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The Great Gatsby : The Glory Days

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The Great Gatsby: The Glory Days
One of my favorite classic rock songs has always been “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen. I grew up listening to my dad’s music and this is one song that has always stuck with me. When I first found out that it was inspired by the Novel “The Great Gatsby” by F Scott. Fitzgerald I was shocked, I had never really listened to the lyrics before. After Reading the book and listening to the song a few more times, I realized that every verse is loosely based on different main characters. This gave the song new meaning for me, it now makes me picture the characters from the book and also has reminiscent sadness attached to it while still connecting to the idea of the American dream, a theme which is also very prevalent in the great Gatsby. The inspiration of characters for verses in this song makes it connects with the book on a whole new level.
The way that I interpret most this song is that is is being narrated by Nick, just like in the novel. The first verse tells the story of the narrator walking into a bar and running into an old friend of his. This old friend was a star athlete back in high school and all that he would talk about were those days. This man clearly hit his peak early and now spends his time dwelling in the past on how things used to be. This man is clearly supposed to be Tom Buchanan. Although Tom was a star college athlete this verse describes him very well. At the beginning of the book Nick describes Tom as, “A national figure

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