There are plenty of popular books in this world for many reasons, like plots, themes, style or so on. With different perspectives, there are some people who dislike these popular books. For me, the popular book that I dislike is The Great Gatsby because it is hard to understand.
The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925. The Great Gatsby is considered an American classic novel. The reason is that The Great Gatsby’s story has a universal theme such as the hopelessness of social constructs, follies and so on. It is used as part of the lesson in English and American history classes in American high schools. The story is about a poor man named Jay Gatsby having a girlfriend named Daisy. One day Jay was needed in the military and broke up with Daisy. After that she married Tom Buchanan. Gatsby wanted to become rich so that she would come back to him. Gatsby made her come back to him temporarily because she still wanted to have Tom. In the end, Gatsby was killed because of the misunderstanding.
When I was an exchange student in the US, I had to read The Great Gatsby for my English III class. I do not dislike it due to the plot but owing to the challenge of reading. I struggled in reading this novel because it is American literature with a hard vocabulary and writing style. I tried my best to pass this work by watching the movie, reading the summary in Thai, and asking friends and teachers for help. I did not read the whole book since it is hard for me and needs a lot of effort. The worksheet I needed to complete had to answer the questions and put the page of the evidence. Since I was not reading it, I had to read the chapter summary in Thai and find where the text was talking about. Moreover, I got the biggest work of the semester which was writing an essay about the American Dream using every article that I had read in the semester. This work was the most challenging one because I did not get the idea of The Great Gatsby about the American Dream. As a result, I searched the internet for the reference, and tried to understand it.
Even though I said that The Great Gatsby made me struggle, I have to say that I developed myself a lot from this book. My reading and writing skills were developed as well as my survival skills.
Perhaps it's time I reread this American classic. In fact, like Aom, I first read this as a required text in English class in high school. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time, and I did not like The Great Gatsby. But then, neither did I love Shakespeare's Macbeth when forced to read that at age 12. I've since changed my mind about both, and have enjoyed reading them several times since I left high school, which might not be the best place to introduce young teenagers to literature, or perhaps the real fault lies with less than wonderful teachers. it was my English teachers in later years at the same Catholic high school who did awaken me to the joys of shakespeare and more modern classics.
ReplyDeleteWhilst the language in The Great Gatsby was not such a problem for me, the ideas were still complex and took some effort to understand before I could reflect on whether their truth, beauty and usefulness.
Perhaps Shakespeare is a better comparison for me. His 400-year-old English was definitely a challenge. In fact, had the edition in which we read Shakespeare's version of the king killer who goes on to be killed himself when king not had extensive notes and glossary help on every page, it would have been almost a foreign language, so much has English evolved over the last 400 years. Happily, it was a language relatively easy to learn, and by the time I came to Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, and other works by Shakespeare, the language was no longer such a problem.
Aom didn't mention it, but I also thought that the latest film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, starring Leonardo di Caprio as Jay Gatsby, is well done. I'm not sure whether it's still on NetFlix or not.
As my initial response led to a different one and that to another, that comment grew a bit longer than I had planned. But this is response writing, not essay writing, so it's OK to jump from one topic to another - hopefully with some connection to help readers follow.
DeleteI am not a person skilled in language. Even in Thai literature, I always struggle with it. Also, the Thai literature has mentioned the old culture and perspective which has been changed. I feel awkward every time I read these literatures.
DeleteEvery great book becomes a nightmare in English class. When i was in university, we were forced to read one of the Harry Potter's for the whole semester. It wasn't fun because it was clearly not reading for pleasure. We had to read the whole book many times to analyst themes and characters, and applied theories to them. My grade on that subject should go to SparkNotes.
ReplyDeleteGreat English books can also be a nightmare for native speakers who are forced to read them in English class.
DeleteAlthough the movies were largely disappointing, I thoroughly enjoyed all of Rowling's books, but good though her writing is, Harry Potter seems an odd choice to me to read for a whole semester at university. Then again, it does present its themes of good versus evil and the importance of friendship in a modern context that portrays the cultural background of England in the late 20th century, so perhaps it's not a bad choice after all.
I'd like to know whether Beer's class read the first Harry Potter book or a later one in the series.
I agree with you that when you are forced to read one novel, the passion of reading the novel will be just to read and take the exam. On the other hand, if you read the novel because of your desire, you will read it effectively. One of the websites that helped me to make this through was Quizlet. This is because the teacher finds the questions from the internet, and there is someone putting the questions and answers in the Quizlet.
DeleteI think Quizlet is great. It's primarily designed as a vocabulary app, but as Aom suggests, it can be repurposed to learn other things.
DeleteI also liked Aom's comments about literature. Most of my English teachers in high school did not do a good job of introducing us to the great literature we had to read. As Aom says, it was "just to read and take the exam," which is sad. It was after I left school and got to university that I really learned to love literature, including the novels, poetry and other great texts I'd been forced to read in high school. Even good teachers who loved the texts they were teaching weren't enough to make me love THe Great Gatsby or Macbeth when I first read them.
Personally, The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite stories meanwhile I also understand your point. I love it because I have read it in Thai. F. Scott Fitzgerald's books are not friendly for those who learn English as a foreign language anymore but I sure that you have learned a lot from his book. Is it a blessing in disguise for you?
ReplyDeleteIf I knew you at that moment, I would recommend the Oxford Bookworm version for you.
If you would like to see a picture of the book
https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/graded_readers/oxford_bookworms_library/stage_5/9780194786171?cc=th&selLanguage=th
It is a blessing in disguise for me. I developed plenty of skills from reading these novels such as reading skill, writing skill and so on. Thank you for recommending the Oxford Bookworm version for me. I will look it up later.
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