Ok so I finished the last book for this summer and I'm really glad I ended with The Great Gatsby. This book was a pretty easy read and it went fast. What the book was about was actually kind of intriguing and made me continue to keep turning the page!

This book is really good at describing it's characters. For instance, how Daisy's voice is so melodic and how Fitzgerald was able to play up her character. Same with Tom with his authoritative voice and body, he seemed like a tough guy that nobody was going to mess with. Nick, the main character, really seemed like he was an all-around guy with his head on his shoulders type of guy. Through out the book you could tell when he had made up his mind about a decision such as when he knew that he would have to be the one to take on Gatsby's funeral at the end of the book; he was just a very logical guy! Then there was Gatsby who was a very deep character and he definitely took some time to figure out. He was honestly the guy who came back from war who lost his love because she couldn't wait any longer. He was a man with a name of great parties but nobody was truly friends with him, guests just liked to go to his parties that he threw. Gatsby was a successful man, but he lacked the true love, family, and friends which I thought was really tragic. He was able to make a success through the drug-store chain he had, but money doesn't buy happiness and in the end he needed Daisy, but she was married to Tom. All these characters when intertwined made a really good story, and how Myrtle (who Tom was having an affair with) got hit by a car in the end by Daisy and Gatsby ends up getting killed in the end for it just makes this story so much deeper and meaningful.

I used the method of establishing territories in this book, not for any reason but that that was the only one left. I cross-referenced terms such as "abandoned," "loneliness,"purposeless and alone," because all those words kind of connected to the theme of the book. These terms were constantly used and seemed to have a connection. What worked with me for summarizing was summarizing page by page into a sentence and subject matter at the bottom of the page if it was an important part of the book. This took a while but summarizing actually helps me a lot because I'm able to remember it better. I really tried at the key words and realized that when I looked over my keywords it helped me see deeper into the book. Such as "dishonesty," "good girl," "old sport," just kind of gives off the idea of what it was like in the 20's and how women and men interacted. The glossary helped to cause I was able to better understand the text by finding the meaning of an important word.

Honestly, this type of method was probably the most efficient for me and The Great Gatsby wasn't too bad of a book. I'm done with summer homework!! That's always a plus too.