The Great Gatsby/YMMV

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• Accidental Aesop: Women can't drive!
• Alternative Character Interpretation: People have written papers on the different interpretations.
  • Is Gatsby a manipulative and scheming stalker; or a broken man who idealizes Daisy, and pursues that idealized version of her.
    • Jordan Baker; just as bad as Daisy (i.e. careless, shallow, and materialistic), or a product of the times, explaining her cheating and Lying. Another interpretation is that she's just a cynical person from a wealthy background, who isn't really friends with the Buchanans, and just snarks behind their backs (the 1974 version seems to support this theory).
    • Tom Buchanan; a Brutish and racist bully, or just a jealous man in a loveless marriage.
      • Daisy Buchanan: shallow and flighty? Materialistic and manipulative? Or a Broken Bird trapped in a marriage with a man who possibly abuses her? Or a Sociiopath.
• Anvilicious: We get it, Scott, Rich Bitch people suck.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "They're a rotten crowd...You're worth the whole damn bunch put together!"
  • Although not if you take the interpretation that Nick didn't really say that and is lying about it because he wishes he had.
  • Also, noting Nick's disdain for Rich Bitches, he could be saying that Gatsby is equal to the combined evil of all of them put together...
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Daisy's Lullaby (The Great Gatsby Rap)
• Draco in Leather Pants: Gatsby. Deluded and manipulative, and has an unhealthy obsession with Daisy. Also a rather hollow person who equates character to power and wealth.
• Ending Fatigue: To a certain extent, although it could also be "starting fatigue". The plot moves very slowly until all of the characters go to New York around chapter seven or eight, at which point it speeds up significantly, then slows down again when they leave.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Meyer Wolfsheim, the Jewish mobster, works in an office labeled "The Swastika Holding Company." The book was written in the 20s. Oh boy.
  • Interestingly, the book was not well known until it was republished and hit the peak of its popularity immediately after WWII.
  • Not to mention Nick referring to the Murder-Suicide using the term 'holocaust'.
• Ho Yay: Nick seems quite... obsessed with Gatsby, pretty much all the way through the novel. "There was something gorgeous about him"? Not to mention the Nick/McKee scene at the end of chapter 2.
  • Albeit it should be noted that much of this is the result of language drift since the novel was written - as per the example above, which uses 'gorgeous' in its original sense of 'splendid' and/or 'showy'.
    • Partly the result of language drift, but there's plenty else in the novel which points towards a bit of a thing between them. Not to mention quite a few academic essays which comment on it or use it as a subject.
  • It could also just be assumed that Nick probably sees Gatsby as a more genuine person throughout the novel despite the fact that he's rich. This is the whole point of the novel, in a way, the growing disillusionment with this "American Dream" and how it has destroyed truly genuine people. This is Nick's realization that people, especially rich people, are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling.
• Hype Backlash: "Definitive American novel? Pfft. The protagonist is so stupid that it invalidates the entire premise, and the whole plot is just a glorified Soap Opera". If you've studied the book in a college level English class, or even a good high school class for that matter, you've heard arguments along these lines.
  • Unless you believe that the book was written purposely like this because Fitzgerald wanted to attack East Coast Rich Bitch lifestyle with a thinly veiled Take That written in a highly accessible literary style for the time.
• Misaimed Fandom: The story viciously and repeatedly lampoons rich, upper-class American society. Guess what sort of parties are Great Gatsby-themed? (Ex: Greek, "The Great Cappie")
  • Also, those who feel inspired by the book to pursue their dreams of money and social status, ignoring how Gatsby amassed his wealth through criminal activity and the way it turns out that his image of Daisy, his real goal, was naught but an idealized dream who wasn't worth the effort at all.
  • Similarly, Lauren Conrad continually points out how much she loves the book because she's "obsessed with the style of the 20s!".
• Nausea Fuel: Myrtle Wilson's death.
  • Meyer Wolfsheim's cufflinks. They're human teeth.
• Tear Jerker: Maybe not on a first reading, but definitely on a second reading or when you watch one of the adaptations when you realize that everything Gatsby did for Daisy was for naught. He died for her and she didn't even have decency to attend his funeral. Daisy was never worth it.
  • "Gatsby believed in the green light...."
• Values Dissonance: The Buchanans' admiration of racist books, for starters. Then later, Tom bashing the idea of interracial marriage. Probably invoked intentionally to comment on the nature of times.
• Vindicated by History: The novel was forgotten during the Great Depression and WWII, and didn't sell that well when it was first released.
• The Woobie: Gatsby, in a way, though most of it is his fault. Also, his father, and George Wilson.