As a high school student, there are a lot of books that I am “forced” to read. The announcement that my 
class is reading another book usually instigates several groans and sighs from my classmates. Much of the literature we read is boring, and often hard to comprehend. We have no way of relating to the authors, some of which seem ancient. We know that the books are all classics, but other than that, they tend to carry no other meaning to us. Finally, in class, I came across a book I enjoyed: The Great Gatsby.
If you haven’t read this book, I’d suggest that you take the time to do so. First published in 1925, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby was a story unique for its time. Today, it is a standard for most high schools across the nation. What Fitzgerald did was capture the American values and lifestyle of his time. He developed characters that could represent a wide variety of people. People similar to these characters still exist today, so when I read the novel, I found myself relating to the text, even if it was written more than eight decades ago.
The story is told by Nick Carraway, a character who moved from the Midwest to Long Island in order to continue his work. His home is located next to a large mansion owned by a man named Gatsby. There is something odd about Gatsby. Though he holds grand parties every week, no one seems to know where he gets his money or why he suddenly moved to Long Island.
Within this short novel, there are enough plot twists to fill an entire TV series. Fitzgerald gives readers a backstage pass to the “rich and famous” of the 1920s. These people weren’t above the scandals and affairs of modern times; there were plenty to go around.
