By: Mateo Guevara, Maria Paula Bustos,

Isidro Dávalos & Oriana Moscarella

The Great Gatsby

ContextRoaring 20´sPostwar economy (flourishing)Consumerism/ Power/ MoneyDebaucheryAlcohol prohibitionCorruption (bootlegging and other illicit activities)Jazz ageMoral decay

ContextThe US was in a postwar period in which they were gaining a lot of money and buying new things like cars and other consumer goods.Americans were spending all their extra money and became worried about power and materialism.People were throwing luxurious parties and there was an excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures. As the reader can clearly notice in the novel by the parties of Gatsby.

Alcohol prohibitionThe 18th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors.”But people didn´t remain still for as bootlegging became extremely famous at the time and alcohol was never absent in parties and meetings.

Jazz ageMany people started dancing the Charleston and listening to Jazz bands.“Some older people objected to jazz music´s “vulgarity” and “depravity”, but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.”

Moral decay and the corruption of the American dream

Money and power became the most important values and Americans forgot about the real values such as honesty and humility.Ambition and greed increased within the society.The real meaning of the American dream became corrupted.Fitzgerald demonstrates how a dream can become corrupted by one’s focus on acquiring wealth, power, and expensive things.

The dreams held by the characters of the novel are easily corrupted by their quests to obtain money, high social status, and expensive materialistic goods.

Marxist Literary Theory Marxist Literary Criticism is a way of analyzing literature that focuses on the way authors tend to contribute to a capitalist society through their pieces of writing. Authors present social classes divisions as capitalism wants them to do so. It criticizes pieces of literature that subordinate the working class. It cherishes authors that are sympathetic towards the low classes and challenge the capitalist aspects of society.

Marxist Literary Theory in The Great Gatsby

One example is when Nick expresses that the proles are the real force in society

This shows how the book expresses the same argument as the Marxist Literary Theory and to Karl Marx´s philosophy stating that the real power lies within the working classes but they just don´t know it

Marxist Literary Theory in The Great Gatsby

Another example is the way Fitzgerald portrays the image of the “newly rich” in the book

Throughout the novel Tom describes Gatsby as vulgar and along with him all the rising class in the West Egg

It shows how the upper class mistreats and subordinates other classes, in this case an old rich subordinating Gatsby, who used to be poor

Marxist Literary Theory in The Great Gatsby

Gatsby´s lifestyle, along with the rest of the upper class in the book is something that this theory would criticize since it shows how capitalism benefits only the minority of society

The Valley of Ashes is a symbol of how the lower class struggles to survive in a society that is controlled by money

To contrast there is the idea that life is easy for people with money (for example when Gatsby shows the card to the police officer, when he was about to pull him over for speeding and the officer apologized to him)

Critical ReceptionFor almost 75 years now, the book has been recognized as a masterpiece of style and narration.It is somewhat surprising, then, that The Great Gatsby was not especially well received when it was published in 1925.The novel would prove problematical for publishers, as the story contained material that was considered to be outside the moral boundaries of the commercial literary magazines of his day.

Several literary magazines would not serialize The Great Gatsby due to concerns about moral issues raised by the story, including adultery and overt sexualityGertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and T. S. Eliot, immediately showered the new novel with praise.Unfortunately, this did not transfer to the reading public since the sales remained deeply disappointing.Influential critic H. L. Mencken reviewed the novel shortly after its publication and commented that the story was "no more than a glorified anecdote"

Critic Laurence Stallings wrote, "I did not think for one moment in reading this book that ‘here is a great novel’ or even, that ‘here is a fine book’" Another critic stated that all characters in the novel were unlikeable which made the book unpleasant. However, in the 1940s, critics took notice of Gatsby himself as a source for close examination. Where previous critics thought the novel lacked a clear scope, the literary scholars of the 1940s recognized the complexity of Gatsby.

Leslie Fiedler, a literary critic wrote in 1951, that The Great Gatsby needed time in order to "catch on" with the reading public.In Fiedler’s insight into the book, he suggests that women were not happy in the role of housewives.The 1960s, a decade of social protest, continued to tear down the myth of the American Dream and the acceptability of the status quo. With some four decades now passed since the publication of the novel, critics and readers seemed better able to recognize the universality of Gatsby's flaws instead of focusing on the unreal characters Fitzgerald created.

Gatsby criticism now includes individual character studies, close readings and essays placing the novel in the context of a wider vision of the US and the American Dream. By 1980, over fifty books entirely devoted to Fitzgerald had been published.Critics continue to turn to Gatsby as a source of literary study. The complexity of the story and its social commentary make it possible to analyze the book from many critical perspectives, from Marxist, to Feminism, to Queer Theory and beyond.

Although members of the intellectual and literary elite of the time immediately recognized Gatsby as a profound contribution, the public needed time and distance in order to come to the same level of appreciation. Today, more copies of Fitzgerald's works are sold each year than were sold during the author's lifetime. 

The Great Gatsby through the Feminist Lens

What is FeminismFeminism is the radical notion that women are peopleFeminism is a commitment to achieving equality of the sexes.This notion is not exclusive to women… “men, while benefiting from being the dominant sex, also have a stake in overcoming the restrictive roles that deprive them of full humanity.”1“Though the media has maligned feminism as a drive for selfish fulfillment by female professionals, those who stand to gain the most are actually those who have the least. The demand for full equality for all women is profoundly radicalizing when it addresses the additional layers of discrimination women experience because of class, race, sexuality, disability, and age, and also the heightened impact on women and children of war, poverty and environmental degradation. Multi-issue feminism quickly develops into a critique of the whole social system.”1

Feminism in the Great Gatsby

“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” –DaisyLooking at the quote we can perceive what was the role of women during the Roaring Twenties. The quote implies how Daisy portrays herself as a victim of the world. Additionally it shows how Daisy is aware of her position in society in her particular historical context. She is critically conscious of her feminism.Finally it shows how she accepts the role that she has been given.

The previously mentioned example is a reminder of how women are marginalized in the novel.Daisy is aware of this fact and she considers women in general inferior.Besides there is a sense of being defeated by someone and her role is to keep her head down.Moreover we can see how women are socially oppressed in the novel by the mentioning that “best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

Feminist Literary TheoryThe first wave of feminism was in the late 1700 and early 1900s.The Feminist criticism is concerned , social and psychological oppression of women.The theory looks at how aspects of our culture are inherently patriarchal. Also this critique examines the implicit misogyny in male writing about women.Feminist criticism is also concerned with less obvious forms of marginalization such as the exclusion of women writers from the traditional literature

BibliographyGreen, Amy M. "The Critical Reception of The Great Gatsby." Salem Press. EBSCO Publishing, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://salempress.com/store/samples/critical_insights/gatsby_reception.htm>.Cullen, Jim. "The Not So Great Reception of The Great Gatsby." N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.mc.cc.md.us/Departments/hpolscrv/page3.htm>."Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. 2owl Purdue University, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014."What Is Feminism? Feminism 101." What Is Feminism? Feminism 101. Red Letter Press, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.