Final Learning Statement

I was most surprised at how close the writers were; although they were competitors they were able to learn from each other. I was also surprised at the tremendous effect that the war had on the writers of the time. I know war is a life-altering event; however, based on the work I was familiar with before entering the class and the book analysis I was given in high school, war was not a huge topic. The first time I read The Great Gatsby was in a high school English class that could not hold a teacher; we went through four teachers and with all the confusion I do not think the topic of war ever came up. It was refreshing to learn the reality behind the fantasy of not only that novel, but all of the one we read in class; I enjoy learning about the historical and cultural context of books.

            Out of the authors we dealt with in class, I found Hemingway to be the most compelling. Although both Hemingway and Fitzgerald’s works are believable, I just found Hemingway’s work to be more real; it did not have the outlandish parties and ridiculous characters. Hemingway was more down-to-earth in his work and told all aspects of the world not just the exciting ones people want to read about.  In comparison, I found Stein to be the least compelling. She truly did not care about her audience and I was unable to find something in her work that interested me enough that I wanted to keep reading.

            I think that the class challenged my skill levels of critical thinking, writing and argumentation and reading comprehension. The texts we read were not easy and at sometimes it took great discipline to keep reading. However, in the end, the texts had so much underneath the surface that it was worth it. I will definitely be reading differently from now on.

Course Paper Report

In my course paper, I explored racism within The Great Gatsby. My thesis was: Fitzgerald associates Gatsby with African Americans, Jews and immigrants and uses him as an example of discrimination within the upper class to prove that discrimination in the 1920s was not based exclusively on social status but actually on race. In order to prove my thesis, I researched the historical and cultural context of the novel. One source that was particularly helpful in that area of the “Tribal Twenties” and the rise in Nativism that was taking place during the 1920s was Jeffrey Louis Decker’s Gatsby's pristine dream: The diminishment of the self-made man in the tribal Twenties. I also provided examples of racist comments within the novel from both Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway. These comments include: Tom on the dominant race, Nick on the bridge and funeral procession as well as his comments about Meyer Wolfsheim.  I also provided a limited character evaluation of the two as well as Gatsby. An important source in locating these examples was Jackson Bryer and Nancy P. VanArsdale’s  Approaches toTeaching Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

            Nick Carraway was very important to my paper. He provided racial remarks throughout the novel; however his social status proved to be critical in proving my point that Fitzgerald compared Gatsby to African Americans, Jews and immigrants in order to make the point that social class was based on race rather than money. Nick is a prime example of a man in the upper class that has little money. He comes from a good family; therefore, his name reserves him a spot in the in the impenetrable upper class. 

The Great Gatsby

Racism in The Great Gatsby

            In his article, “The Diminishment of the Self-Made Man in the Tribal Twenties,” Jeffery Louis Decker traces the cause and rise in Nativism. The Tribal Twenties was a time when Nativism was very strong and the conceptions of whiteness became not a sign of skin color but of national identity. Also the Ku Klux Klan was reborn and began targeting the African Americans, Jewish and Catholics.

 Decker provides historical evidence to explain not only Gatsby’s general struggled to rise to equality with the upper class, such as Tom Buchanan, but also details of Nick’s narration, which seem insignificant at first glance. However, these details are key in linking Gatsby to the African America, Jewish and immigrants that were discriminated against during the Tribal Twenties.

            Decker uses the strong Nativism and discrimination in history to eliminate the theme of the “American Dream,” from the novel. The term “American Dream” was not coined until the 1930s and was not used in reference to The Great Gatsby. In this article, Decker strips Gatsby of his power and charm. He allows the reader to see Gatsby as being on the same level as the African Americans and immigrants as they were seen at the time. The Upper Class did not think Gatsby to be their equal and even those from a lower class, such as Nick, make references as to diminish Gatsby and associate him with African Americans, Jewish and immigrants.

Prospectus

            In my paper, I will discuss the Nativism, which created the Tribal Twenties. I will examine the references to racism in The Great Gatsby and how Gatsby is discriminated against. I will also provide references to specific lines in the novel that show how even those who are technically beneath Gatsby in social class view him. My main purpose is to step back from Gatsby’s “new money” being the reason he is discriminated against and take a closer look at his ethnicity and work with Meyer Wolfsheim as being the problem.

The Theory

Automatic writing is defined by Merriam-Webster as “writing produced without conscious intention as if of telepathic or spiritualistic origin.” Automatic writing is not something that simply happens to you; it is not at all arbitrary. Automatic writing is a method of writing used by occultists. Occultists have a process in which they discard their conscious thoughts while holding a pen or pencil above a piece of paper. Occultists believe that by doing this they will become the medium for their own subconscious thoughts or the thoughts of a spirit that is trying to communicate with them. Automatic writing sometimes occurs in a language that the physical writer cannot speak; therefore, it would clearly be the product of an outside or supernatural force.

Automatic writing as a spiritual practice was first reported in 1878 in Hyppolyte Taine’s book titled “De I’intelligence,” which means, “On Psychology.” Ferando Pessoa claimed to have actually experienced automatic writing along with ethereal visions and magnetic auras. He described automatic writing as a felling of being, “owned by something else.” Pessoa also claimed that he would have a feeling of sensation in his right arm as it was lifted into the air by some unknown force.

In the case of Fernando Pessoa, automatic writing seems very spiritual because the other phenomenon he claimed to have experienced are out of this world but not quite frightening. For example, ethereal visions are often described as being heavenly. In addition, magnetic auras are a form of protection; therefore, Fernando Pessoa seemed to have experienced positive phenomenon.

Yeats also found that the automatic writing of his wife, Georgie relieved his anxiety and broadened the possibilities of his writing. However, it is believed that Georgie’s knowledge that Yeats was interested in mediums and spiritually receptive people led her to experiment with automatic writing as distract Yeats from the rejection of two previous women. Her intentions aside, automatic writing improved his health and his writing.

“The strange thing was that within half an hour after writing of this message my rheumatic pains and my neuralgia and my fatigue had gone and I was very happy. From being more miserable than I ever remember being since Maud Gonne's marriage I became extremely happy. This sense has lasted ever since (Letter 633--Harper 1).”

Although Pessoa and Yeats found automatic writing to be not just harmless but actually beneficial, it is considered to be very dangerous by some. Automatic writing is like using a ouiji board. When on sits down to automatic write he or she is conjuring spirits. Automatic writing is believed by some to be writing controlled by demons. Research has found that spirits begin with kind words of praise and flattery in order to gain acceptance from the medium. Then the medium is more likely to become addicted to writing and look to automatic writing when they are lonely or unhappy as a source of comfort.

Once the spirit has gained the trust of the medium and has created a relationship with them then the spirit could manipulate the medium to body and mind to carry out actions they can no longer perform. Automatic writing is dangerous because the medium does not know who is using their body to communicate. It could be the spirit of a criminal. Automatic writing has been compared to opening your front door and allowing any stranger on the street to walk in.

When reading online posts written by people that have tried automatic writing I have found that it is important to be very cautious in experimenting. Many mediums stress the importance of not experimenting with automatic writing while alone.

While some find automatic writing to be beneficial and others find it to be dangerous, others find it to be purely fictional or a trick of the imagination. Gertrude Stein is one among those who have never accepted automatic writing.

Gertrude Stein is known for her home at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. It was the popular place to meet on Saturday evenings. Many writers and artists such as Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso met at this salon. Hemmingway even wrote about it in A Movable Feast.

Stein attended Harvard where she was taught by Psychologist William James. Under James, Stein performed experiments on normal motor automatism, which is the performance of actions without actually intending to perform them. Her experiments resulted in examples of writing, which became known as “stream of consciousness.”

Although she shared James' interest in automatic writing Stein never accepted the theory of automatic writing. She believed there could be automatic movements but not automatic writing. But it is believed that the idea of automatic writing helped Stein shape her own styles of composition. 

Automatic writing is a very controversial theory that states that when letting go of conscious thought and being open to becoming the medium for ones own subconscious or for a spirit, one can write without free will. Whether the theory is factual or not, it has influenced the writing of famous American Authors.

The impact the theory of automatic writing had on society is clear in this advertisement for an ordinary  fountain pen.

Works Cited

"Automatic writing, is it dangerous or not?." Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo!, Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080319124553AALWGum>.

Harper, George Mills. The Making of Yeats's `A Vision'. Vol 1. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.

Hedayati-Rad ,  Arjang . "W. B. Yeats, George Hyde-Lees, and the Automatic Script." CSNU. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/yeats/hedayatirad.html>.

            Meyer, Steven (2001), Irresistible Dictation: Gertrude Stein and the             Correlations of Writing and Science, Stanford: Stanford University             Press

"Mysterious Planchette." : A Survey of Automatic Writing (not Written Automatically). Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://mysteriousplanchette.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-survey-of-automatic-writing-not.html>.

"Paranormal Discovery." Paranormal Discovery. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://paranormaldiscovery.org/?page_id=37>.

"Wikia." Superpower Wiki.  Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Magnetic_Aura>.

"automatic writing." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automatic%20writing>.