At this point of my life, I was thriving. School was a breeze, I was doing well in my
music lessons, I had friends all over, and yet it was not enough. I saw myself in Gatsby, because he seemed to
have the world at his fingers. The
things that he wanted just seemed to fall into place, just as they did for me! And, like Gatsby, I had a
Daisy.
My Daisy was 16-year-old Jake. He was perfect, and I had pined over him for
months like only a teenage girl knows how.
He obviously was a flawed human being, but in my mind, he was perfection
in a baseball player’s body. As I read
on in the story, I found that Gatsby used the same ploys to charm Daisy that I
did to snag my man. He threw extravagant
parties; I planned games, dance parties, and movie nights at my house each
weekend. He had expensive taste in
clothing, and I spent far more on an outfit that I knew Jake would notice. Gatsby would do anything for his fair Daisy,
and I found myself bent over backwards, just trying to make Jake smile. We were the same, Gatsby and I. Both clever, both determined, and both blind.
As our English class finished up Gatsby’s story, I was
shocked to read about his tragic end, though I shouldn't have been. After losing Daisy, there was nothing more to
him. She had become his essence. When that was gone, he had no more purpose in
living, and so the story ended. This was
cause for some serious reflection. Did I
base my happiness on what some high school jock thought? Was I working to improve my life, or just to
win his affections? If things didn’t
work with Jake, or even if they did and the chase came to an end, who would I
be? What would I have to show for
myself? So I started to live for different reasons.
Thank you, Mr. Gatsby.
The lack of depth in your character gave me mine.
I've never read The Great Gatsby, but I think it's interesting that the point of your post highlighted the fact that you learned from Gatsby's flaws. I can completely relate to your unrequited high school love--I think we have all been there at one point or another. Liek you said, it's always important to remember that our happiness had to come from within us, and not the other way around!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this. I feel like the whole post just screams your personality, and it's fabulous. My favorite sentence:
ReplyDelete"He obviously was a flawed human being, but in my mind, he was perfection in a baseball player’s body."
Such a fun read!
I love your honesty in this post! Your transparency as a writer makes it a very enjoyable read. I also led your variation in sentence structure, and the way it reflected your ideas. My favorite example is when you compare Gatsby's ploys to win Daisy to your own ploys to win Jake (there is always a 'Jake' in every high school). The back and fourth comparisons separated into sentences categorized by ploy creates a singsongy tone, which effectively embodies the absurdity of ANYone going so far out of their way to impress someone else. Loved this post!
ReplyDeleteI never though of comparing to Gatsby in that way, but I love that mindset! This is seriously one of my favorite books ever, and every time I read it it makes me just feel so incomplete at the end. I think that your 'Jake' could be many things in life, and it can be hard not to focus so much of our lives on one thing, and to keep living our lives.
ReplyDeleteI loved the last statement about the lack of Gatsby's character! It's so true that once Daisy was out of the picture there was no Gatsby.
ReplyDelete