William Lewis
Ms. Goodner
English III AP
17 October 2014
Argument Essay In the document “The Critical Reception of The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald’s novel is being strictly evaluated by many critics. The majority of the critics view The Great Gatsby, simply put, as a dud. I disagree with the judgments made by these inadequate critics, because a great deal of them are overlooking the realness of the theme in the book. It is real because back then events like the ones in The Great Gatsby were happening in real life, but not on the same extent or level. It has been said this book was written before its time. Certain events in this book were not the type of events that people back then were open about. Perhaps that is the reason for its harsh criticisms. Stallings once said that “the earlier Fitzgerald was barbarous; those who followed him have aped his barbarity.” Stallings thought that Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby to reflect his own life, or what he wanted his life to be like. This assumption could be true or false but no one will really know. Fitzgerald may have just had a big descriptive imagination. He is not the only one that came up with some “what if’s” in his life. Stallings thought that the novel was not good enough to be called a masterpiece. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but with its unique style and writing before its time gives The Great Gatsby at least some qualities of a masterpiece. Critics Mencken and Stallings believe the book was not finished and could have more of a storyline. On the other hand if you put too many parts into a storyline the reader or audience will get confused and lose interest in the topic. An author’s goal is to gain the attention and interest of their audience or reader. Critics from the time period that the novel was written have different views of those of the modern time. The reason for the differences of the criticisms is, because our lifestyles and ways people went about doing things are different than they were 60 years ago. Fitzgerald did a good job getting the attention of his reader and keeping it throughout the whole novel. Some critics say that he did not incorporate enough of information to keep their attention. Actually Fitzgerald put more than enough events in The Great Gatsby to keep your attention. If someone needs a lot of events in a story they need to put that book down and watch a movie to recognize the transitions. The character Gatsby is