High school reading of Gatsby vs. College reading
January 29, 2007
emilysatalino
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.
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1.
Lauren | January 29, 2007 at 10:41 pm
I can’t relate to reading this book for a second time, but I see a lot of your points you made. I agree that it is mainly focused with the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. I agree that reading it again may bring out some other ideas that I did not notice the first time around. However, I am not so sure that I would willingly pick this book up to read through again. I founbd it interesting that the story didn’t really pick up until toward the end though. I found it a slow read in the beginning, and it wasn’t until later that I began to get into it more.
2.
banks007 | January 31, 2007 at 3:34 am
This also was my second time reading this book. I found this time around that I was alble to undestand it a lot better. I agree that the main focus of the novel is the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy but I also think that it was pretty much one man’s ability to make up a life that wasn’t even real. It just goes to show that we may not really know someone as well as we think we do. Our friendships we people could be based on complete lies and we may never know.
3.
Alex T. | February 3, 2007 at 12:10 am
Also a second time reader.
I think it’s really important that you brought up divorce. I know I completely forgot about that while reading it this time. I mean if divorce was as common as it was today, Daisy and Gatsby might actually have been happy. Then again, Gatsby might have been slapped with a restraining order, but who knows.
But more importantly the idea your bring up of things being taboo is really important it’s the difference between the East Egg and West Egg. One Egg might do all the bad things that happen on Gatsby’s Egg, but they don’t talk about it.
4.
tonygeras | February 9, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Sorry for commenting on an older blog, but I didn’t have time to look over yours. You enjoyed The Great Gatsby the second time around, though? I found it hard to enjoy it, but i guess it’s a matter of opinion.
but I do agree that reading it a second time around lets you see things that you wouldn’t pick up the first time.