Warning: this post contains minor spoilers. If you have not read The Great Gatsby or watched its movie, please click away before your life is forever ruined. You have been warned.
Hello there.
Strangely, my mom loves The Great Gatsby; she read the Chinese version, the easier English version, and now she wants me to lend her the original version (Carraway’s unnecessarily prolix writing scared her off after one page, however). But why is she so interested? Daisy’s vanity? Gatsby’s green light? Message for capitalism? The decline of the American Dream? Probably, but not totally. Today, we take a look at the Fitzgerald’s top life advice to those who are forced to pick up his book at seventeen.
#3 The more you hang on to a relationship, the more dead you are.
She and her husband were both dead, literally.
I assume that you are likely a novice in romantic relationships (at least I am) even though time has changed. If so, The Great Gatsby might be a pleasurable read for you.
Through his characterization of that poor George Wilson, Fitzgerald clearly discourages the continuation of marriage if it is unworthy. Even when his wife, Myrtle Wilson, was always doing some gold mining with Tom, George remained pathetically fidel, or as Carraway observed, “He was his wife’s man and not his own” (Fitzgerald 136). Moral of this book: don’t ever be that tryhard in maintaining your relationship with your partner. Be Elsa in Frozen if necessary. Speaking of which…
#2 “The past is in the past. Let it go!!!”
Gabs Silva “I am never going back The past is in the past Let it go.” Youtube. Web. 20 Aug. 2014.
Even as a seventeen-year old who still has a long way (or not) to go, I cannot resist that once-in-a-while nostalgia when I collected the final star in Super Mario Galaxy Two or the days when I was good at Chinese (like really, #1-in-the-school, good). Tempting as the past is, Fitzgerald consistently cautions against it throughout the book. Just imagine the endless possibilities that would’ve emerged between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan if the former had not forced the latter to say “I never loved him [Tom Buchanan]” (Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby’s preoccupation with the past proved to be his hamartia, one in which he forfeited his life for. In your final year before adulthood, you better look forward, run faster, stretch farther… And one fine morning —
#1 Oh! Stop running or stretching if your dream is flawed.

Green Light IR by Dave Firth via Flickr CC BY 2.0
Does a desire to go To The Lighthouse count as a dream?
Remember back in the beginning when Carraway says, “It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” (Fitzgerald 2)? This quote, quite soberly, foreshadows Gatsby’s imminent downfall since his dream – whether it be Daisy Buchanan or money – is full of “foul dust”; in Fitzgerald’s view, temporary ascent to material wealth is a mundane objective that eventually suffices an equally magnificent anticlimax.
Whether you agree with his pessimistic view of capitalism or not (I still don’t, in case somebody wonders if I’ve changed), it is universally true you should never sweat over a pointless goal, like studying calculus five hours straight for a quiz or supporting the San Diego Padres. Otherwise, you will beat against the current and be borne back ceaselessly into the past…
Before we part ways, I must say the last page of The Great Gatsby is the most beautiful page I’ve ever read in my life. It prompts an intriguing question though: what constitutes a good dream? Let me know in the comments. See you next time!