Two-Faced Golden Girl
"Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; if you can bounce high, bounce for her too, till she cry 'Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!'" (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
This quotation is found on the first page of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The quote describes the story perfectly. For everyone who's never heard of the story: It's about a guy called Gatsby and he's living in the 1920s. New York is full of parties and he is one of the richest persons in town and he throws big parties every week. No one knows who he really is - until the day his neighbor is being introduced to him. His neighbor's cousin, Daisy, is the love of Gatsby's life. But Daisy is married. Gatsby tries to get in touch with Daisy again (they had a relationship years ago) with his neighbor's help. Over the time the reader finds out that Gatsby wasn't born rich, no, he was a poor guy and he became this impressive millionaire because he wanted to please Daisy. It's like it says in the quote. He tried to give her the material things she wanted and hoped that this would make her love him.
Their past relationship failed because they didn't belong to the same class in society.
To me, Daisy is kind of a golden girl. For her time, she was successful: She had a rich husband, went to the cool parties and she had a child. When you're being introduced to her as the reader, she seems quite innocent and nice. But that woman has two faces. One face is the one that's interested in Gatsby. But the other one loves the safety of material things and the known.
Throughout the story, Gatsby tries to win over Daisy's heart, but to her, it's more like a game. To me, it seemed like she was bored. Bored of all the luxury and monotony in her life. She wanted to experience an adventure. And Gatsby, one of her past boyfriends, was perfect for that.
The problem is that Gatsby has a totally different goal. He wants to get the past back. And with the past I mean their relationship. He thinks he could go back and that Daisy would go with him. For Gatsby, it's not about a game. To him, it's about love.
I personally loved and hated this book at the same time. I loved it because the story is fascinating and you fall in love with it. You just want to know what's going to happen next and you want to see the development of the characters. And I hated it because it's tragic. I've been on the side of one character of this book and he didn't get what he wanted and that literally broke my heart.
The book is not only to be seen as a story about love. It's also a critic on the society of the time. It shows the American Dream with all it's contradictions. When you've read it and you think about all of this, you'll understand this.
I think it's a quite impressive book that you should definitely read. I hope I could inspire someone out there to read it one day!
Lots of Love,
Elena
P.S. I've read a version in which the most important vocabulary was given. It's quite helpful when you're not a native speaker. The language isn't that difficult but there are some words that can make it hard to understand it. You can get those versions for almost any language and they're available at any bookstore!
