Nearly a century has passed since F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, which has since been studied and analyzed in numerous schools. As well as the rewritten book Great by Sara Benincasa in a more modern setting. Why is this book significant and what lessons can we learn from the characters' experiences? We will study two works that are comparable yet distinct, set in different eras, and will focus on the significance of our main narrators.
In Great by Sara Benincasa, Naomi is one of the characters that resonates with me the most, not living through what she had to deal with but rather striving to make the right decision, where the pursuit of protecting someone may lead one to lose everything that they had previously worked for.
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One apparent and important trait that both Nick and Naomi possess is the fact that they both have a deep admiration for Jay Gatsby and Jacinta Trimalchio, their mysterious neighbor who had fallen with someone unattainable. Their fondness and loyalty towards their friend comes from similar but slightly different places; they both stick up for them and believe that despite their lies, they were better than the people who were seen as ‘good’ or ‘better’ by society. “They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is what Nick’s last words to his neighbor and friend, Gatsby, because he saw hope in someone like him that had nothing at the start being able to amount to the level of those who came from old-money and be ‘one of them’. He himself, although from old money, is the odd man out and has to work unlike the others. Naomi in the other hand, though rooting for Jacinta to succeed with her plan of running away with Delilah, she sees herself in her but not because she wants to succeed in the high class circles like Jacinta did but she sees another normal girl having to pretend and mingle with the rich to please