This year in 11th grade english, we read the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel is about a man named Jay Gatsby and everything he has done to satisfy his desperation for the one miss Daisy Buchanan, a girl he briefly dated a few years back. The narrator, Nick, is a friend of Gatsbys and the second cousin of Daisy. Him being the narrator helps to create the effect that the reader is observing everything that happens in the story along with Nick, as opposed to being the one doing it all, like if Gatsby was the narrator. By the end of the novel the reader comes to know that Gatsby acquired his wealth through illegal bootlegging, all in hopes of impressing Daisy and winning her back from her abusive husband, Tom. English teachers teach this novel because it represents the average lifestyle of wealthy americans in the 1920s and how material wealth was valued above all else, all to accomplish “The American Dream”. After learning how Gatsby went through so much trouble just to become wealthy in order to impress a girl, Fitzgerald kills Gatsby, being a clear representation on his intent when writing the novel. Fitzgerald wrote the novel to criticize the time period he lived through, and all the people that made up the time period. I believe schools continue to teach The Great Gatsby to reiterate the idea that material goods should not be put before authentic love, relationships and content-ness with what you already have. But at the same time, I think that’s a contradiction in human nature. Although we can all say that money does not buy happiness, we all value materialistic goods. Everybody wishes they had more money, so they could buy more things, for what? To make them happy. Yet, those same people claim that happiness cannot be bought. I mean, Fitzgerald himself probably made millions off this novel itself, yet the whole novel was meant to critique the idea that money should not equalize with power and happiness. I think if nothing else, this novel demonstrates the inevitable greed within everyone.