The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"'Her voice is full of money.' He said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood it before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it..." (120).

The Great Gatsby lives up to its acclaim. Each character is complex and elucidated by strange yet beautifully descriptive language. From the eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg making a statement about American capitalism, to the dramatic and poignant ending, the book had me analyzing and annotating the whole time. The Great Gatsby was one of the first books of its time written by a white man that exposes the fallacy that is the American Dream: if you work hard enough for something, you will receive it. Even Gatsby, a wealthy white man, was never let into the golden gates of the East Egg zenith. This is definitely not a beach/relaxing read, but a book that must be read with the lens that dissects what Fitzgerald is really trying to say about what being an American truly means.