The Great Gatsby

I learned about The Great Gatsby from Crash Course Literature’s episode on it, but it was many years later that I actually went about reading it. Together with Of Mice and Men it forms a bookend on social realism for this year.

In contrast with Of Mice and Men, where the dreams and plans are inevitably doomed to fail, Gatsby’s demise is not truly without cause. Albeit the cause is arbitrary and out of his hands.

Appendum: It is also interesting that Norwegian Wood makes heavy references to The Great Gatsby. Watanabe is also chasing a Daisy and a dream is broken, but as far as I can see, the parallels end there.