Fourth Quarter!!

        For fourth quarter I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I wanted to read a classic for one of my books over the year. I have heard great things about this book and so I went for it. I loved it. It was definitely my favorite book out of the four I read this year. I really didn't know much about the plot before I read it, despite its infamous position in literature, so I was happy I actually got a surprise while reading it. The other books I read were completely predictable or there was no big ending, therefore making them boring. All I knew about the book is that there was some sort of love story throughout the plot. But there was so much more to it!
       The book is narrated by a sort of third-party witness- Nick Carraway. He is involved right in the middle of everything that happens in the story. He is Daisy Buchanan's cousin. He is Jay Gatsby's neighbor. He knew Tom Buchanan from college. So he is tied to all main characters in the entire book. He tells the story through his point of view. The book takes place in the 1920's in different places in and around New York City, New York. Daisy and Tom are married and live on East Egg- the glamorous "egg" while West Egg, where Gatsby and Carraway reside, is less glamorous except for Jay Gatsby--with his marvelous mansion that hosts extravagant parties almost daily. Daisy and Gatsby are past loves. They were madly in love until Gatsby left for the war, in which in that five year time frame, the pressure became to much to handle and she fell in love and married Tom. Gatsby came back from the war still deeply in love with Daisy and lived his life in accordance to winning her back and in ways that would please her. He bought the huge house and had fun, classy parties in hopes she would wander in one of those days. She never did. Gatsby was fully aware that she was married and also knew that she lived in East Egg. He could see a green light that was on every night at the end of the Buchanan's deck and he would look at it every night, longing for her. A friend of both Daisy and Gatsby- Jordan Baker- first meets Carraway at a tea at the Buchanan house. Soon enough Gatsby found out that Carraway was Daisy's cousin and used him to get to Daisy again. Later in the story, he finally asks Carraway to have a tea and invite both Daisy and Gatsby only. He did, and that's when their love rekindles. Before you know it, Daisy and Gatsby usually with Carraway are inseparable. Tom eventually picks up on what is going on. However, Tom has a mistress- Myrtle Wilson. He has been with her for quite a while now and Daisy is fully aware. But, Tom is not the sort of man to let his wife be stolen away from him...so he is very upset. Jordan, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, and Carraway take a day trip to New York soon after Tom realizes what is going on. Confrontation begins and everything is out on the table. Daisy is incredibly distressed and doesn't know what to do. Gatsby doesn't realize that Daisy did actually love Tom. Tom doesn't realize Gatsby and Daisy's past. So she is faced with a choice that she can't decide on. Daisy and Gatsby leave together from the city in a seperate car from Tom. On their way back, Daisy wants to drive to try to calm her nerves. As she was driving through a town, she hits Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress, on total accident. She hits and she runs. She is terribly distraught. Tom drives through the town later to see the scene and finds out it was Myrtle who was hit. He soon figures out it was Gatsby's car who hit her and tells Mr. Wilson this. Mr. Wilson seeks revenge and shots Gatsby a few days later at his home. Carraway is left with the load of Gatsby's life--which is a lot. He holds a funeral for him but only his father shows up--a father Carraway understood to be dead. After all the people who appeared in his life through his parties, none of them showed. Tom took Daisy away after the incident and was never heard from again. I really loved this book.