"Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour, while at her request I remained watchfully in the garden." (Page 107)
I want to like Gatsby. I really do. But he's not helping himself. Every time I begin to have any sort of sympathy for him, he does something stupid like cheat with another man's wife or cover up a murder. So, I've decided his is the antihero of this story. He certainly lacks courage: it took him 5 years to speak to Daisy because he was worried she wouldn't love him if he wasn't rich. He lacks grace because he stupidly decides to spend time with Daisy and her husband more than once. He's intelligent, but he's not street smart, and he doesn't possess any worthy morals that I can discern. He is having an affair of sorts with a married woman, and then he allows her to kill someone and get away with it. Unfortunately, I sustained a bit of sympathy for him throughout the book simply because I find him kind of pathetic. He doesn't have any real friends, and the woman he loves leaves him. Plus he gets shot.
I thought Gatsby was just stuck in the past -- namely his past relationship with Daisy. His inability to come to terms with reality made him more sympathetic.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I agree with your deduction.
I agree with you about Gatsby. I couldn't decide if i liked him or not. Part of me sort of felt bad for him because he was in love with Daisy and she didn't love him back. But, I feel like everything that happened to him was his fault. He let his feelings from the past dictate his present life. His feelings for Daisy ultimately lead to him getting killed
ReplyDelete