i kinda get the great gatspy now
thankfully i never had to read if for school but my family watched the movie when it came out. i was 13 at the time. i really don't think they should show that movie/book to teenagers or force them to read it. not that they can't understand the point, more so they can't appreciate the point. like in inside out, when riley's emotions get more complex when as she grows up, i understand themes better as i grow up. it's not even brain development, i just experienced more life so i can appreciate different perspectives more.
like when i was younger i just lumped the great gatspy into all other tragedies. mice and men, the boy in the striped pyjamas, romeo and juliet, lord of the flies. their points were that good things end in tragedy and it's pointless to try. but looking back i see it's more then that. reading the synopsis back (i'd never waste time reading the whole thing again) gatspy isn't great, he's just an idiot. daisy is a one-dimensional female character, and f scott fitzgerald didn't do anything wrong by writing her that way.
when i was younger i was a massive romance fan, which is ironic because i wasn't taken in by the romance of romeo and juliet, i thought they were dumb and immature and people should not be basing their love lives off the 3 days these two knew each other. if daisy and gatsby weren't going to get together, there should be a good reason for it, but daisy just doesn't choose gatsby over tom, even though tom is made out to be a massive dick. daisy doesn't need a great reason not to like 'oh she's a woman in 1920s, and divorced women don't get good social standing... yada yada' this is 1920s new york with emphasis on the free spirited liviliness of the time. daisy would have been fine whether she was a mistress or divorcee. and even if she wasn't, she's still so fabulously wealthy as old money was, she could have lived a comfortable life.
the heart of the matter is, gatspy, in all his grand ideas, massive parties, (like dude could have just introduced himself to daisy, but that's been said enough) was a massive idiot going after someone as one-dimensional as daisy. he had an immature approach to love, and he really shouldn't have tried so hard for someone who isn't as committed as he is to the relationship, and he shouldn't have been that committed in the first place. daisy for her part, did exactly as what was expected of her. she was born to the uber rich, she liked gatsby because he treated her well, but married tom because tom would maintain the wealth she was used to and also present. To quote Lorelei from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 'if a girl spends time worrying about the money she doesn't have, how will she have any time for love?' now i don't believe daisy would ever have to worry about money, but the uber rich expect to remain uber rich. when daisy says she loves both tom and gatsby, it's for the same reasons she felt for them back when she intiated both relationships. tom's from her social circle, even if he is a dick, and gatsby is much nicer but not from that same old money. gatspy doesn't love daisy —because to love someone is to know them, and if he knew daisy well he knew she would react like this and isn't worth his devotion. instead he spends all this time being in love with the idea of being in love with daisy. while 13 year old me could understand this on paper, i couldn't understand it enough to write a tragedy over.
what i love about romance, and also what i loved about romance when i was 13 —i just didn't know how to put it into words back then— is when the love is like the brightest light in one's life that persistently shines even amidst discord and destruction. even if daisy didn't love tom, she liked him enough to stay married to him. she does not need a love that shines so persistently because her life is pretty cushy. gatsby didn't need that kind of love either (in fact no one really needs it, but they do need love, just not romantic love, and really good not romantic love is much easier to come by), because he'd also made a cushy life for himself. he just needed honest, kind-hearted friends and a worthwhile occupation to pass the time. and if he met the right person, someone who he really got to know, someone who was so persistent in making him happy, and put the same amount of reasonable, non-love-bombing, effort into their relationship, then he could have found a love so bright it outshines all discord and distruction. but it wouldn't have been angsty, and i like my romance angst.
but when i was 13, i didn't understand that complex approach to relationships. i thought daisy was cold, and gatspy, while not great, was just a guy that didn't diserve to die. now i believe that daisy is just daisy, and gatspy is just a guy who didn't deserve to die, but he's also kind of pathetic because he didn't have a mature approach to relationships. my opinion on the whole the great gatspy the book, is that 'gatspy should have realised daisy wasn't worth it and moved on'. summed up in one line, the only reason it got paragraphs from me was because i was thinking about how much i'd matured since i first experienced the story. waste of time to be forced on teenagers and there are much more age-accessible, perfectly nuanced, enjoyable stories out there that they can unpack the meanings of and enjoy doing it.
