what exactly is "the great gatsby" about?

Question

no i just want a little summary on it cause the summaries online are too long. i don't want spoilers at all. i want to know if i should buy it or not.

Answer 1

More critical writing exists on The Great Gatsby than on any other work of American fiction. This Columbia Critical Guide introduces and contextualizes the key critical debates surrounding Fitzgerald's novel. The extracts and essays included here reflect The Great Gatsby's place as one of the first American novels to make significant use of modernist techniques and explore the influence of this "Lost Generation" work on later American writings. In considering secondary sources from the twenties to the present, this smart and sophisticated study guide offers readers an invaluable resource on this complex rendering of a moment in American history.

Answer 2

When it turned from 1999 to 2000, The Great Gatsby was on all the lists of the century's best novels. I dunno why. IMO it was good, but not THAT good.

Anyway, to understand it, like any novel, you have to understand the age it was written in. When Fitzgerald wrote Gatsby, the people in American all looked up to rich people as being almost above-human. They thought that if you were rich, it was because you were very moral, and hard-working, and followed all the rules to get to be so rich. Google "great American dream" for more info about that. He wrote Gatsby at a time when most people thought that rich people symbolized everything that was best and wonderful about the US. He wrote the book, in a way, to say: "If this is the best of the USA, then the USA is in moral trouble."

Fitzgerald was from a very rich family/society. He knew that rich people were just as neurotic and lazy and immoral as other people, even more so because of their money. The Great Gatsby is about that: the immorality, and selfishness and hypocrisy of the rich in the USA.

That's over-simplifying, of course. But in a nutshell....

Answer 3

A rich dude falls in love with his next door neighbor's hot friend but she's married, so it's a forbidden love set in the 20s - which was a very interesting an tumultuous period in American history.

As mentioned above Fitzgerald was one of if not the first to write about the 20s in a somewhat cynical way... This approach was new to literature at the time.

Answer 4

Guy gets enormously wealthy through bootlegging alcohol and spends extravagantly. But can he purchase his way into a higher social class?

This does no justice to some of the finest prose written in the past century. Yes, you should buy the book.

Answer 5

Mathew 22:36-40 “instructor, that's the main suitable commandment interior the regulation?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your suggestions.’ 38 that's the 1st and superb commandment. 39 And the 2nd is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as your self.’ 40 each and all the regulation and the Prophets carry close on those 2 commandments.” Love God, love one yet another. basic.

Answer 6

Rundown:
Gatsby runs into his old girlfriend which happens to be his best friend's cousin. The problem is that she is married with another man whom she really doesnt love, but she still chooses Tom (her husband) its a really good book once you get into it...

Answer 7

THE "GREAT GATSBY" IS NOVEL- THERE IS ALSO A MOVIE, STARING ROBERT REDFORD, WHO PLAYED THE MAIN CHARACTER. HE MOVES INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD, IN HIS GRAND MANSION, WHERE TO HIS SURPRISE, AN OLD LOVE IS HIS NEIGHBOR. IT IS A STORY OF CONFUSION, ROMANCE, AND BETRYAL. THE MOVIE EXPLAINS THE BOOK

Answer 8

A rich guy is in love with his next door neighbor's friend but she's married, so it's a forbidden romance.

Answer 9

Read the book and find out for yourself.

You can also check it out from your local public library at no charge!

Answer 10

It's about like the Big Swing!