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Nicely said Shoshana; we can aspire to become anyone we want, if only for a short while, or we can even evolve ourselves with such aspirations to become better human beings. I myself have become a better man for having written about a good man (and he's fictional). I aspire to the qualities I had set out to capture in the making of that "person." So "guessing" as you say about a character like Gatsby, and romanticizing his nature for literature, whether he was portrayed as he was or whether he has become mostly an invention, can help us rise to who we want to be. My opinions!
It's tantalizing to see a character entrenched in an attitude or personal code, and then to have to systematically recreate how they got there--by putting together just enough of their back-story to draw some conclusions. As in life, every single thing they did is not relevant (and is not the point); the bits and pieces we get are all we have to go on.
Again, Gatsby was shot in the story, yes, but was that his demise? Was it a demise at all? His code elevated him every bit as much as it caused his end. We could just as easily say his faithfulness to a higher ideal was a complete triumph...even in death. I think that's part of what makes this book a "masterpiece."
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Michael
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May 10, 2011 12:18PM
Nicely said Shoshana; we can aspire to become anyone we want, if only for a short while, or we can even evolve ourselves with such aspirations to become better human beings. I myself have become a better man for having written about a good man (and he's fictional). I aspire to the qualities I had set out to capture in the making of that "person." So "guessing" as you say about a character like Gatsby, and romanticizing his nature for literature, whether he was portrayed as he was or whether he has become mostly an invention, can help us rise to who we want to be. My opinions!
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It's tantalizing to see a character entrenched in an attitude or personal code, and then to have to systematically recreate how they got there--by putting together just enough of their back-story to draw some conclusions. As in life, every single thing they did is not relevant (and is not the point); the bits and pieces we get are all we have to go on. Again, Gatsby was shot in the story, yes, but was that his demise? Was it a demise at all? His code elevated him every bit as much as it caused his end. We could just as easily say his faithfulness to a higher ideal was a complete triumph...even in death. I think that's part of what makes this book a "masterpiece."
