GSeweek4.htm

Student Led Seminar Presentation and Summary
Leaders:Kirsten McCarty, Dan D’Haem, Amy Nunez

Summary Conclusion Questions Bibliography

The Death of the American Dream: A Look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald, perhaps the greatest author to come out of America in the nineteen twenties, wrote many works criticizing American culture during this time. Fitzgerald had an eye for understanding the hollow nature of the American civilization; The Great Gatsby stands alone as his greatest work in that direction. This makes The Great Gatsby a must for the reader interested in understanding today’s America. F. Scott Fitzgerald exposes the myth of the American dream throughout The Great Gatsby. He accomplished this through Gatsby’s failure to make his dream of Daisy becomes a reality, the class barriers that inhibit several characters, and by his portrayal of the rich as being hollow.
For Jay Gatsby, Daisy is his American dream; he " forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath (Fitzgerald, 117)". He places the entirety of his ambition on her; therefore in failing to gain her, he fails to achieve his dream. Many literary critics have observed this. For instance, Joyce Rowe characterizes Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy as "the pursuit of a grail which conjoins wealth and power with all the beauty, vitality, and wonder of the world (102)." She is right. Daisy is very much like a "grail"- something that is sought but never found. Daisy like the green light, symbolizes Gatsby’s dream; however, in reality they can not live up to standards of the dream. This speaks about the fundamental nature of the American dream; the goal itself can not live up to our expectations.
No character in The Great Gatsby successfully achieves the identity change characteristic of the American dream. This is prevalent in Nick, Myrtle and Gatsby’s desire to progress upward in the class system. Nick has limited success on the bond market; he never makes the kind of money that would earn him a place in the upper crust of society. Further more his morally introspective nature separates him from the careless rich. Myrtle attempts to use Tom Buchanan as her ticket to the upper class; however the attempt is inept, and Tom is only using her. She fails to realize the nature of the bourgeoisie class. Therefore her attempts to emulate it are laughable. Gatsby comes the closest; he has money, poise and popularity. It is simply his lack of "breeding" that causes his failure. As Tom points out (as a member of the bourgeoisie), "I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her, unless you brought the groceries to the back door (138)." Gatsby, despite his wealth and mannerisms, is viewed as a member of the lower class. Through these three characters, the reader is left with the impression that the American dream is impossible.
According to Fitzgerald, the rich (who are the American goal) are a society of empty, careless and wasteful people. This leads the reader to question the validity of the goal. Tom and Daisy represent this and are described as such: " they were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together (187-188)." To Fitzgerald, the rich are inhuman; they are spoiled to such an extent that their morality has been twisted. In the novel there is no one who can punish Tom or Daisy for the wrongs they do; only the sightless eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg are left to judge the crimes of Tom and Daisy (Tom’s adultery and Daisy’s murder). The reader is left with a sour impression of the bourgeoisie class.
As Americans, our national identity is interwoven with the concept of the American dream, the idea that one can remake himself through hard work and talent. The American dream is exposed as a myth in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald forces the reader to note the hopelessness, hollowness and havoc created by our preoccupation with wealth and privilege. There is more to our existence than wealth and social standing, and our society would benefit from having this idea woven as tightly into US nationalism as the American dream.

Conclusion

We began seminar by sharing the schedule, which included a brief presentation given by each group member. Two-thirds (biography and cover art) of the presentation was given to serve as background information; the last third was a summary of our critical analysis. The reaction to this organization seemed positive. We then attempted to lead the group discussion to further illuminate the text. Many of our discussion points were things that we had noticed in the book, but that didn’t support the thesis, and therefore are missing from the critical analysis.
Several interesting topics were brought up during seminar. Our questions seemed to work well with the flow of discussion. We were able to cover different literary symbols such as cars, heat, the green light and the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. One important point that was mentioned was our failure to clearly define what the American dream. As it turns out, the American dream is nearly impossible to accurately and concisely define. We attempted to steer the discussion toward nationalism and relate it to the themes of the week. The closing discussion presented many new ideas on nationalism that we enjoyed, including individuals own personal interpretations.
The work load was divided among the group members is the following fashion: biography research and presentation - Dan, cover art research and presentation Amy, literary criticism research - Kirsten, literary analysis presentation Kirsten. We all accomplished the paper planing and outlining together, as well as the presentation concept, outline and questions. Dan and Kirsten wrote the paper and conclusion. All and all the group worked well together and the presentation was a success.
Presentation

Introduction:
Welcome to seminar.
Give a schedule.
Pass out nametags.

Biography of F Scott Fitzgerald given by Dan:
Biography
Life in the 20’s

Cover Art of novel given by Amy:
The artist
The significance of the eyes.
The relation between the cover and ending.
The comparison of symbols on cover and in novel.

Critical analysis given by Kirsten:
Summary of our paper.

Open discussion.
Pre break questions
Break and suggestions from class
After break, nationalism

Do you agree or disagree with our take on The Great Gatsby?
What do you think is the significance of the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg?
What do you think is the significance of heat in relations to tensions building among the
          characters during the climax of the novel? Pages 120/115-135/129
What do you think is the significance of cars and how they represent the wealthy i.e.
          Gatsby’s car?
A great deal of the novel’s action takes place is the bizarre landscape of
          The "Valley of Ashes". What do you think is the significance of this location?
What is your impression of East Egg in the novel and how does it compare to West Egg,
         and what do you think is the significance of the new rich being separated from the
         old rich?
Is Daisy innocent? Is she more of a victim or an antagonist? Is she really a "pretty little
         fool"?
What is Fitzgerald commentary of commercialism?
Looking at Gatsby’s list of guest (page 65/61 chpt 4) what is the significance of this?
What is the correlation of the symbols on the cover and the symbols in the novel?
We saw the novel as being semi-autobiographical in respect to Fitzgerald’s personal life.
         Do you agree or not?

After break:
Suggested questions from class.
Is Gatsby’s rejection of the American Dream and anti nationalist statement or is he
        redefining the dream and making a nationalist statement?
Is nationalism in Dona Barbara portrayed in the same manner as in The Great Gatsby? If
     not how do they differ?
Both Gallegos and Fitzgerald in their perspective novels present their own take on
       national identity. What are these point and how do they differ?
Is there any other subject you would like to explore?