressed was the topic of divorce. Living in a generation where divorce is usually widely accepted, it becomes easy for a reader to forget that it has not always been that way. Because this novel took place in the 1920’s, divorce was still something that was considered very controversial. The concept of infidelity is also present in most of the novel and plays an important role throughout. Infidelity was also something that wasn’t talked about openly in the 1920’s, but was important to the novel because Tom was unfaithful to Daisy. In return, Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship wasn’t ever clearly physical, but there was an “emotional” attachment between the two that would have been considered inappropriate for a married woman.

            I think that reading this novel a second time has been beneficial because I was able to notice other ideas and have a better understanding of various concepts included throughout.