Originally to be titled Trimalchio, Gold-Hatted Gatsby and even Under the Red White and Blue, the Great Gatsby is ranked second in the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.
Set during the Jazz Age, and centering on the new monied mysterious Jay Gatsby, his temporary neighbour (and our narrator Nick Carraway) and the old monied Daisy and Tom Buchanan, we are given an insight into the lives and loves of the idle frivolous rich.
Gatsby’s mansion is always full of visitors and guests, he holds the most elaborate parties but for the most part seems very unsure of himself and when he is murdered no-one but Nick, Gatsby’s elderly father, and one unknown party guest attend his funeral.
Gatsby has lived his life with the aim of rekindling his unlikely relationship with Daisy, which ended when he was sent to war. Daisy’s husband Tom is having an affair with the wife of a local garage owner, and has had many obvious affairs in the past. This relationship web becomes destructive and when it all falls apart and results in three deaths, Daisy and Tom retreat “back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…..”
The sad morale to this story is that money can’t buy you happiness. For all his wealth and generosity, barely anyone who attended Gatsby’s parties had ever met him or knew who he was. For those that did know him, he was made up of rumour, gossip and innuendo. Gatsby hid his low class upbringing from Daisy as he was ashamed, and denied who he really was to the point of changing his name (from James ‘Jimmy’ Gatz). Yet at the end of the day the family he denied (his father), and his new friend Nick were the only ones who really cared and attended his funeral.
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