“The Great Gatsby” is one of the truly great American classic novels written by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. In April 1925, the “Charles Scribner’s Sons” company published the book. In 2020, Almost 30 million copies of the book had sold and it had been translated over 42 different languages. Although the book is popular and sold millions of it, it is the opposite for the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald when he was alive. In 1940, at the age of 44, He died from a heart attack. At that time only 25,000 copies had sold and that is much lower compared to nowadays.
Moreover, in 2013 the director Baz Luhrmann made it into a film with the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie was also nominated in six of the seven categories with the best film, best director, and best actor. Furthermore, Catherine Martin; the costume designer and the production designer awarded two Oscars for The Great Gatsby which makes most Academy Awards Australian in history.
Now it is time to tell the summary of the story and back to the title of this article. The story took place in the Jazz Age around 1920 on Long Island, near New York City. In the story, there is a fictional character called Nick Carraway. He is the narrator of the whole novel. He pictured the love relationship between the mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby formerly known as James Gatz, and his former love, Daisy Buchanan. The relationship between these two isn’t simple and there are lots of twists and mistakes from Gatsby. But it is impossible to cover it all up here in this article. So I suggest reading the original book in order to know the full story and feel the atmosphere of it. But now I am going to tell you the best business and the life lessons that I’ve learned from this classic novel.
Lesson 01 – Money can’t buy everything
Gatsby was born into a poor family. But he wanted to be rich and successful. During World War I, he met Daisy in Louisville. It’s was the time before he went to Europe for war. With his uniform and the manner of the upper class learned from his previous employer “Dan Cody”, no one can know whether he is rich or not. But Daisy assumes he was and Gatsby keeps lying to continue their relationship. When he left, she promised him to wait. However, things do not happen as he planned. By the time he got back to America, he learned that Daisy had married. So he decided to get her back.
He thought if he were rich and successful, Daisy will come back to him. So he entered a shady business and luckily after three years later he got a huge amount of money. But he also considers the same things he thought before. He thought materials like luxurious parties or homes can get Daisy’s heart. In order words, he thought money can buy everything including love.
But sadly money can’t buy everything and he didn’t get Daisy’s heart because Tom, her husband, keeps informed about the truth of Gatsby. Like the end of the bad guys, Gatsby was shot and killed by George Wilson in the swimming pool. Furthermore, none of his party attendees came to his funeral.
People thought money can solve every problem. But Gatsby is an example of this statement. He seems to have a lot of friends from these luxurious parties, but he didn’t get any real friends who will attend his funeral. Not only he didn’t get friendship from money, but also he didn’t get his beloved one from his past.
Lesson 02 – A Moral Business
The only purpose of getting rich fast from Gatsby was to gain the heart of his past love. So he unintentionally chose the wrong way in order to rich fast. But with his business sense and maybe luck, he can build the wealth he needed within three years. However, his wealth foundation isn’t moral, and has partnered with suspended people. This business was lack of the main foundation which is morality. In the story, it gave not only the lesson that money can’t buy everything, but also that with the lack of morality, a business can fall easily. And the ending can’t be good. So from these lessons, people should aware not to happen like Gatsby in the future.
Lessons 03 – The past is past
From the story, Nick Carraway said you couldn’t repeat the past. Then Gatsby didn’t agree with it. From this scene, you may see that Nick warned Gatsby but he holds too much about his past. If Gatsby didn’t hold the past too much, he may not be rich fast with his illegal business, but his ending might be good. The misleading concept of “Money can buy everything” and his past holding made the life of Gatsby didn’t end well. He can’t let go of his past. There is a great saying about it
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mastery. But today is a gift. That is why it’s called the Present”
Master Oogway (Kungfu Panda)
This life lesson is something that we all should listen to. It is not just for love, but for everything. Some people are looking back to their golden age and they forget about the present. However the past was good, it was over. What matters is our present thus our uncontrollable future will be bright again.
From this summary, I can only cover some of the most valuable lessons that I think of within the book. You cannot get the feeling and the whole story from this article. So I highly suggest reading the original book so you won’t miss the feeling of 1925 and the life of Gatsby given from it.
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For English Learners who want to listen to the Burmese version and glossary here…
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