I was in the 10th grade the first time I read "The Great Gatsby." Now, like so many high school students, when my teacher assigned it as required reading, I was less than pleased. I didn't want to have to take extra time to read a book assigned for a class. However, once I began reading the book, it changed not only my viewpoint on the book itself, but this book changed me.

While "The Great Gatsby" is on the banned book list, it is still typically part of high school curriculum all across the country, mainly because it is still considered to be one of the most popular books in American literature.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, the famed author of the novel, is also considered to be one of the most famous writers of the 20th century. In addition to "The Great Gatsby," Fitzgerald authored 3 other novels and many short stories, including "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which was made into a movie back in 2008. "The Great Gatsby" has been adapted to films of the same name 5 times over the past 90 years in 1926, 1949, 1974, 2000, and 2013. While I am a big fan of several versions of the film, I will always be a purist for the book.

In the beginning of the story, we meet Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate, the novel’s narrator, moves from the Midwest to work as a bond salesman in New York. He moves into a small cottage on West Egg, the "New Money" part of New York. We later meet his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom who lives on East Egg, the home of "Old Money." Later in the story, we discover that during World War I, Gatsby and Daisy had met and fallen in love, but when Gatsby returned to war, Daisy's family set her up with Tom and she believed that Gatsby was gone, and the next time Daisy hears of Gatsby is the day of her wedding when she receives a letter from Gatsby asking her to wait for him, but in the end, she married Tom. Eventually, Gatsby returns from the war a wealthy man and moves into a house across the water from Daisy and Tom in hopes that his love will one day stumble into one of his parties and they can reunite.

The story itself is set in the Roaring Twenties, a time in America's history where the country was carefree and careless, and where the parties and lavish lifestyles of the wealthy and the lives of those in extreme amounts of debt and suffering were both extremely apparent.

One reason I love the story is because it shows both sides of the coin in regards to lifestyle during the time period through Daisy and Tom, Nick and Gatsby. Daisy and Tom have wealth, but spend carelessly and believe they don't owe anyone anything, are cold-hearted, and have no true sense of reality. Gatsby represents many of the people who strived to live a lavish lifestyle, but can't really afford to. He also represents the ideal of the now impossible "American Dream." He wanted to have the family, money, and everything that came with it, but he allowed himself to get too caught up in the dream and not so much the execution of his dream. Nick, I believe was a mix between these two types of lifestyles. Nick had some money because of his family and was a bit clueless of reality in the beginning, but he also had the dream of achieving great things.

Another reason I love the story is because of the symbolism. The Eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg were one of the most prominent symbols within the story. They represented the eyes of God, which looked down upon Tom's affair with Myrtle and her murder by Daisy with the car later on. Another prominent symbol within the story was the green light at the end of the dock. Green represented the color of hope, and as we learn later in the story, this light hangs at the end of the Buchanan's dock, and it symbolizes Gatsby's hope that he and Daisy will meet again and they will finally be together.

Overall, “The Great Gatsby” is a gripping story from beginning to end. It accurately portrays the highs and lows of the era in which it was written, as well as how deep love and imagination run in the minds of human beings. It was also interesting to see how people perceived Gatsby vs. how he actually was as a human being. While being part of the wealthy class, Gatsby still managed to feel emotions on a very deep level and was willing to sacrifice himself for the happiness of others. And while it does not bring him any happiness, he ends up standing above the rest of the characters in the story on moral grounds because of the sacrifices he is willing to make. To me, this book is a "must-read" for everyone at least once in their life.

This book taught me the lesson that while you can love and have hope, you can't be unrealistic and let your hopes for the best possible things in life turn you cynical and cold-hearted.

This novel truly takes the reader away; its depth and intellect are what truly make “The Great Gatsby” an American classic.