What do I love about Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books. I loved it the first time I read it, and I have loved it every time I read it while teaching it, which has been many times. What I love about it is captured in the review that you were required to read. It is the verisimilitude with which the characters are portrayed. They are beautiful, complex, interesting characters, who at the end of the day are really quite flawed and selfish. I believe that is true of all humans. We are fascinating and unique and complicated, and at our core we are selfish and capable of despicable things. Some people have a greater capacity to rise above their flawed natures and even to grow more compassionate and wise in the course of their lives, but many do not. It is not an easy thing to do. I try to love them anyway. I personally believe it takes the involvement of a higher power to truly reach our "best selves", but that's beside the point. The feelings and the choices of the characters in this story feel very true to me. I love them, and I hate them all at once. It's how I feel about most people in the real world too. The book is also about fantasy versus reality, about the disillusionment that comes when the real world shatters your dreams. But one of the things that makes the human spirit so beautiful is represented in Jay Gatsby. It is the belief that even when we know things may not work out in the best possible way, we still believe that our dreams are worth aiming for.

I have heard that while this book is often taught in high school (most often in 11th grade), teenagers are really not mature enough and have not experienced enough of life to appreciate the deeper themes of the story. I actually think that might be true. I don't know if you have lived enough life to grasp the things that I described in the paragraph above. I'm honestly not even sure if I want you to get it yet because it can be a hard wake up call to experience. But every year there are at least a couple of students who really love this book. They get it, at least to some extent, and that makes me think other students do too. So what if they don't understand it fully yet. Hopefully they will read it again and again, and each time it will mean something greater.

Digital collaboration

I have had students read The Great Gatsby in almost each of my 11 years of teaching. It is one of my favorite books, but I am always trying to find new ways for my students to engage with the text. Incorporating digital technology in my instruction is another one of my passions, so this Blog assignment is a way for me to marry these two academic interests. I am hoping that you will all embrace this opportunity to explore a new digital medium, while you also share your thoughts and ideas about the novel. Some of you may feel hesitant about sharing your thoughts in this public way, but it is important for us to hear the reactions and ideas from all types of people as we read the book. We can and should learn from each other.

Why do I love The Great Gatsby? I am intrigued by the flawed and complex characters, even when I am disgusted by them. I believe they accurately represent the hopes and dreams and tragic choices of humanity, and the disillusionment that we all face in life. To quote the narrator, Nick Carraway, "I was within and without simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."