The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reviewed by Karen

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: The Lord’s name is taken in vain many times. “Bitch”, “Hell, “Damn” and “Bastard” are used a few times.

Violence: Tom strikes Myrtle with an open hand and breaks her nose. Rosy Rosenthal is shot. Five people are electrocuted over this shooting. Myrtle is run over and killed by a car that Daisy is driving. Wilson thinks Gatsby killed Myrtle and shoots him. Wilson then commits suicide. All violence is written unemotionally and without many details.

Sexual Content: While infidelity is essential to the basic plot, there are no graphic details of the affairs. Tom has had multiple affairs since marrying Daisy. Myrtle was his current lover. Gatsby and Daisy were lovers before Daisy’s marriage and during the novel. Miss Baker is referred to as, “small breasted”.

Adult Content: The main characters are avid smokers and drinkers. Miss Baker is well-known for her streak of dishonesty. Gatsby and his associates are involved in illegal business practices—bootlegging, fixing the 1919 World Series, perhaps organized crime. Gatsby’s new life was created under false pretenses. It is rumored that Gatsby killed a man.

Synopsis

The Great Gatsby is a novel about the American society in the early 1920’s, and how moral and social decay resulted from unbridled pursuit of money and pleasure.

The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, an old-school rich Midwesterner who is in New York to “become his own man” by learning the bond market. Daisy is a distant relative of Nicks and Gatsby is his next door neighbor. Jay Gatsby is a recently self-made millionaire (having used illegal and perhaps unsavory means to get it) who is still obsessively in love with his former flame, Daisy. When first acquainted, Daisy, in love with Gatsby but realizing he was from a different social class, marries Tom. Now nearly five years later, Gatsby arranges a meeting with Daisy to show her his wealth and to sway her to leave Tom for him. Tom, meanwhile, has been having numerous affairs, the latest being Myrtle. After Tom and Gatsby have a heated discussion on whom Daisy should choose, Gatsby and Daisy drive home (Daisy being the driver) and accidentally run over Myrtle, who is in the road. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, falsely believes it was Gatsby who was the driver, and therefore his wife’s lover. Wilson kills Gatsby and then turns the gun on himself. Disillusioned by the moral decay of the East, Nick returns to his hometown where values haven’t changed.

I liked Fitzgerald’s commentary on society–how if you commit your life to following a false or shallow “holy grail”, then your dreams will evaporate and you will be left with nothing. Whether your passion is pleasure or money, in the end, it will fade. I think it is a good thing the character, Nick, figures this out and returns to his stable roots. Maybe Fitzgerald wants us all to learn this lesson alongside Nick. This American classic is a staple for high school English classes because it provides many interesting topics for discussion, as well as parallels for our own lives.