Wolf of Wall Street- Long Blog

First off, what exactly is a Great American Novel? A GAN requires a certain type of criteria for the novel itself to be considered a GAN. The type of criteria is as follows: American content, style, relevancy, characterization, limitations, and the content of the novel. So now, the prompt that I will be focusing on is does the Wolf of Wall Street meet the standards of a GAN? To start off, a key part of a GAN is history, and the impacts on history that the GAN included in it. The Wolf of Wall Street fails to include any past history or past decades as the book tells a story on the author’s life. This book was written in 2007, so it is very modern and focuses on the present and some of the future. However, you could argue that this book will be looked back on in the future as other GAN could use this book as a reference of history, but it is impossible to tell the future. It is very unlikely that this book will be a reference point for future GAN, and being that there is no past history, it is safe to say that the no past history in Wolf of Wall Street has a greater impact on if the Wolf of Wall Street is a GAN or not. Now, this book has a very American feeling to it, as the lifestyle that the author lives truly captures what an American life can be like, “I ended up leaving my kids and wife, Denise— paying her millions up front in one lump sum plus fifty thousand a month in non-tax-deductible maintenance, so she would walk away quietly without demanding a full-blown audit of my affairs” (pg. 4, chapter 2). Connected to the American content, since it is modern, the style is great as the reader is always engaged, and the vocabulary is complex, “in increments of a quarter million or more, for the sole reason of having plausible deniability…” (pg. 5, chapter 12). As I already stated the relevancy is the weakest part, as there is no past history in this book. Next, The character development is present but minimial, as Jordan becomes an average worker to becoming very successful, but the methods he used to achieve that success are not moral. He reforms at the end, and he is trying to become better and learn from his mistakes. Now this book is written by an American author, and it is a fictional memoir, so it can technically still be considered a GAN since it is fictional. Although this book is fictional, it is a fictional memoir, so it hurts the chances of The Wolf of Wall Street being a GAN. Lastly, the message of this novel isn’t necessarily clear, but Jordan makes it evident that you should not cheat your way through life otherwise there will be consequences. So now, does The Wolf of Wall Street meet the requirements to be a GAN? Usually, GAN are historic books that many people and schools read/teach about, and I can tell you that the Wolf of Wall Street will never be taught in school. Being that The Wolf of Wall Street fails to include any past history or past decades, the book is a fictional memoir, and the characterization and content is very minimal and could be improved, The Wolf of Wall Street does not qualify as a GAN. The American content and style were great, but that is only two out of six key themes, and that will not cut it if a book wants to be a GAN. This book was a great and fun book to read, but unfortunately I will not be considered this book a GAN.