Stories like The Great Gatsby contain multiple layers of discovery. Generally condensing a story into something like 50 words leaves room only for the most basic plot summation.
A well written novel encompasses well-defined characters with strengths and weaknesses, a clear story with exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action, symbolism, themes that convey the author's message to the reader, and a setting that complements all of these elements.
F. Scott Fitzgerald weaves all of...
Stories like The Great Gatsby contain multiple layers of discovery. Generally condensing a story into something like 50 words leaves room only for the most basic plot summation.
A well written novel encompasses well-defined characters with strengths and weaknesses, a clear story with exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action, symbolism, themes that convey the author's message to the reader, and a setting that complements all of these elements.
F. Scott Fitzgerald weaves all of this together skilfully in The Great Gatsby. Nick, Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy each have their own backstory. Some of their character traits are admirable, like Nick's honesty. Others are not, like Tom's racism.
The intrigue of symbols permeates the work: the green light at the end of the dock and the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg to mention two.
Fitzgerald's treatment of such universal themes as love, selfishness, class systems, and the American Dream still create discussions today, many decades after the book first appeared in print.
It is hard to condense a novel to 50 words because by its very nature, a novel is not intended to be that short. The true richness and worth of a classic work of fiction can't be easily summed up.
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