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.