The lull of turning pages sound as students read from identical books in their hands, uncomfortable and uninterested in a mandatory novel that is several years past its expiration date and relevance. The conditions in which a novel was read can have a lasting impact on the readers’ perceptions, in which many are blinded by the emotions from their first impression. Many Americans and students forced to read the book argue that The Great Gatsby is not as great as the American education system and society laud it as. The story of a man’s journey to attaining the love of his ex-girlfriend seems vapid and undeserving of its status as the greatest American novel ever. More accurately, however, the novel depicts a man’s journey in finding himself and his values, with Gatsby’s love story as a catalyst for his revelation. The Great Gatsby is a great novel as it depicts uniquely human and American experiences and ideals, in so that the novel’s ideas still resonate with readers today.
The Great Gatsby understands the intricate struggle citizens possess with their desire for wonder and fantasy, particularly in American society. As Gatsby had with Daisy, fantasies for the future are a universal experience. The search for wonder and fantasy occasionally leads to the point of self-destruction, of which Joshua Rothman in his New Yorker article “The Serious Superficiality of The Great Gatsby” states is “most appealing about ‘Gatsby’; its mood of witty hopelessness, of vivacious