The Great Gatsby

This blog post contains spoilers.

In an earlier blog post I spoke about how I have installed a free ebook application on my mobile phone. The program allows me to put text files from my computer onto my mobile phone. Since I can download free ebook text files from Project Gutenberg, I am able to now read plenty of books on my mobile phone for free. Project Gutenberg does not have text files for every single book. However, books published before a certain year (around 1940) are in the public domain and are therefore free. There really is no reason for anyone to buy a book because there are so many free books out there. The first book I read on this ebook reader is The Great Gatsby.

This novel is about a man named Gatsby who became wealthy through questionable means (organized crime) and then tries to attract a female named Daisy who is already married to a man named Tom Buchanan. Tom comes from a family that has always been rich whereas Gatsby is self-made. Gatsby attempts to attract Daisy fail and at the end Gatsby is killed. Hardly anyone attends his funeral and we learn that Gatsby really was a mysterious figure who misrepresented himself greatly.

I read this novel having heard the hype about how this was one of the greatest novels of human history. Many have called it the Great American Novel. In my opinion, The Great Gatsby was a bit of a disappointment because much of the book is quite boring. I do feel pity for Gatsby, the main character in this novel, and I do think that some of the themes in the novel do indeed play out in real life.