FInal Post

I think that I have come to definitive conclusion about whether or not I liked my book: not really. First off, the end was slightly sad, and slightly pleasurable depending on how you look at it. The book ends by Amory crying that he knows himself, "but that is all". For one thing, my prediction came true. The book ended with Amory being alone and depressed because he pushed everyone away from him. This was no surprise at all, and was a little satisfying because after many of the things that happen in the book, I simply just do not like Amory as a person, and i feel that after his entire life, he made no adjustments to be a good person or anything. In my opinion, the book ended the way that it should have because he didn't develop at all.

And that was one of the reasons why i didn't like the book. One of the main things i said that i was excited to read about in the first blog post was the development that Amory made throughout his life. After reading the back i figured that some sort of character development was inevitable, not only because it is apparent in nearly every story i have ever read, but because he is a person who gets no results out of his actions. That is a person who you would expect to develop and change, right? Wrong. I am not exactly sure what Mr. Fitzgerald was thinking when he wrote this, because it simply made Amory more and more annoying as the book went on. In the last section, he mentions his mother's death in a letter to his great friend Darcy. He speaks about it in an emotionless manner, and even seems annoyed a bit when mentioning the fact that she left most of her wealth to the church. This was the point of no return for me as a reader, because as soon as he disgraced his mother simply because she didn't leave him enough money, i decided that he didn't deserve the happiness that i once hoped he would achieve. in that sense, the book was a success, but if you look at if from Amory's point of view, it really is a sad sad story. The boy was born to an extravagant mother who brought him up to be the way he is, and as a result of the war, he ends up emotionless. However it is not his background that makes me hate him, that can be excused. It was his inability to change that annoyed me, he seemed to get worse with this egotism, arrogance, and pomposity throughout the novel.

In addition to just the actual story, i thought it was lacking in general. For example, the entire book followed only one person in detail. This might have been okay if that one character was extremely interesting, like-able, or changed a lot throughout the book, but Amory was none of those things. I think the addition of more characters would have made the book less boring and a lot more exciting. Another thing was the dead spots. They made the book very hard to read because they would discourage me from wanting to turn the page. However, regardless of all of this, I think that if i did learn something from this book, it is who i should never be. I see the things that Amory did, and the way it affected him, and it brought him nowhere but to loneliness. Not only that specifically, but i also learned just the general importance of being able to change. I see now that it can be crippling if one is not able to adapt or change when their situation or strategy is not working. For this, i guess i am thankful, but in all honesty, i would have liked to be taught these lessons in a different way with a more interesting book.