The Great Gatsby Response

The Great Gatsby is probably my favorite classic American novel. I remember reading it in freshmen year of high school and inhaling the pages faster than they were assigned to be read. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for romance, or maybe because there was so much that could be analyzed in it (themes, symbols, allusions, character development, etc.) I even remember in one of the creative writing classes I took while still in high school, one project we did was to research and pretend you were in a certain time period, and write whatever you want from that perspective. I chose to do a collection of journal entries from a young woman living in the Roaring Twenties. I believe that’s another reason I have such a fondness for the novel: The Roaring Twenties is my favorite historical time period (in America).

Because of all of this, I’ve read it a few times over, for various other English papers here and there. I’ve also watched the most recent movie adaptation many times, the one with Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought it was a really good adaptation, they did a great job of making everything look as extravagant and, well “extra” as they were in the novel and during the time period. This graphic novel adaptation, however, is a new one, and I’ve never seen a graphic novel of classic literature before. I know I’m going to end up keeping the book for myself, it’s really cool.