"The Great Gatsby" Book Review

December 10, 2013

The Uncontrollable Desire 

By Julia Seck

The Great Gatsby

By  F. Scott Fitzgerald 

180 page

     Fitzgerald classic fiction novel "The Great Gatsby", is a plot twisting, romantic drama taken place in Long Island, New York. Fitzgerald captures America in the roaring 1920's  and does and excellent job of portraying the setting, where business is booming and everything is larger than life it self.  However, he  focusing on the negative aspects of this time period such as corruption, greed, and vanity with in, portraying these idea through the character Jay Gatsby.

     The story is told by the character, Nick Carraway,  a young Yale graduate who moves to New York in search of business. Shortly after renting a house in Long Island, he realizes his neighbor to  be a wealthy, but mysterious man by the name of Jay Gatsby, a man whom no one has ever laid eyes on. Invited to one of the man's grand parties, Nick is determined to find the mysterious host and is quick to learn of the many rumors about Gatsby.  As the night progresses, Nick discovers Gatsbys  and learns of his love for, Daisy, Nick's cousin. Agreeing shortly after to help rekindle the old flame between the two, Nick  uncovers Gatsby's true identity and his many hidden  secrets. As the story develops, Nick becomes unsure with whom to trust realizing not everyone is as charming on the outside as they appear. The novel captures the ugly truth  that everyone has a price in which they can be bought as Nick struggles with his own morality and those around him due to desire  of wealth and power through greed, corruption and vanity. 

     The fact that the theme, everyone can be bought nor anything is perfect is understood even in today's society making the novel a classic. People struggle with their own morality, constantly pushing their own boundaries, wondering  how far they are willing to go to get something they desire. The question "does the end justify with the means" is portrayed through out the novel allowing the reader to reflect on their own self and morality. This question is still replicated in every day, today.  The book its self is even filled with motifs such as desire, vanity, and corruption which are presented also  within our own society today. The fact that Fitzgerald wrote the book 88 years ago in 1925 and the themes are still relevant concludes this book is timeless and therefore a classic, as this book is relevant for any given audience in a modern period.

     Personally I enjoyed the book as the plot was unpredictable and thicken as the book developed. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy dramatic and romantic books but also enjoy a mystery element as well. Personally I found the book to be a bit challenging to read. The book is narrated in first person by Nick Carraway and is structured so his thoughts jump around the page as well as the vocabulary being slightly sophisticated. For this reason I would not recommend this book to a younger audience. However, I believe the author has done a wonderful job in capturing the setting and his characters. The book is interesting and exciting, and overall very enjoyable. I highly recommend it and worth reading. 

Greek Mask Research

Research


     Today in class we were asked to research the use of masks in Greek Theater, and to replicate our own. In order to get a better understanding of our task, I did some online research to help understand the concept and ideas more so than before. In Greek theater, actors would need to play multiple roles. To save time and costumes, masks were created to help aide the actors by allowing them to change their roles and characters much more easily (Vovolis and Zamboulakis).There were typically three actors and all were men (Karayannakos). The masks were claimed to have let the audience focus on the actors actions, rather than on their physical features (Karayannakos). The masks however, would not have been distorted but realistic and proportional to a civilian's face. The mask would have three openings, two for the eyes and one for the mouth. The mask was then worn with a wig made out of animal or human hair (Karayannakos). All the masks were made out of a light weight linen, leather, or wood material (McManus). A stone face was used for a mold to make the masks (Karayannakos). However, one detail that struck me was that each mask portrayed similar characteristics having certain features replicated. A better way of explaining it is there would be no random masks. Characters classified within the same age division or gender all had the same aspects included within the masks (McManus). Therefore, one could not just design any mask of their choice as it would have to include multiple traits. For instance, male masks had yellow or brown skin color, while female masks had white skin color. Women would have long haired wigs typically, however half length represent women in mourning and very short wigs represented a woman being a slave (McManus). Facial hair was also very important within masks, as it indicated certain personalities of characters for the audience. All men had short hair, the length of their beard represented how old they were (Vovolis and Zamboulakis). Young men were left beardless, men in their prime were fully bearded and had yellow or brown hair. Old men had grey bearded and were left bald (McManus). Overall, masks played a huge part in Greek theater. As time went on, masks would spark the development of theater for generations to come, transforming into costumes and props.Without masks, Greek theater or even today's modern arts and drama would not been as they are. Masks have helped develop and transformed theater into a revolutionary art and tradition.




Work Sited




Karayannakos, Elias. "Masks in Ancient Greek Theatre" ["Masks in Ancient Greek
Theatrel"]. Greek Theater. N.p., 2007. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www.greektheatre.gr/greek_theater_masks.html>.


McManus, Barbara F. "Staging, Actors, Masks" ["Staging, Actors, Masks"].
Staging, Actors, Masks. CLS 267 Topics Page, Sept. 1999. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. <http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/tragedy_staging.html>


Vovolis, Thanos, and Giorgos Zamboulakis. "The Acoustical Mask of Greek Tragedy" ["The Acoustical Mask of Greek Tragedy"]. Didaskalia. Randolph Collage, 1994. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. <http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol7no1/
vovolis_zamboulakis.html>.