De Primaire Gegevens:
Titel: "The Great Gatsby"
Auteur: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jaar van 1e publicatie: 1925
Aantal bladzijden: 150
Uitgelezen op: 11 november 2000
De samenvatting van het verhaal
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is about thirty years old and belongs to a wealthy family from the American MidWest. He works on the New York stock exchange, after deciding to move east and learn about stocks and bonds. He lives nearby on the peninsula of West Egg where he rents a house. One of the neighbouring houses is immensely large and owned by a very rich man who calls himself Gatsby, his real name being Jay Gatz.
One day Nick has dinner with Daisy Buchanans, his niece. During the dinner it becomes clear Daisy's marriage isn't a happy one. A friend of Daisy's, Jordan Baker, talks about Tom's (Tom Buchanan is Daisy's husband) mistress in New York. When Nick and Tom join each other to go to New York by train, Nick is almost forced off the train at a small station. He decides to follow Tom and witnesses his infidelity with Myrtle Wilson. Around midnight Tom and Myrtle start quarrelling about Daisy and get into a fight. During the fight Tom breaks Myrtle's nose.
All through the summer Nick hears noise and music in his neighbour's garden, caused by numerous parties visited by hundreds of people, very few of that are actually invited by Gatsby or even know him. One night Nick is one of the guests. He can't find his host and feels ill at ease with the other guests, but luckily he runs into Jordan Baker, with whom he keeps company for the rest of the evening. After midnight Nick talks to a stranger, who turns out to be Gatsby. Nick and Jordan start a sort of love affair after a while. The relationship isn't very successful and doesn't last too long.
One morning Gatsby takes Nick to New York in his car. In New York they meet Mr. Wolfshiem, a business acquaintance of Gatsby. From Jordan, Nick hears that Gatsby and Daisy had been in love some years ago. When Gatsby stayed overseas too long, Daisy decided to marry Tom. Gatsby bought the house to be as close to Daisy as possible and asks Nick to invite them both over to tea. Nick agrees. When Daisy expresses her discontent over the parties at Gatsby's house, they soon cease. The staff is replaced with people nobody knows to cover for Daisy's frequent presence at the house.
One afternoon Nick, Jordan and Gatsby are invited to tea at the Buchanans. The atmosphere is tense end they decide to go to New York. Tom takes Nick and Jordan in his car and Daisy joins Gatsby in his car. During the trip to New York, Tom confesses he knows about the love affair between Gatsby and Daisy.
When they arrive at Wilson's Garage, Wilson (Myrtle's husband) announces that they're moving West. Wilson suspects his wife Myrtle is having an affair, which she is having with Tom.
In New York Tom becomes quarrelsome, accusing Gatsby of earning money by selling illegal alcohol. Daisy loses her faith in Gatsby and after a row about Daisy between Tom and Gatsby Tom wants Gatsby to drive her home. On the way they run over Myrtle Wilson, who escaped from her husband and expected Tom to be in the yellow car, as he was earlier that day. They decide to drive on after the accident. When Tom and Nick arrives at Wilson's Garage they learn about the accident caused by a yellow car. They both know it's Gatsby's car.
To Nick, Gatsby reveals that Daisy was driving the car when it hit Myrtle. Nick advises Gatsby to leave New York, but Gatsby wants to remain close to Daisy.
The next day Gatsby is found dead in his swimming pool, the body of Wilson, who apparently committed suicide, is lying nearby. Tom had told Wilson that the yellow car that killed Wilson's wife Myrtle belonged to Gatsby. So Wilson came to avenge Myrtle's death.
Nick arranges Gatsby's funeral and goes to great lengths to find the addresses of all his friends and acquaintances. Only Gatsby's father and one friend appear at the funeral. He is sad, but proud of his son's accomplishments. Daisy has been reconciled with Tom and apparently had no plans to give up her safe, wealthy life with Tom.
Een gekozen interessante pagina uit het boek:
Ik heb gekozen voor bladzijde 135 van het boek. Zoals je op de bijgevoegde kopie kan lezen wordt er op deze bladzijde de dood van Gatsby verteld. Er wordt verteld hoe Gatsby aan het zwemmen was, misschien wel nadenkend over zijn leven en zijn ene échte droom, de liefde van Daisy. Het mooie aan dit stuk vind ik hoe de schrijver de dood van Gatsby vertelt. Het gebeurt niet in real-time als het ware, maar het wordt "passief" verteld. Er wordt door de schrijver een soort waas over Gatsby's dood gelaten, hij vertelt niet hoe het eruit zag, of hoe het precies verliep. Nee, de schrijver verteld over de gebeurtenis alleen dat een chauffeur de schoten hoorde, en dat hij direct ter plaatse was. Er wordt niet uitgebreid verteld over hoe Wilson daar bij het zwembad kwam, wat hij allemaal zei en meer van dat soort dingen. Doordat de schrijver dat gedaan heeft, krijg je er een heel gek gevoel bij, de dood van Gatsby's maakt zo bij mij dan een sterkere indruk, ik vind dat de schrijver dat dan ook knap gedaan heeft. Vooral één zin op deze bladzijde vind ik sterk:
"A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees" Dit is het enige hoe Gatsby zijn moordenaar zag, als een "…ashen, fantastic figure, gliding toward him trought the amorphous trees". Deze enkele zin maakt alleen al heel veel indruk bij mij, vandaar dat ik hem speciaal heb besproken.
The Ten Questions
1. The title of this book is "The Great Gatsby". De title refers to one of the narrator's neighbours. Gatsby lives in the most expensive villa on West Egg and regularly organises huge parties. The parties make Nick believe he is a great man, therefore: the great Gatsby.
2. It's a novel; it's a tragic love novel.
3. The characters in the story are:
Nick Carraway:
Nick is the main character in the book and is the narrator of the story. He is a young and friendly gentleman who moved to West Egg in New York to learn about the bond business. He starts a relationship with Jordan Baker, but it doesn't work out very well. He becomes a friend of Gatsby. Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan are cousins.
Jay Gatz:
Jay changes his last name to Gatsby and is a very rich man. Jay is a man of dreams. Nobody knows what's his background is. Tom accuses Gatsby of earning money with illegal selling of alcohol. Jay served as a soldier during WO I and is deeply in love with Daisy Buchanan. Daisy married Tom, while Gatsby was fighting in WO I. Gatsby has a great number of acquaintances, but a few real friends like Nick. Tom and Jay don't like each other.
Daisy Buchanan:
Daisy had a short of relationship with Gatsby but married Tom when she had to wait too long for Gatsby's return from Europe. He marriage with Tom isn't a happy one and Tom is having an affair. She starts a relationship with Gatsby again, thereby being unfaithful to Tom. At the end, Daisy reacts weakly when Gatsby died. She didn't come to his funeral. She chose for her safe live with Tom instead of Gatsby.
Tom Buchanan:
Tom is Daisy's husband. He has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Tom is very arrogant and selfish. When he hears about Daisy's love affair, he gets very jalous. Tom hasn't many friends.
Myrtle Wilson and her husband:
Myrtle is Tom's mistress. When her husband becomes suspicious of her and wants to move west, she tries to run to Tom. She is run over by Daisy and dies instantly (Daisy doesn't know who she ran over). Her husband avenges her death by killing Gatsby, assuming he was driving the car that killed Myrtle.
Jordan Baker:
Jordan is a friend of Daisy. She is tall and pretty. She is very nice to Nick, and they had a short of relationship, but that didn't work out.
All characters remain almost the same during the story. Though Daisy loved Jay more and more, at the end she choose for Tom.
4. The theme of the story is -an impossible eternal love-. Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy but his eternal love for her is not enough for Daisy to leave Tom. It's a very tragic story.
5. The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly in the 1920's. The story is set in the New York of the 1920's, mainly on the West Coast and East Egg peninsula. It's the roaring twenties after the war, during which the economy and people's confidence is very strong.
6. The story is divided in several parts. The first part is about Nick. About how he moved from West to east and why he moved to New York. Then a part about Nick meeting Daisy and Tom, about who they were. Nick also meets Myrtle in this part. The third part is about Gatsby, in this part Nick often talks and things about Gatsby. In this part, most of Gatsby's secrets are revealed. The fourth part is about Gatsby's, Daisy and Tom. About Gatsby and Daisy seeing each other secretly and about Tom who gets jalous. You can say that in this part, the former parts are put together. The last part is about Gatsby's death and how Nick arranges the funeral.
7. They are several flashbacks in the story. So the story isn't completely chronological. The book has a closed end.
8. The narrator is Nick Carraway. The story is told in the 1st person view. The language used in the book is important for the sphere.
9. The author of the book is Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). He was born in St Paul, Minnesota. His first novel was "This side of Paradise" (1920), which was a great success. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre, an aspiring writer. From 1920 until 1922 Fitzgerald wrote various novels, all inspired on the life people lived during the "Roaring Twenties". In 1922 he moved to New York. In this city, he was inspired to write "The Great Gatsby" (1925), which is often seen as one of his finest books. In order to finance his extravagant lifestyle he also started to write short stories. In 1930, his wife had the first of a series of nervous breakdowns and she was hospitalised until her death in 1948. In the same period Fitzgerald was getting weaker and weaker. Not only physical but mental too. His financial situation was getting worse too. His books didn't bring anymore the financial success he expected. In the last months of his life Fritzgerald wrote the novel "The Last Tycoon". Though it was unfinished, it was published in 1941 and now many critics regard this novel as Fitzgerald's best.
10. I didn't have a certain expectation of the book before I read it. I just chose it because it had 150 pages.
After finishing the book I had a strange feeling. On one hand I think it's a nice novel. Very tragic and dramatic but it stays interesting during the whole story. On the other hand I didn't like the book, because it's too "slow". Normally, I don't like themes like in this novel, and this novel didn't change my point of view. The lack of action made the book less interesting. If I have to make a final conclusion, then I would say that the book could be very, very nice if u like the theme. If you don't like the theme, then it's just a dramatic and tragic story, which could get boring at the end.
The book did teach me something, and that is that it's important to be able to distinguish between dream and reality. Gatsby wasn't able to do that, and at the end his naïveté causes his death.
I wasn't impressed by one of the characters, they were too conceited, naïve or too friendly. I couldn't identify with one of the characters. Not even with Nick. He was too neutral, too normal, and too average.
There was one event that impressed me and that was the death of Gatsby. His death came totally unexpected and the writer described his death on a very original and still dramatic way that it had to impress the reader.
The social climate of the book is entirely different from my own. It's about the "upper-class" of New York's society. All characters were rich or very rich. Well, I honestly have to say that my family doesn't belong to the "upper-class" of Holland and that we don't have a villa with swimming pool. An other great difference between their social climate and mine is that they have servants/butlers and I don't have one. The thoughts of the characters are typical for the Roaring Twenties, today we just think different about a lot of things.
Example: Tom thinks that the white race it the best human race. Nowadays, we (I) think that's ridiculous.
I don't want to read an another work about the same theme. I don't like the theme because I prefer action above love (in books so to speak). I prefer reading novels about war. Novels about love are often very dull (doctor-novels), and mostly without any action. I don't like that. I often don't have the patience to read a love novel. In my opinion they are too boring.
I don't know any book or film which deals with the same theme.
Titel: "The Great Gatsby"
Auteur: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jaar van 1e publicatie: 1925
Aantal bladzijden: 150
Uitgelezen op: 11 november 2000
De samenvatting van het verhaal
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is about thirty years old and belongs to a wealthy family from the American MidWest. He works on the New York stock exchange, after deciding to move east and learn about stocks and bonds. He lives nearby on the peninsula of West Egg where he rents a house. One of the neighbouring houses is immensely large and owned by a very rich man who calls himself Gatsby, his real name being Jay Gatz.
One day Nick has dinner with Daisy Buchanans, his niece. During the dinner it becomes clear Daisy's marriage isn't a happy one. A friend of Daisy's, Jordan Baker, talks about Tom's (Tom Buchanan is Daisy's husband) mistress in New York. When Nick and Tom join each other to go to New York by train, Nick is almost forced off the train at a small station. He decides to follow Tom and witnesses his infidelity with Myrtle Wilson. Around midnight Tom and Myrtle start quarrelling about Daisy and get into a fight. During the fight Tom breaks Myrtle's nose.
One morning Gatsby takes Nick to New York in his car. In New York they meet Mr. Wolfshiem, a business acquaintance of Gatsby. From Jordan, Nick hears that Gatsby and Daisy had been in love some years ago. When Gatsby stayed overseas too long, Daisy decided to marry Tom. Gatsby bought the house to be as close to Daisy as possible and asks Nick to invite them both over to tea. Nick agrees. When Daisy expresses her discontent over the parties at Gatsby's house, they soon cease. The staff is replaced with people nobody knows to cover for Daisy's frequent presence at the house.
One afternoon Nick, Jordan and Gatsby are invited to tea at the Buchanans. The atmosphere is tense end they decide to go to New York. Tom takes Nick and Jordan in his car and Daisy joins Gatsby in his car. During the trip to New York, Tom confesses he knows about the love affair between Gatsby and Daisy.
When they arrive at Wilson's Garage, Wilson (Myrtle's husband) announces that they're moving West. Wilson suspects his wife Myrtle is having an affair, which she is having with Tom.
In New York Tom becomes quarrelsome, accusing Gatsby of earning money by selling illegal alcohol. Daisy loses her faith in Gatsby and after a row about Daisy between Tom and Gatsby Tom wants Gatsby to drive her home. On the way they run over Myrtle Wilson, who escaped from her husband and expected Tom to be in the yellow car, as he was earlier that day. They decide to drive on after the accident. When Tom and Nick arrives at Wilson's Garage they learn about the accident caused by a yellow car. They both know it's Gatsby's car.
To Nick, Gatsby reveals that Daisy was driving the car when it hit Myrtle. Nick advises Gatsby to leave New York, but Gatsby wants to remain close to Daisy.
The next day Gatsby is found dead in his swimming pool, the body of Wilson, who apparently committed suicide, is lying nearby. Tom had told Wilson that the yellow car that killed Wilson's wife Myrtle belonged to Gatsby. So Wilson came to avenge Myrtle's death.
Nick arranges Gatsby's funeral and goes to great lengths to find the addresses of all his friends and acquaintances. Only Gatsby's father and one friend appear at the funeral. He is sad, but proud of his son's accomplishments. Daisy has been reconciled with Tom and apparently had no plans to give up her safe, wealthy life with Tom.
Een gekozen interessante pagina uit het boek:
Ik heb gekozen voor bladzijde 135 van het boek. Zoals je op de bijgevoegde kopie kan lezen wordt er op deze bladzijde de dood van Gatsby verteld. Er wordt verteld hoe Gatsby aan het zwemmen was, misschien wel nadenkend over zijn leven en zijn ene échte droom, de liefde van Daisy. Het mooie aan dit stuk vind ik hoe de schrijver de dood van Gatsby vertelt. Het gebeurt niet in real-time als het ware, maar het wordt "passief" verteld. Er wordt door de schrijver een soort waas over Gatsby's dood gelaten, hij vertelt niet hoe het eruit zag, of hoe het precies verliep. Nee, de schrijver verteld over de gebeurtenis alleen dat een chauffeur de schoten hoorde, en dat hij direct ter plaatse was. Er wordt niet uitgebreid verteld over hoe Wilson daar bij het zwembad kwam, wat hij allemaal zei en meer van dat soort dingen. Doordat de schrijver dat gedaan heeft, krijg je er een heel gek gevoel bij, de dood van Gatsby's maakt zo bij mij dan een sterkere indruk, ik vind dat de schrijver dat dan ook knap gedaan heeft. Vooral één zin op deze bladzijde vind ik sterk:
"A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees" Dit is het enige hoe Gatsby zijn moordenaar zag, als een "…ashen, fantastic figure, gliding toward him trought the amorphous trees". Deze enkele zin maakt alleen al heel veel indruk bij mij, vandaar dat ik hem speciaal heb besproken.
1. The title of this book is "The Great Gatsby". De title refers to one of the narrator's neighbours. Gatsby lives in the most expensive villa on West Egg and regularly organises huge parties. The parties make Nick believe he is a great man, therefore: the great Gatsby.
2. It's a novel; it's a tragic love novel.
3. The characters in the story are:
Nick Carraway:
Nick is the main character in the book and is the narrator of the story. He is a young and friendly gentleman who moved to West Egg in New York to learn about the bond business. He starts a relationship with Jordan Baker, but it doesn't work out very well. He becomes a friend of Gatsby. Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan are cousins.
Jay Gatz:
Jay changes his last name to Gatsby and is a very rich man. Jay is a man of dreams. Nobody knows what's his background is. Tom accuses Gatsby of earning money with illegal selling of alcohol. Jay served as a soldier during WO I and is deeply in love with Daisy Buchanan. Daisy married Tom, while Gatsby was fighting in WO I. Gatsby has a great number of acquaintances, but a few real friends like Nick. Tom and Jay don't like each other.
Daisy Buchanan:
Tom Buchanan:
Tom is Daisy's husband. He has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Tom is very arrogant and selfish. When he hears about Daisy's love affair, he gets very jalous. Tom hasn't many friends.
Myrtle Wilson and her husband:
Myrtle is Tom's mistress. When her husband becomes suspicious of her and wants to move west, she tries to run to Tom. She is run over by Daisy and dies instantly (Daisy doesn't know who she ran over). Her husband avenges her death by killing Gatsby, assuming he was driving the car that killed Myrtle.
Jordan Baker:
Jordan is a friend of Daisy. She is tall and pretty. She is very nice to Nick, and they had a short of relationship, but that didn't work out.
All characters remain almost the same during the story. Though Daisy loved Jay more and more, at the end she choose for Tom.
4. The theme of the story is -an impossible eternal love-. Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy but his eternal love for her is not enough for Daisy to leave Tom. It's a very tragic story.
5. The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly in the 1920's. The story is set in the New York of the 1920's, mainly on the West Coast and East Egg peninsula. It's the roaring twenties after the war, during which the economy and people's confidence is very strong.
6. The story is divided in several parts. The first part is about Nick. About how he moved from West to east and why he moved to New York. Then a part about Nick meeting Daisy and Tom, about who they were. Nick also meets Myrtle in this part. The third part is about Gatsby, in this part Nick often talks and things about Gatsby. In this part, most of Gatsby's secrets are revealed. The fourth part is about Gatsby's, Daisy and Tom. About Gatsby and Daisy seeing each other secretly and about Tom who gets jalous. You can say that in this part, the former parts are put together. The last part is about Gatsby's death and how Nick arranges the funeral.
8. The narrator is Nick Carraway. The story is told in the 1st person view. The language used in the book is important for the sphere.
9. The author of the book is Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). He was born in St Paul, Minnesota. His first novel was "This side of Paradise" (1920), which was a great success. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre, an aspiring writer. From 1920 until 1922 Fitzgerald wrote various novels, all inspired on the life people lived during the "Roaring Twenties". In 1922 he moved to New York. In this city, he was inspired to write "The Great Gatsby" (1925), which is often seen as one of his finest books. In order to finance his extravagant lifestyle he also started to write short stories. In 1930, his wife had the first of a series of nervous breakdowns and she was hospitalised until her death in 1948. In the same period Fitzgerald was getting weaker and weaker. Not only physical but mental too. His financial situation was getting worse too. His books didn't bring anymore the financial success he expected. In the last months of his life Fritzgerald wrote the novel "The Last Tycoon". Though it was unfinished, it was published in 1941 and now many critics regard this novel as Fitzgerald's best.
10. I didn't have a certain expectation of the book before I read it. I just chose it because it had 150 pages.
After finishing the book I had a strange feeling. On one hand I think it's a nice novel. Very tragic and dramatic but it stays interesting during the whole story. On the other hand I didn't like the book, because it's too "slow". Normally, I don't like themes like in this novel, and this novel didn't change my point of view. The lack of action made the book less interesting. If I have to make a final conclusion, then I would say that the book could be very, very nice if u like the theme. If you don't like the theme, then it's just a dramatic and tragic story, which could get boring at the end.
The book did teach me something, and that is that it's important to be able to distinguish between dream and reality. Gatsby wasn't able to do that, and at the end his naïveté causes his death.
I wasn't impressed by one of the characters, they were too conceited, naïve or too friendly. I couldn't identify with one of the characters. Not even with Nick. He was too neutral, too normal, and too average.
There was one event that impressed me and that was the death of Gatsby. His death came totally unexpected and the writer described his death on a very original and still dramatic way that it had to impress the reader.
The social climate of the book is entirely different from my own. It's about the "upper-class" of New York's society. All characters were rich or very rich. Well, I honestly have to say that my family doesn't belong to the "upper-class" of Holland and that we don't have a villa with swimming pool. An other great difference between their social climate and mine is that they have servants/butlers and I don't have one. The thoughts of the characters are typical for the Roaring Twenties, today we just think different about a lot of things.
Example: Tom thinks that the white race it the best human race. Nowadays, we (I) think that's ridiculous.
I don't know any book or film which deals with the same theme.
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