The Face of Gatsby

I usually dislike classics that are required reads in school, simply because many of them don't appeal to the reader inside me. Many of the books I have read in school such as The Book Thief, and To Kill a Mockingbird were mildly interesting with decent plots, but weren't very enjoyable reads due to the overanalyzing we were forced to do in class. However, one must take note of the word "usually" because there is one exception to this.

The Great Gatsby is an iconic work of literature that transcends time and will inspire generations to come. In fact, this book is one of the most widely taught in American high schools. For this reason, I did not come into this book with high expectations: overhyping things usually results in letdowns. Although this book started off slow, the book quickly gained traction until I actually started to enjoy the assigned chapters everyday. The method of analyzing in class also added to my enjoyment of this book because we weren't forced to see things a certain way. We simply discussed things as a class to draw conclusions none of us had seen before. I am here to discuss one of those such things: the cover. 

The Great Gatsby is a work by Fitzgerald where literally everything is a deliberate choice by the author, and the cover is no exception. Something we discussed as a class were the eyes because on closer examination, you can see that there is a naked woman is those eyes. The naked woman represents materialism and the mindset of most people in the 1920s: get as much as you can. There is a tear rolling down the face, but the mouth contrasts with this tear because the mouth doesn't look very sad. The landscape at the bottom is bare at the left, but filled with skyscrapers on the right. Upon closer examination, there is a speedometer in the background, as well. In conclusion, the cover of The Great Gatsby is Gatsby himself because he wanted Daisy and wealth (the naked woman), but couldn't get her, hence the tear rolling down his face. The mouth, however, represents the facade he constantly puts on because it doesn't show his sadness. The bottom represents him rising out of The Valley of Ashes to become one of the richest men in the East. The blurred city represents how he was blinded by his desire for Daisy so much that he didn't realize his dream "was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." (180). The speedometer represents how rich people liked to go fast both literally and figuratively. Both Tom and Gatsby liked speeding in their cars wherever they went. Another interpretation is how everyone wanted to use shortcuts to climb the social ladder quickly, like Gatz did to become Gatsby. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed this novel so much: the deliberate details scattered throughout the novel were like a cherry-on-top and elevated this novel as a whole.