APEnglish–Los Al

I’ve got The Great Gatsby study area up and running on the class website: mreldridge.net. There are chapter guides with vocabulary, questions, and notes that should help you work through the novel without extended class discussions. I strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself not only with the notes for each chapter but also the historical context of the novel.

In order to do this, I’ve included numerous links to various websites that detail the ways of The Jazz Age (a name Fitzgerald invented, by the way). A couple things to remember: The Great Gatsby was written in 1925, so there was no knowledge of The Great Depression, nor Communist expansion, nor the threat of World War II. In many ways the Jazz Age is closer to the 19th century than the 20th. The madness of The Great World War was seen as an aberration–now we see it as a prelude to the far greater and even more destructive wars that followed it.

In America, life was essentially as it had always been. There were no social programs: no social security, no welfare, few schools (who had time for that!?), only a handful of highways (and who owned cars to drive, anyway?). Almost everyone lived within 10 miles of their birthplace, but if you wanted to make something of yourself there was always New York City. New York was where dreams could be made (but most were destroyed). In New York there was opportunity, money, and the right people. In New York you could, the story goes, leave your past behind you; reinvent yourself. In a land where 90% of the population never dreamed of going to college, it was the one bright hope. It was the way off the farm or out of the mill and all the back-breaking labor associated with them. This was a world where most everyone lived and died in poverty (life expectancy was only 55 years); where moving up in the world was more dream than reality; where you were supposed to know your place.

But New York was also a city of corruption. It ran counter to traditional values, the values of the Midwest. The values of the Midwest were, as always, the core American values: hard work, upright living. Notice how Fitzgerald draws subtle but clear distinctions between Tom, Daisy, and Jordan’s value structures and Nick’s estimation of them. This distinction would have been plainly obvious to anyone who initially read The Great Gatsby. Much like today certain places (e.g., Compton, Harlem, San Francisco) have clear connotations for us, whether they’re actually true or not.

I’ve attached a photo of a street in New York City circa 1920.  Notice that the streets are not quite as crowded as today & there’s plenty of room for horse-drawn vehicles, as many still were.

As you begin to read chapter 1, read up on the times and try to put yourself in the characters’ and original readers’ shoes. Imagine the reactions Fitzgerald’s audience would have, their value judgments. Compare them with Nick’s.

Can you imagine why Nick might be simultaneously attracted and repulsed? Have you ever had similarly conflicted feelings?

Filed under: Summer Reading, The Great Gatsby and