Chapter 1 - Details, Details and more Details

If I had to say two things about the first chapter, I'd use the words details and big words. The first few pages of the book, made me want to drop it and just go swimming instead. I had to try very hard not to. Up to the point where Nick goes to Daisy's house, the chapter was quite weird. The first chapter, wuite frankly, was very boring for me.  Nick describing his past and how he came to live in West Egg, are way more descriptive than needed. I think having less description could also help the flow of the events, and make the book more easy to understand and, truth be told, more exciting to read. I found that some words used in the first chapter were hard to understand. Maybe it is the style of the author, or the way books are supposed to be written back in Fitzgerald's day, but  I found the style quite different than what I'm used to in other books.

Although I'm not at all impressed with the style, I have come to like a few things presented in the first chapter. First of them were the ideas about the 1920s life in the East. For example, even though everyone knows that Tom Buchanan has a mistress, nobody does anything to prevent it or to confront Tom about it. Not even Daisy. The other things that interested me most were more about the author's ideas and how he used symbols in the book to explain things. The green light, that Nick sees Gatsby reach for, is an obvious symbol, one which I am sure will be repeated throughout the book.

Finally, one of the most impressive quotes I've read in a long time. The first time that Nick actually talks about Gatsby, he says "Gatsby turned out all right in the end. It was 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 shortwinded elations of men." This is one the best quotations I have heard in a long time. Plus, the fact that Nick actually tells us how Gatsby will turn out in the end adds to the plot of the book. Moreover, it makes the reader think more about Gatsby's personality. So I hope the second chapter will consist of less detail and more events.