A Preposterous Tale

I loved F. Scott Fitzgerald's novella "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz." It is such a fun and creative story and I really enjoyed reading it. So much of the tale seemed ridiculous that I had to laugh out loud. The whole story seemed to have a feel of preposterousness, even from the beginning when the town of Hades is mentioned. Any story that begins in a town called Hades cannot possibly be taken seriously. When John hears the boast of his friend Percy that his dad has a diamond bigger than the Ritz Carlton Hotel, I thought that poor Percy must be hiding his true financial state behind dreams of wealth. When I read that this diamond was a real aspect of the story and was in fact the material makeup of the entire mountain next to Percy's chateau, I again was reminded that this story was not a piece of realism. When the John is introduced to the poor imprisoned aviators who happened upon the Washington's unmapped estate, I couldn't help but burst into laughter. It seemed so hilarious that they were stuck down there, deprived of any future, and John just seems to accept it. Doesn’t he wonder why he is allowed this privilege to visit the estate and purportedly return to school in the fall? I knew then that he was doomed. So much for Mr. Unger's encouraging words of "Don't forget who you are and where you come from… and you can do nothing to harm you." Luckily, John makes it out of the dreamy yet deadly estate with his life and the two shallow Washington girls who have no true grasp of reality. For a few moments, their future seems to be safe and secure because Kismine had grabbed a handful of precious jewels before evacuating the chateau and diamond mountain that her parents and brother decided to blow up rather than leave in the hands of the invading aviators. Unfortunately, and another laugh out loud moment for me, Kismine had taken a handful of fake gems that her friend had traded her in exchange for real ones. You see, Kismine was tired of looking at real jewels and was drawn to these worthless replicas. Now the three survivors, two of whom had previously been the daughters of the richest man in the world, were penniless and without any notion of what it is like to live in the real world.

There were several other aspects of this tale that spoke to the ridiculousness of the entire thing; for example Kismine's name sounding so close to kiss me. However it is due to these hilarious parts of the story that I enjoyed it so much. It is really a great work.