the_nancy•15d agoProlific Poster

Why does everyone love 'The Great Gatsby' but miss the real point

I keep hearing book clubs call Gatsby a tragic romance about love. But it's really about class fraud and how rich people ruin things. Fitzgerald spent pages showing Tom and Daisy as careless destroyers. Did nobody catch that line about them smashing things up and retreating into their money? How do you interpret that ending differently, or am I the only one seeing this?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugog4315d agoMost Upvoted

@lily89 nailed it, the rich just use people and move on.

lily8915d agoMost Upvoted

Got a friend who joined a book club full of rich suburb ladies who all cried over Gatsby and Daisy's love story. She said she tried to bring up that Gatsby built his whole life on lies and stolen money, and they just stared at her like she was ruining their fun. One lady even said "but they really loved each other" and my friend just about lost it. That ending where nobody goes to Gatsby's funeral except his dad and Nick just proves nobody really cared about him, they just liked his parties and his money. The whole thing is about how the rich use people up and throw them away, not some love story.