Random Take Cus I'm Bored: Final Thoughts on The Great Gatsby + The World of Shiny Things


Blog #8: Bizarre Take #8: Final Thoughts on The Great Gatsby + The World of Shiny Things

So this week we finally conducted our Great Gatsby X Diamond as Big as the Ritz Unit, and honestly it was really fun! Reading the Great GAtsby was pretty boring at times, especially when it was just Gatsby poring over Daisy and buying her lavish and extravagant things, and Myrtle was getting run over and beat up all the time (poor Myrtle) However, the ending was very interesting and definitely caught my eye. Especially the unexpected deaths and the not-so happy ending; that were definitely not the way I expected this book to end, but it does make sense. After all, a happy ending would not have established the main lesson that we learned: You can’t turn back time; no amount of money or wealth can change that. Time is an abstract, not a materialistic idea, something that Gatsby failed to comprehend from the very beginning. Another main theme that we picked up was that the wealthy seemed to be inconsiderate of what they had, and took it mostly for granted. This contrasted to the poor from the Valley of Ashes, who cared about everything since they didn’t have much, something that was really emphasized in the Owl Eyes Car Crash. This made the gap between the wealthy and the ritz even larger, and defined the social ladder that was present in New York in the 1920s. 

Many of the same lessons were also learned from another short story we read: The Diamond as Big as The Ritz. Although this too took an incredibly long time to read (it was like 50 pages!), it was very interesting towards the ending, and became very dark very fast. Everyone in the story was overcome with selfishness and greed, and wanted a part of the diamond, especially Percy’s family, who were ready to do anything to preserve it. The idea of wealth and greed was highly emphasized throughout this story, especially through Braddock. The theme seen in Great Gatsby of the wealthy taking things for granted is also seen in this story, when Kismine accidentally brings rhinestones instead of diamonds and doesn’t seem to care. This shows that her wealth has blinded her so much that she doesn’t see the value of it anymore. 

The two motifs used to describe this theme for both stories were cars and diamonds. These two symbols were constantly repeated throughout the entirety of both stories,Cars were in the great gatsby, and were used by wealthy people to represent their higher status. Tom and many other people from the East Egg constantly misused cars, getting into car crashes and quite literally running over people ( rip myrtle). This was shown through the Owl Eyes Car crash, when the wealthy didn’t seem to care about the expensive car that had crashed, but the less wealthy were much more worried about it. This shows how wealth can cloud your vision from the value of things. Similarly, diamonds were used in Diamond as Big as the Ritz to symbolize wealth. Many started taking the diamonds for granted especially when they gained large amounts of wealth, showing how inconsiderate they became.


  • Renowned Literary Critic, 

  • Prisha Pachpande 


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