I'm just gonna go ahead and kill two birds with this blog post today. I figured, it needs to get going, and at this rate, it takes me weeks after finishing a book to blog about it. I actually don't even really know what I'm going to say about these works... I'm just hoping something will spew out.
I've been done with Huck Fin for, gosh, a few months now. I just finished The Great Gatsby last week, so luckily that is fresh in my mind (although reviewing it might be tough... keep reading). Hopefully I can talk about these in tandem. I think I can. Yeah, I'm just gonna do it.
First, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Quick synopsis: A young boy named Huckleberry Finn fakes his own death to escape his abusive father, and he comes into contact with Jim, a slave who is escaping because he overheard he will be sold downriver. Together they raft down the Mississippi river, getting into all kinds of mischievous and adventurous experiences.
This book is difficult to read. I can't imagine twelve year olds reading it. I know it's true to the way it was back then, and this book is actually an argument against the enslavement of Blacks in the late 19th century, but it's still laborious. The use of the dialect became distracting for me, which is probably the paramount reason why it took me some seven weeks to finish it.
Don't get me wrong. Huck is charming, Jim is lovable, and the fits they find themselves in are entertaining. It's a true journey story, and the spirit of the novel is ripe and resounding. I understand why Twain wrote it the way he did -- form follows function. One certainly could not write a book about this region with this main character and not be true to its every form. So I commend, wholeheartedly, his painstaking effort. I've just learned it's not my taste.
Regardless, though, how 'not fun' it was for me to read, this goes back to what I've been saying about all l these other books, and I think I'm finally catching on: this book says something. It is and has been intensely controversial. Some argue that it attacks racism; others argue that Twain is simply playing into and does not rise above the stereotypes of black people that white people have. Whatever the case may be, and whatever one might think, there is no getting around the conversation it stirs. It gets us talking about race and what that means, and even though it is at times gritty and ugly, it's more important to talk about than to not.
According to Wikipedia, Twain wrote this for adults, and he was appalled when people considered it a children's story. Huckleberry Finn, then, is a tool used to ignite conversation and controversy, to mess up the status quo -- and when literature can do it for more than a hundred years, yeah, I have no doubt calling that a classic.
Second, The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Quick synopsis: Nick Carraway, an ex army solider who moved to the West Egg area of New York to sell bonds, lives next door to Jay Gatsby, perhaps the most lavish and popular man of the town. Through befriending him, he reunites long lost lovers Jay and his cousin, Daisy, amidst tumultuous repercussions.
One of my favorite movies is Midnight in Paris. The main character finds himself, at the stroke of midnight in Paris, amongst famous writers and artists of the 20s--Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, to name a few. On the first time of this occurrence, when Gil (the main character) doesn't quite yet know what is going on, he runs into someone whom he later finds out is "Scott Fitzgerald." I remember getting chills at that moment when they met because I knew Gil was in the presence of brilliance. Had I read any of Fitzgerlad's work? No! But he's F. Scott Fitzgerald! He wrote The Great Gatsby -- it's a classic!
My take on The Great Gatsby is this: it's a great novel. It's written well, it touches on some really deep themes of love, desire, truth, and even jealousy. It's a quick read. It's got great characterization. It's just... good.
I find it interesting the main character is merely the observer of it all, though. Nick Carraway doesn't go through any conflict. Doesn't have a desire that, before it may or may not be achieved, must be burdened with obstacles. He doesn't go through a change at the end. He is just merely there, the narrator of it all, watching as the world passes him by. The characters he interacts with, i.e. Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, George and Myrtle Wilson -- these people are the ones this story is about. I imagine Fitzgerald chose the narration this way to ensure an outsider's perspective, so the readers could see it the way perhaps every single person at Gatsby's parties may perceive him and the others. I don't know. Is it effective? Sure. Is it what I would have done? I'm not sure.
I keep on saying that all of these classics say something about society, and that it gets people talking. Yet when I think about The Great Gatsby, I can't think of what the larger message is. To me, it seems like just another novel, albeit it a very good one, but not one that deserves classic status (The Modern Library named it the second best English-language novel of the 20th century).
WHY?
I'm stumped. Is it a cautionary tale? Cautioning us to... what? Not give in to jealousy? Don't let your long-lost and very flighty lover take the wheel after a huge blow out fight with her husband? Just go find her instead of waiting around for years, hoping the one you'd lost stop by? The people who you think adore you actually don't? What is it about this novel that stands the test of time and is relatable for high schoolers to be reading today?
If anyone's got any thoughts on the matter, it's much appreciated. Maybe I'm just burnt out.
But I'm not done yet. I'm making headway. I started this project last year, almost to the day, and it's depressing how long it's taken me to get through it. But I am comforted by the fact that the delay has been not because I'm not reading but because I am reading -- just everything else that's not on this list.
