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Tender Is the Night analyzes, in great detail, the American Dream. In the book, the character is having a great life with his girlfriend, and all seems to be going well. Abruptly, midway through the story, the Character starts to decline in livelihood. This shows an American Dream which is temporary, not lifelong as it is made out to be. As soon as there is some material to the so-called American Dream in Fitzgerald’s novels, it inevitably and inexorably gets taken away.

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One of the criticisms leveled at Tender Is the Night shortly following its publication concerned its structure. F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of flashback in Book Two, many critics felt, resulted in an unwieldy book. Writing in the St. Paul Dispatch, James Gray called the novel "big, sprawling, [and] badly coordinated" and went on to criticize the book for its "technical fault of poor organization." The issue of its organization plagued Fitzgerald so much in the years following the book's publication that he began to wonder if he should not have presented the story chronologically. A decade after Fitzgerald's death, Malcolm Cowley used the author's personal notes to justify the publication a new version of Tender Is the Night, which he subtitled "The Author's Final Version." In Cowley's revision, which was not well received by critics, the tragic story of Dick Diver is told chronologically; Cowley eliminated the book's flashback sequence by placing much of Books Two and Three at the start of the novel, before Book One.

Far from being a 'mistake,' the structure of Tender Is the Night works well to deliver the evolution of Rosemary's views of Dick, and without that structure, much of what Hemingway called the 'magic' of the book would have been lost completely.

However, the three-part structure with the flashback sequence in Book Two is one of the novel's great strengths. Fitzgerald's decision to organize the book in this way allows the reader to experience the demise of Dick Diver, just as young and naïve Rosemary Hoyt experiences it. From what Fitzgerald reveals in Book One, who would not want to be, or be with, Dick Diver? He is rich, handsome, and the envy of his large circle of friends. Although there are hints of pending trouble in his life, his world is a wondrous one. However, as the unwondrous truths about his and Nicole's past emerge in Book Two, the stage is being set for his precipitous fall and ultimate disappearance in Book Three. The three-part structure of Tender Is the Night effectively mirrors the way Rosemary Hoyt views Dick Diver over time and helps to deepen the reader's understanding of his tragic story.

In the Introduction to Reader's Companion to Tender Is the Night, Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli chronicles the genesis of what would eventually become "The Author's Final Version" of Tender Is the Night. Shortly after the book's publication, when it became apparent that it would not be the commercial success Fitzgerald hoped it would be, Fitzgerald questioned the novel's structure in letters to friends and in his own journals and notes. In 1938, he wrote his editor, Maxwell Perkins, asking him to consider republishing the novel with the middle section placed at the beginning. In the letter, Fitzgerald cited a "dozen reviewers" who had noticed the "mistake" of the book's structure.

Perkins declined Fitzgerald's suggestion, but Fitzgerald did not let the idea die. At the time of his death in 1940, he had in his possession an unbound copy of Tender Is the Night in which he had written, "This is the final version of the book as I would like it." Essentially, Fitzgerald's new version opens with Nicole Diver's case history, as told in Book Two, followed by necessary changes that would keep the rest of the story intact.

Tender Is the Night was the last novel Fitzgerald would see published in his lifetime. By the time the book was published, a combination of alcoholism and unmanageable debts had overwhelmed him. Not only was he desperate for income, he had also clearly lost much of his analytic abilities. Fitzgerald's hope that a new version of the book would breathe new commercial life into it blinded him to the aesthetic issues that such a revision would affect. As Matthew J. Bruccoli writes in the Introduction to his Reader's Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night, Ernest Hemingway, in a letter to Cowley years after Fitzgerald's death, wrote "I know you [revised the book] for Scott and it was what he wanted. . . . But I think if he had been completely sane I could have argued him out of it."

Far from being a "mistake," the structure of Tender Is the Night works well to deliver the evolution of Rosemary's views of Dick, and without that structure, much of what Hemingway called the "magic" of the book would have been lost completely. "It is just like takeing [sic] the wings off a butterfly and arrangeing [sic] them so he can fly straight as a bee flies and loseing [sic] all the dust that makes the colors that makes the butterfly magical in the process," Hemingway wrote in his letter to Cowley.

Tender Is the Night opens from the point of view of the virginal Rosemary Hoyt, the star of the recent Hollywood movie Daddy's Girl. Vacationing in France with her mother, Rosemary is immediately attracted to Dick Diver and his wife, Nicole.

"He looked at her and for a moment she lived in the bright blue worlds of his eyes, eagerly and confidently," Fitzgerald writes in the closing paragraph of the book's second chapter as Dick and Rosemary are standing together on the beach.

A bit later, Fitzgerald describes the moment Rosemary meets Nicole for the first time:

She was about twenty-four, Rosemary guessed--her face could have been described in terms of conventional prettiness, but the effect was that it had been made first on the heroic scale with strong structure and marking, as if the features and vividness of brow and coloring, everything we associate with temperament and character had been molded with a Rodinesque intention, and then chiseled away in the direction of prettiness to a point where a single slip would have irreparably diminished its force and quality.

Rosemary is clearly smitten by the couple, especially Dick. "I love him, Mother," she cries from her mother's lap. "I'm desperately in love with him--I never knew I could feel that way about anybody. And he's married and I like her too--it's just hopeless. Oh, I love him so."

In Book One, the reader is made to view Dick and his world essentially as Rosemary views them. More than simply being smitten sexually, Rosemary is also taken in by the whole of Dick Diver and his world: the lavish dinner parties and expeditions to Paris, Nicole's spending sprees, their circle of friends, and their obvious wealth. And just as a smitten young woman (or man) would not necessarily observe details that would contradict such an idealization, so too the reader may notice only in retrospect the foreshadowing of trouble that Fitzgerald sprinkles throughout Book One: the bathroom scene at the villa, the duel between Tommy Barban and Albert McKisco, and Abe North's drinking.

At the end of Book One, the Divers' world begins to unravel in Rosemary's eyes. North gets extremely drunk in Paris, and through a series of convoluted events, a black man, Jules Peterson, is discovered on Rosemary's bed shot dead. As if this is not enough, Nicole responds to these events by going into a state of hysterics in her hotel bathroom. "Rosemary, back in the salon, heard the bathroom door bang, and stood trembling: now she knew what Violet McKisco had seen in the bathroom at Villa Diana," Fitzgerald writes, suggesting that at least some of the brilliant sheen that had blinded Rosemary has now been dulled.

The main criticism of the flashback structure of Book Two was that it made for a confusing plot structure. Although it is true that placing the flashback sequence of Book Two at the beginning of the novel would have made for a clearer plot chronologically, the effect would have been both to take away from the naïve and idyllic worldview created in Book One, or the "magic," as Hemingway called it, and it would also have taken away from the effect the gradual realization of what the bathroom scenes in Book One signified. With a straightforward narrative, the mysteries of those scenes would have been eliminated entirely.

Book Two covers approximately an eleven-year period, from 1917, when Dick, an up-and-coming twenty-six-year-old psychiatrist, is studying at a Zurich clinic, to about 1928 when he consummates his relationship with Rosemary in Italy and proceeds to get arrested and beaten by Italian police after a night of excessive drinking.

It is true that there are some issues of plot structure in the way that Fitzgerald has managed Book Two. Rather than simply bringing the events back to where they were left off in Book One, there is some overlap and possibly some resulting confusion in the narration. More important, though, there is the "problem" of Rosemary Hoyt. After devoting an entire section of the novel to presenting the narration through her eyes, she disappears entirely through most of Book Two, and when she eventually does reappear, she is no longer the young, idealistic virgin Dick once knew.

Fitzgerald was on the receiving end of criticism on both of these accounts when Tender Is the Night was first published. But again, Fitzgerald's choice to present Book Two in flashback form, and to remove Rosemary from most of this section, makes perfect sense in light of Rosemary's newfound concerns at the end of Book One. With the drinking and the murder and the hysterics she has just been made privy to, Rosemary must be wondering whom she has gotten involved with. By using Book Two to provide the history behind those events, Fitzgerald effectively gives Rosemary, and the reader, the answer.

And Rosemary's "response" to that answer? She disappears from the Divers' circle, makes new movies, and, it is quite apparent, has affairs with other men. In short, she continues the process of growing up, but away from Dick. And when Dick returns from America and visits her in Rome, it is clear that she is no longer smitten by his worldliness and charm. She goes through the motions of consummating their relationship, just as Dick does, but the spark is no longer there for either of them.

More particularly for Rosemary, by the time the Divers' history has been recounted in Book Two, she has learned that the appearances of Book One were somewhat illusory and that the violence and hysterics that came to light were as much a part of Dick's life as were the attributes that she fell for in the first place. The effect of this realization, however, can only be made manifest with the structure that Fitzgerald has chosen. If Nicole's case history had preceded Rosemary's introduction to the Divers, neither she, nor the reader, would have been nearly as smitten. The glamour of their lifestyle would clearly have been tarnished, and the effects of any new insights into the Divers, if there were any new insights at all, would be minimal.

To conclude Rosemary's relationship with Dick, Fitzgerald brings her back to the Divers' villa briefly in Book Three. After Dick's embarrassing flop with the water ski trick, Rosemary joins Dick and his family on the beach and engages in a telling moment of dialogue that essentially mirrors the structure of the book:

'The first drink I ever had was with you,' Rosemary said, and with a spurt of enthusiasm she added, 'Oh, I'm so glad to see you and know you're all right. I was worried--' Her sentence broke as she changed direction 'that maybe you wouldn't be.'

'Did you hear I'd gone into a process of deterioration?'

'Oh, no. I simply--just heard you'd changed. And I'm glad to see with my own eyes it isn't true.'

'It is true,' Dick answered, sitting down with them. 'The change came a long way back--but at first it didn't show. The manner remains intact for some time after the morale cracks.'

Just as Rosemary has gone from having her "first drink" with Dick in Book One through the knowledge of his past in Book Two, so has the reader. And so has the reader watched as Dick pathetically tries to remain "intact" in Book Three, despite the "crack" that events from years ago have caused. Without the structure that Fitzgerald provided Tender Is the Night, the reader would have learned the facts of Dick's demise as given forth in the novel's plot but would not have had the experience of coming to terms with that demise. Having the ability to tell a great story and being able to tell a great story while also finding the right structure for that story is what separates merely good writers from great ones. Tender Is the Night shows why F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered one of the twentieth-century's great writers.

Source Citation

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One of the criticisms leveled at Tender Is the Night shortly following its publication concerned its structure. F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of flashback in Book Two, many critics felt, resulted in an unwieldy book. Writing in the St.

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Critical Essay on ‘Tender Is the Night’ textual Evidence

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Critical Essay on ‘Tender Is the Night’ textual Evidence

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“From what Fitzgerald reveals in Book One, who would not want to be, or be with, Dick Diver? He is rich, handsome, and the envy of his large circle of friends. Although there are hints of pending trouble in his life, his world is a wondrous one. However,  as the wondrous truths about his and Nicole’s past emerge in Book Two, the stage is being set for his precipitous fall and ultimate disappearance in Book Three.”

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Fitzgerald understood how history progressed and tied it in to his personal life. He understood how people could look back for the American Dream's realness. Distortions of the past have contributed to the American Dream being a lot stronger in the American Ethos. Nostalgia for the past tends to overpower any feeling that the American Dream was not somehow meant to be.

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Would the 25 cent press keep Gatsby in the public eye-or is the book unpopular. Has it had its chance? Would a popular reissue in that series with a preface not by me but by one of its admirers ... make it a favorite with class rooms, profs, lovers of English prose-anybody. But to die, so completely and unjustly after having given so much. Even now there is little published in American fiction that doesn't slightly bare [sic] my stamp-in a small way I was an original.F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to Maxwell Perkins, May 20, 1940

More than any other American novel, The Great Gatsby has transcended its era to become a touchstone within the broader culture, essentially establishing itself as one of the most important books ever written. As such, I contend that Gatsby is the fabled "Great American Novel," that vaunted title that so many writers have spent their lives attempting to produce. Concurrently, as the novel has developed into a cultural lynchpin, I maintain that there its employment has taken on a broader meaning-a "meta- Gatsby"-or overarching idea of what the taxonomy encompassing Gatsby connotes.

However, since Fitzgerald's masterpiece centers on ambiguity, commentators, analysts, journalists, writers, and others have employed its themes and imagery in their own work, which is sometimes congruent with what Fitzgerald might have had in mind and other times, completely off kilter. Therefore, as the ideas at the heart of Gatsby have spread throughout our common cultural discourse for more than eighty-five years, its importance grew, too, thus enabling it to ascend to folklore or Americana prominence to sit at the very heart of what it means to conceptualize the nation. Whether it is interpreted correctly, incorrectly, vaguely, or in some other manner, meta- Gatsby possesses meaning for audiences.

The rest of Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel lays out my argument in greater detail, but I will briefly outline my rationale here so that the reader may wrangle with my position as it unfolds. Boiled down to three essential points, I claim that Gatsby is the Great American Novel because of its sales and readership over the past nearly ninety years, its ubiquity in high school and college classes, and its use as a cultural touchstone within the wider mass media as a fill-in for certain terms, themes, and ideas. These items combine to earn Fitzgerald's book this title.

Readership also grows by multitudes if one adds in the countless students who attempt to shortcut the process by reading any number of cribbed versions, such as CliffsNotes or SparkNotes. Others attempt to circumvent reading by watching one of the several film adaptations. Woe among these who are students when their teachers or professors find out! From the readership viewpoint, an attempt at quantifying this total might be a fun exercise, but one that could never be definitely proven and ultimately might drive the researcher insane.

The third leg in the equation is one that database research helps us uncover, though the results are not comprehensive because the extant databases cannot search across all publications. Regardless, the returns are staggering. Searching "Gatsby" via Factiva yields 11,813 uses from 1971 to 2013, though Factiva's figures prior to the late 1990s are sketchy. In contrast, a Newsbank's North American source search yields a remarkable 38,612 results from January 1980 to February 2013. Drilling down even further, LexisNexis finds 6,928 hits in the 2000-2010 period alone. Similarly, a New York Times historical search for "Gatsby" generates 362,000 results.

When one attempts to be more inclusive, the results multiply geometrically. A search for The Great Gatsby via Google in mid-May 2013, for example, yielded some 110 million hits. Obviously such a broad search on Google does not provide much context, but it does speak to the pervasiveness of "meta- Gatsby. " Furthermore, an examination of these results taken together reveals the depth of the novel's grip on American popular culture and its place within our national folklore.

The Great Gatsby matters because its inherent ambiguity enables readers to use the novel as a barometer for measuring their own lives and the culture they inhabit. Therefore, the central themes and ideas emerging from the book, ranging from the fulfillment of the American Dream to the role of wealth in society, resonate with contemporary readers who struggle with similar uncertainties today. As a matter of fact, the ambiguity at the heart of Gatsby is its lifeblood and embraced by audiences, particularly American readers who hope and anticipate that its contents will help them comprehend their lives and the larger world a little better.

Simultaneously, however, we cannot ignore the ongoing anti-intellectual and antihumanities era now under way. This breakdown, represented by the combination of the web and high-definition television, actively undercuts deep thinking, reflection, and reading with technological beeps and whirling imagery. "Literature and literary criticism have never been doubted by the general public as much as they are today and so the question of legitimacy is central to the future health of the discipline," concludes literary scholar Mark William Roche. ¹

One needs to simply look at online video figures to see the change the web has facilitated. For example, according to marketing firm comScore, Google/YouTube videos reached 150.7 million unique viewers in February 2013 who watched an astounding 11.3 billion videos of a total of thirty-three billion that month alone. ² I think it is safe to estimate that in one single month, more minutes were spent watching online videos than all the time people dedicated to reading books in a decade. The commitment to reading remains important, though, particularly when examining the methods used to teach in the K-12 and higher education systems. So, while the balance has tipped mightily toward technology in people's personal lives, education is still reading based.

Gatsby, therefore, is almost ghostlike in his physical manifestation, always somewhat illusory as he floats above the novel's other players, cast upward by the power of his dream. Nick sees this in the way that he watches the man and experienced it after first meeting him, not even recognizing or realizing that he was talking to his host at the first party he attended. A resolute midwesterner who made it through Yale and survived the Great War (if we can believe he actually went to war), Nick watches Gatsby soar above the crowds and wants a piece of that action, even though he does not really know what to make of the man.

Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan seem to be the keys to this equation. It is Jay, the hero/antihero who is so caught up in his love for Daisy that he makes her the center of his fictional world, risking everything and eventually losing his life as a result. Tom, on the other hand, symbolizes the corruption of American capitalism and represents the idea that if one has enough money, he can stand above the law. Furthermore, in Tom's heart of hearts, we find that he is a racist, philanderer, and snob. Juxtaposing the two characters provides the good versus evil narrative that drives so much of our popular culture, even though the great magic of Fitzgerald's novel is that we forgive Jay for his crimes because his romanticism and the purity of his dreams elevate him to a higher plane.

The ambiguity and mystery surrounding Gatsby is attractive for many readers. In several instances, Fitzgerald claimed that the character's murkiness stood as one of the novel's weaknesses. Yet in modern America the secretiveness of Gatsby's rise to power enables the reader to use the character as a prism reflecting the ideas he or she wants to accentuate. Furthermore, Gatsby's many masks enable the reader to reassess and rethink him on subsequent examinations. Each new reading opens up the novel and its titular lead to further inspection and analysis.

An answer to this section's primary question is that Gatsby is so important to our conception of ourselves that meta- Gatsby developed as a result of the novel's ubiquity. "It is reasonable to assert that Jay Gatsby was the major literary character of the United States in the twentieth century," says scholar Harold Bloom. "No single figure ... was as central a presence in our national mythology as Gatsby." ⁴ This is uncommon ground for a novel. While the nation has many ideas and iconic figures that are part of our national mythology, few are based on novels and even fewer have exhibited the staying power of meta- Gatsby.

Perhaps an even larger issue is whether one can learn or gain wisdom or perspective from literature. We have already seen how technology is reorienting the way people spend their leisure time, so it seems only a matter of time before technology moves from its tangential place in the education system to front and center. The humanities and technology do not have to be at odds, though, if the goal is toward building, developing, and strengthening critical and contextual thinking skills. As Roche states, "Literature enriches us partly through its intrinsic value, partly as a result of its ability to address neglected values, partly through its simple vitality." ⁵

It is this idea of combining the hard work of deep reading with the simplicity of opening a book or e-book that keeps literature prized. Literature scholar Frank B. Farrell explains:

Referring to literature as truth-revealing includes those moments when we do not simply gather information but have some fundamental character of being human, and especially of human relationships, brought intensely into view ... some truth about human interaction emerge[s] from shadows into light, so that we seem to understand it clearly for the first time ... one can feel moved by having a vista seem to open up suddenly on the world in its character as such, or on the patterns of the psyche's investments in the world, its attachments and losses.⁶

Thus, literature highlights and accentuates what it is to be human, to perceive and contemplate emotion, and to feel alive in the moment that the staleness of the technology world cannot.

Of course, to grasp the existential, one must be open to the idea that one can learn from literature and that it has something to pass along in the act of reading and assessment. Once could argue that the current K-16 education system is set up in absolutely the wrong way-burying, rather than exulting the existential spirit. One needs to look no further than the way children read and choose books, comics, and other materials when provided choice, versus the way they are assigned readings in elementary school.

Literary scholars and literature departments have come under increasing fire over the last fifty years to prove their relevancy in a changing world, but no one doubts the primacy of reading as a cornerstone of the American education system. Somehow a disconnect formed in many people's minds between what literature scholars do and how that reflects in classrooms, not only in teaching young people deep reading skills, but also in training future generations of teachers. One could certainly argue that scholars brought this challenge on themselves by focusing on politicized or postmodern readings to interpret texts, rather than preparing students for comprehending and evaluating materials. As a result, students who were unsure about how to actually read deeply and bring new ideas from their efforts into their lives were instead bombarded with interpretations and politicized ideas.

A fourteen-year-old female Chinese immigrant who had only been in the United States for a couple of years, for example, spoke eloquently about her Gatsby-esque aspiration, saying, "My green light is Harvard." As Samuel points out, this kind of thinking is important as the idea of the American Dream continues to evolve. The Great Gatsby's role is also critical, given that the novel is required reading, Samuel reports, "at half the high schools in the country." Despite its 1920s setting, teachers find that it resonates with teens, many either new to the country or only a generation or two removed from the immigrant experience. ⁹ As it has for decades, Fitzgerald's creation continues to inspire readers who see something of themselves in Jay Gatsby's self-creation and desire for a new start.

In examining contemporary literary theory, scholar Frank B. Farrell makes a case for the power of reading and its potentially transformative consequences. One of the terms he uses in defining literary space is that it is ritualized, which means that the act of reading itself commands change in a safe environment, and produces "ultimately, a more satisfying sense of one's relationship to the forces of the cosmos and to one's community." ¹⁰

This idea may seem lofty to someone who is not a self-described book lover, but it is a common enough concept, usually described as getting lost in a book. Farrell explains, "By giving oneself over to these ceremonial patterns, the reader enters slightly hypnotic states determined by the rhythms and sounds as well as by the scenes and images of the text." ¹¹ What Farrell has outlined is the beauty in the way young children read-developing an awe and sense of wonder at the way words are shaped and the meanings they produce. What is critical in this idea of reading is that the person is altered in the process and that some fundamental shift has occurred in the way that the reader views the world. Roche, in turn, argues, "Literature teaches us the nuances of intersubjective relationships, the strategies, the limits, the possibilities of human interaction." ¹²

It is telling that we usually only discuss these kinds of transformative moments after someone has read a gripping or powerful text. If one were to chart a second-place finisher in this regard, it would be film. Ironically, given our technology enslavement, one never finds a web user touting this kind of overwhelming joy. The Internet simply does not train people to be contextual or critical thinkers; rather, it merely throws facts and imagery at the person, akin to a tidal wave or avalanche.

British critic and novelist David Lodge views reading as a kind of physical activity that mixes in deep probing, which he describes as "a very delicate and complicated activity ... both involved and detached" that forces the reader to accept and reject ideas simultaneously while also searching for ideas and significance. He explains:

The novel unfolds in our memories like a piece of cloth woven upon a loom, and the more complicated the pattern the more difficult and protracted will be the process of perceiving it. But that is what we seek, the pattern: some significantly recurring thread which, however deeply hidden in the dense texture and brilliance of local coloring, accounts for our impression of a unique identity in the whole.¹³

While the reader makes mental notes of the aspects of the novel that work and do not, Lodge says, he or she is piecing together the whole, constantly (perhaps consciously and subconsciously) making decisions about how all these strands will flow into one united narrative. When the reader then senses that he or she has deduced the meaning, the realization "sends a shock like an electric charge through all the discrete observations." Make no doubt about it, though, the reader is engaged in the process. ¹⁴

Readers are so engaged in holding the actual book that the simple idea of doing so has become important. According to writers Jane Mount and Thessaly La Force, "Perhaps we're guilty of sentimentalizing the book as an object. But in an era when digital technology (of which we are nevertheless fans) threatens irreversibly to change our reading experience, there is nothing that parallels the physical book. There is nothing like its weight and smell and the crackle of its spine." ¹⁵

Fitzgerald understood the role history, heritage, and nostalgia played in people's thinking about themselves and the world around them. As a result, his novel works on two levels: a specific portrait of life in and around New York City in summer 1922 and an examination of how history's broad sweep influenced the nation from the Civil War through the Jazz Age. According to literary theorist Mark William Roche, "Studying the past as a genuine partner in conversation gives us alternatives to the passing modes of the present. What becomes valuable is not the newest but the greatest that has ever been thought." This kind of interaction is transformative and powerful, he explains: "To have such an encounter with the past is humbling for the present." ¹⁶

One interpretation of Jay Gatsby would be to anoint him a Horatio Alger-type example of the success one can have in achieving the American Dream. Yet, Gatsby is also a con man. He fakes his way into a life that he does not deserve by letting Daisy assume that he is wealthy, then steals and cheats his way to wealth later without regard for the consequences. This conflicting image heightens the mystery, because the reader knows so much more about Gatsby than the other characters do. We see him through multiple lenses hinging on his secret identity, a narrative trope that fills popular culture from the time of Homer's Odyssey to the comic book pages of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man.

As it seems is inevitable in talking about Gatsby, Fitzgerald plays a role here too when looking at history. According to famed literary critic Alfred Kazin, Fitzgerald's status as the voice of his generation helped establish the Jazz Age and the way people interpreted it. He says, "Mothers swooned and legislators orated; Fitzgerald continued to report the existence of such depravity and cynicism as they had never dreamed of. The shock was delivered; Fitzgerald became part of the postwar atmosphere of shock." ¹⁹ Gatsby, a rather immoral novel for its times, becomes part of the history of the era, as its author assumed celebrity status that afforded him a platform for making various prognostications. According to Kazin, "In 1920 he was not so much a novelist as a new generation speaking; but it did not matter. He sounded all the fashionable new lamentations; he gave the inchoate protests of his generation a slogan, a character, a definitive tone." ²⁰

The popular image of Fitzgerald with a martini glass in one hand and Zelda in the other while preparing to jump on the go-go 1920s dance floor mocks the solitude, hard work, and dedication the author devoted to the writing craft. The painstaking craftsmanship, however, only emerged long after his death. By that time, his legend had been established.

Much of what scholars have learned about Fitzgerald's style is based on the pioneering bibliographic work of Matthew J. Bruccoli, who not only helped propel the Fitzgerald renaissance, but also devoted great amounts of energy to collecting the manuscripts and galleys that Fitzgerald corrected, amended, and edited by hand. Ironically, Fitzgerald's work became "more collectible" based on his writing style: each new work necessitated extensive revision and editing, which means more items exist written in his hand. Thus, these works become valuable for scholars in understanding Fitzgerald's style, while simultaneously establishing a market for the documents. ²¹

"Fitzgerald generated a rich archive by rewriting and revising," Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman explain. ²² Examining the work in draft stage, which included every ribbon copy and the publisher's proofs, demonstrates that Fitzgerald was an incessant editor and reviser. While the edits do cover simple word replacements, what is most astonishing in looking at Gatsby across drafts is the substantial thematic revision the author carried out. One could reasonably argue that the novel takes on its stylistic aura in the final revisions Fitzgerald made in the proofs he received from Scribner's.

What Fitzgerald accomplished with Gatsby is never taken for granted by contemporary readers, but to merely acknowledge his style and poetics is not enough to explain what he achieved. According to scholar Morris Dickstein, "Its story trickles out in bits and pieces and its style, fresh and full of surprises, is as sinuous and unpredictable as the narrative ... [it] achieves resonance as myth and metaphor rather than as a densely populated fictional world." ²³ Novelist Thomas Berger notes, "The Great Gatsby is as nearly perfect as a novel can be, with not a word, not an emotion, not an idea in excess or lacking or misplaced or corrupted." ²⁴ Scholar and poet George Garrett views the novel as revolutionary. He explains, "Fitzgerald advanced the form of the American novel for the benefit of all American novelists who have followed after him, whether they know it or not. They seem to sense this, to bear witness to it, in their continuing admiration for Gatsby." ²⁵

The singular beauty of Gatsby is so complete that people who should possess the words for explaining it often fall back on otherworldly phrasing. "There is something magical about Fitzgerald," says publisher Charles Scribner III, "the real magic lies embedded in his prose and reveals itself in his amazing range and versatility ... his dramatic vision, his painstaking craftsmanship." ²⁶ Scribner lists the types of prose that teachers hope their students will either enjoy and/or emulate by reading Gatsby. While literary criticism is not built on speculation, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that the novel would be widely read just for the writing style and lyricism if it had not reached meta- Gatsby proportions.

Kazin concludes that Fitzgerald the writer seemed to be at war with Fitzgerald the personality, which created a "persistent tension ... between what his mind knew and what his spirit adhered to; between his disillusionment and his irrevocable respect for the power and the glory of the world he described." ²⁷ As a result of this battle, "He was innocent without living in innocence and delighted in the external forms and colors without being taken in by them; but he was preeminently a part of the world his mind was always disowning." ²⁸

The tactical aspects of Fitzgerald's writing impresses scholars, particularly as Bruccoli and others uncovered the intricate patterning and revision he conducted after the book was already in page proofs. The outcome, according to Farrell, is that "the stable and well-proportioned architecture of the language allows us to get closer to threatening experiences and insights without fear of being overwhelmed by them, since the architecture of the prose that we identify with seems able to internalize such material without losing its self-sustaining form and momentum." ²⁹

Popular culture provides the central narratives that comprise life in contemporary America. In a sense, therefore, our very existence as language-making creatures centers on our ability to interact with one another as storytellers. These narratives created in society by individuals, groups, and organizations establish, shape, and reflect all that we are and someday hope to be. Popular culture's centrality is self-evident to scholar Ray B. Browne, who views it "as the everyday world around us: the mass media, entertainment, diversions, our heroes, icons, rituals-our total life picture." Importantly, when placing Gatsby within this culture, Browne explains, "Popular culture of a country is the voice of the people-their likes and dislikes, the lifeblood of daily existence, the way of life ... the voice of democracy." ³⁰ Over time, Jay Gatsby has transformed from literary character in a 1925 novel to meta- Gatsby, a tool employed to understand that era and all those that have followed.

Audiences like Gatsby the same way they like other seemingly normal underdogs who have extraordinary (but somewhat believable) powers, ranging from the undersized action heroes played by Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, and Patrick Swayze to the up-by-their-bootstraps figures represented by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The notion that a form of congruence exists between Gatsby as a fictional character and various other real and imaginary figures from contemporary mass media demonstrates how ubiquitous Fitzgerald's creation remains.

When we are confident, and booming, and full of trust in our own splendor, The Great Gatsby seems like a curiosity, an anecdote as it did to its first readers. But when things are going wrong all round, and we are trying to remember what it was like to live within a magnificent dream-to be deceived by what we want-then it speaks to us. It buttonholes us, saying, not quite attractively or in a way that we can trust, "Old sport."³¹

Many commentators contend that popular culture is about individuals from across the celebrity spectrum, perhaps mainly because people interact with mass media from the standpoint of their favorite actor, band, films, or television shows. Others counter with the notion that culture is actually about the larger influences that drive society, such as technology, government, economic structures, and national ethos.

Regardless of the particular perspective one holds regarding the definition of culture, the dominant notion centers on the essential position of popular culture in contemporary society, as well as its role as a teaching tool. As discussed earlier regarding the state of the humanities, literature, and reading, the idea of reading education leading to a more nuanced and deep relation to one's world is critical. According to eminent scholar Maxine Greene, "We need to hold in mind the fact that the arts are almost always inexhaustible. There is no using up of a painting or a concerto or a poem. If they have any richness, say destiny at all, they are inexhaustible; there is always more." ³² As a matter of fact, the scope of arts education is endless and holds countless consequences for people now and in the future.

As readers, we experience the first lie on the front cover, since the title character is neither "Great" nor "Gatsby." Or, at least we are supposed to consider these options as we "listen" to Nick summarize and analyze the tale. As convoluted as it may seem, what Nick does in creating a readable, sellable, and ultimately fictitious Gatsby from the pieces of his own life is exactly what Fitzgerald and all writers have done since storytelling began.

What makes Gatsby great, for Nick, is that the story he represents is about belief in the American Dream, even though the term did not even exist at the time. Nick is a dreamer and believer. In Gatsby, he finds a fellow traveler who ultimately gives his life in an attempt to achieve his aspirations. The title character's commitment to the dream earns him greatness in Nick's mind, since the narrator's own life contrasts rather negatively in comparison. The reader cannot imagine that anyone would consider Nick anything other than average.

Ironically, what makes Gatsby appear "great" is that Fitzgerald/Nick is so reserved in making him real. As a result, the reader is more or less invited to make his or her own determination. Do we emulate the heroic rise of young Jimmy Gatz to opulent Gatsby, or do we condemn the war hero who turns criminal all in the fruitless pursuit of a married woman?

When readers turn to Nick for clues, instead one finds his narrative fraught with inconsistencies and doubt. Interestingly, it is only the "great" Gatsby that Nick holds in awe while writing his book. All the other characters are revealed for their foibles and shortcomings: Tom Buchanan is a racist and snob, Daisy is weak, and Jordan is frigid and a cheat. Of the dozens of characters, only Gatsby is portrayed as meaningful, even if his guiding light is a confused quest for an unreachable aim. Yet, despite all this, readers may freely lionize the title character. As writer Bruce Bahrenburg claims, in each reading and rereading, "It is Gatsby who gains stature. He is heroic in resisting failure, and in defeat his grace is almost majestic." ³³

The Great Gatsby matters, if for no other reason, in its exploration of the American Dream and its consequences. Although one might find fault in this book, arguing that its premises are forced or too much of a reach to justify, there is no questioning Gatsby's use as a tool in teaching, assessing, evaluating, criticizing, or reinforcing this essential American notion. As a result, with each new high school or college student exposed to the book or individual who picks it up (or revisits it) based on the film release, the world gains another person with the tools to weigh how he or she fits into the American Dream.

What all this adds up to is a situation in which a novel (of all things) has laid the groundwork for addressing many quintessentially American qualities. I label this broad and far-reaching ideology meta- Gatsby, which means that this slim book has become pivotal in our lives as a cultural touchstone that carries value that transcends itself. As a result, Gatsby defines what we suggest when we say that a thing is iconic, Americana, or folklore.

We all really do have a bit of Gatsby in us, because we certainly do have Gatsby all around us. Fitzgerald's masterpiece is essential in our cultural world and foundational in understanding what it means to be American.

1. Mark William Roche, Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004), 10.

2. Center for Media Research, "9.9 Billion Video Ad Views in February," Research Brief Newsletter, May 6, 2013, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199678/99-billion-video-ad-views-in-february.html#axzz2UbwV6Xn8 (accessed May 6, 2013).

4. Harold Bloom, ed., F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, new ed. (New York: Chelsea House, 2010), 5.

5. Roche, Why Literature Matters, 207.

6. Frank B. Farrell, Why Does Literature Matter? (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004), 11-12.

7. Roche, Why Literature Matters, 257.

8. Lawrence R. Samuel, The American Dream: A Cultural History (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2012), 167.

9. Quoted in Samuel, American Dream.

10. Farrell, Why Does Literature Matter?, 13.

11. Farrell, Why Does Literature Matter?, 13.

12. Roche, Why Literature Matters, 211.

13. David Lodge, Language of Fiction: Essays in Criticism and Verbal Analysis of the English Novel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), 80.

14. Lodge, Language of Fiction, 81.

15. Jane Mount and Thessaly La Force, My Ideal Bookshelf (New York: Little, Brown, 2012), xiii.

16. Roche, Why Literature Matters, 236-37.

17. Jason P. Leboe and Tamara L. Ansons, "On Misattributing Good Remembering to a Happy Past: An Investigation into the Cognitive Roots of Nostalgia," Emotion 6, no. 4 (2006): 596.

18. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 20.

19. Alfred Kazin and Ted Solotaroff, Alfred Kazin's America: Critical and Personal Writings (New York: Harper Perennial, 2004), 119.

20. Kazin and Solotaroff, Alfred Kazin's America, 118.

21. Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman, eds., F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Marketplace: The Auction and Dealer Catalogues, 1935-2006 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009), xvii.

22. Bruccoli and Baughman, Fitzgerald in the Marketplace, xviii.

23. Morris Dickstein, ed., Critical Insights: The Great Gatsby (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2010), 4.

24. Quoted in Matthew J. Bruccoli, ed., F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Documentary Volume, vol. 219 of Dictionary of Literary Biography (Detroit: Gale Group, 2000), 310.

26. Charles Scribner III, "Publishing-Past Imperfect," in The Professions of Authorship: Essays in Honor of Matthew J. Bruccoli, ed. Richard Layman and Joel Myerson (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 72.

27. Kazin and Solotaroff, Alfred Kazin's America, 120.

28. Kazin and Solotaroff, Alfred Kazin's America, 120.

29. Farrell, Why Does Literature Matter?, 18.

30. Ray B. Browne, "Redefining the Humanities," in Eye on the Future: Popular Culture Scholarship into the Twenty-First Century, ed. Marilyn F. Motz et al. (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994), 252.

32. Maxine Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001), 206-7.

33. Bruce Bahrenburg, Filming The Great Gatsby (New York: Berkley, 1974), 26.

34. Bloom, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, 5.

Bahrenburg, Bruce. Filming The Great Gatsby. New York: Berkley, 1974.

Berger, Arthur Asa. Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture: Advertising's Impact on American Character and Society. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.

Bloom, Harold, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. New ed. New York: Chelsea House, 2010.

Browne, Ray B. "Redefining the Humanities". In Eye on the Future: Popular Culture Scholarship into the Twenty-First Century, edited by Marilyn F. Motz, John G. Nachbar, Michael T. Marsden, and Ronald J. Ambrosetti, 247-258. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994.

Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Judith S. Baughman, eds. F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Marketplace: The Auction and Dealer Catalogues, 1935-2006. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009.

Bryer, Jackson R., and Nancy P. VanArsdale, eds. Approaches to Teaching Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009.

Center for Media Research. "9.9 Billion Video Ad Views in February", Research Brief Newsletter, May 6, 2013, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199678/99-billion-video-ad-views-in-february.html#axzz2UbwV6Xn8. Accessed May 6, 2013.

Dickstein, Morris, ed. Critical Insights: The Great Gatsby. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2010.

Farrell, Frank B. Why Does Literature Matter? Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Greene, Maxine. Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 2001.

Kazin, Alfred, and Ted Solotaroff. Alfred Kazin's America: Critical and Personal Writings. New York: Harper Perennial, 2004.

Leboe, Jason P., and Tamara L. Ansons. "On Misattributing Good Remembering to a Happy Past: An Investigation into the Cognitive Roots of Nostalgia". Emotion 6, no. 4 (2006): 596-610.

Lodge, David. Language of Fiction: Essays in Criticism and Verbal Analysis of the English Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.

Mount, Jane, and Thessaly La Force. My Ideal Bookshelf. New York: Little, Brown, 2012.

Roche, Mark William. Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.

Samuel, Lawrence R. The American Dream: A Cultural History. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2012.

Scribner, Charles, III. "Publishing-Past Imperfect". In The Professions of Authorship: Essays in Honor of Matthew J. Bruccoli, edited by Richard Layman and Joel Myerson, 68-77. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.

Source Citation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Would the 25 cent press keep Gatsby in the public eye-or is the book unpopular. Has it had its chance? Would a popular reissue in that series with a preface not by me but by one of its admirers ... make it a favorite with class rooms, profs, lovers of English prose-anybody.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fitzgerald, Gatsby, and The Last Tycoon: The ‘American Dream’ and the Hollywood Dream Factory---Part One

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Fitzgerald, Gatsby, and The Last Tycoon: The ‘American Dream’ and the Hollywood Dream Factory---Part One

# data[].attributes.body
The American Dream feels very real at first but then quickly becomes far different than what it is made out to be. He talks about how an elite few snatch up the wealth and even when someone becomes as wealthy as them, they still remain inferior to those with "old wealth".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About Gale Literature Resource Center

Find up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras.

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Depending on this location's preferences, the log-in process could include your library card number, a student or user ID, or another provided password. If you don't know how to log in, please contact your library or school directly.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
About Gale Literature Resource Center Find up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras. Don't know how to login? Depending on this location's preferences, the log-in process could include your library card number, a student or user ID, or another provided password.

# data[].attributes.headline
Textual Evidence from "Fitzgerald, Gatsby, and The Last Tycoon: The ‘American Dream’ and the Hollywood Dream Factory"

# data[].attributes.subject
Textual Evidence from "Fitzgerald, Gatsby, and The Last Tycoon: The ‘American Dream’ and the Hollywood Dream Factory"

# data[].attributes.body
“But a new age needs a new novel. If a star is in sociological terms an ‘incarnation of a powerful collective instinct,’ a direct or indirect reflection of the needs, drives and dreams of American society’---for wish fulfillment, romantic escapism, material indulgence--- so when the instinct is diverted the star is eclipsed. So Fitzgerald himself experienced the phenomenon of stardom, but later, fell into a decline.”

# data[].attributes.body
F. Scott Fitzgerald did not support the American Dream because, his characters never get to enjoy the American Dream, and he himself was cynical about it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Textual Evidence from "Why Gatsby Matters"

# data[].attributes.subject
Textual Evidence from "Why Gatsby Matters"

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“Undoubtedly, given the terror of World War 1, Gatsby’s reach back into a nostalgic vision of the past makes the novel more interesting, nuanced, and open fot interpretation. Scholars have discussed the role of nostalgia in fueling the kinds of reactions that readers get wen reading Gatsby, explaining, ‘Nostalgic experiences represent a distortion of both the past and the present. The good old days may not have been as good as they seem in retrospect.’”