Once again this semester I find myself reading a book that I have read twice before, and once again I see that I am approaching the book in a way that I had not previously. Part of it is the familiarity with the story that I have, which allows me to notice other details in a light that I hadn't previously and to think about characters in a different light, knowing what is to come. The other influence for me was the 2013 movie with Leonardo Dicaprio portraying a strikingly different interpretation of Gatsby from that of Robert Redford's. Di Caprio's Gatsby is clearly a gangster who is depserately clinging to his ill gotten gains because they are what allow him to compete for Daisy's affection. Without them he is nothing--both in her eyes and in his own, but the fear that he will lose them both--Daisy and the money--makes him irritable and edgy. His final act of protecting Daisy makes his life and his death all the more tragic.
This time around I noticed immediately the significance of the opening lines, where Nick quotes his father who said that you have to be generous with people because not everyone had the same advantages in life. Then the book launches into a character assault on Tom Buchanan, a man who has had every adavantage in life--tremendous family wealth, a Yale education, athletic prowess to name a few--and yet he has squandered it. He is painted as the villain whereas Gatsby is the anti-hero.
I wish that I could say that I will take this lesson learned and go back to read some of the classics from my youth to see if I find them altogether different, but somehow I doubt it. There is so much that I have never read and so little that I get read that I just don't see it happening in the near future. But it would be a great idea.
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