The Great Gatsby Theme Critical History

The Great Gatsby theme essay - critical history analysis. The book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a literary masterpiece that has been reviewed countless times by qualified critics. Of the thousands of academic journals and articles of review conducted on Fitzgerald’s work, most adhere to at least one method of critical theory in their writing. Some use a structuralist approach to analyze the elements of the culture, patterns or themes represented, and the genre of the book itself. Others focus on the author’s use of literary devices within the text through a formalistic approach to critique. Occasionally, analysts take a deconstructionist approach to critical review to reveal hidden meaning and contradictions within the text. Then, there are those analysts who choose to approach their review of The Great Gatsby from a psychoanalytical angle. These analysts attempt to reveal the secret or unknown desire and struggles of the author himself as they manifest in the ‘life’ of his character. In an effort to relate a given work to the time period for which it was written, a new historical approach to critical theory is employed, and when analyst wish to focus on the political, historical, social, or economical aspects of the work, they use the postcolonial approach to critique. This research paper will serve to highlight only a select few of the many thousands of critical reviews conducted on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and evaluate how they fit into the historical context of the story itself.

The first of the reviews highlighted is one written by Robert Johnson Jr., Say It Ain’t So, Jay: Fitzgerald’s Use of Baseball in “The Great Gatsby.” Johnson wrote to bring to light a passive theme that was subtly woven into the literary ‘fabric’ of Fitzerald’s famous novel. The story of Jay Gatsby is set in the early 1900s, a time many came to call ‘The Golden Age of American Sports.’ It stands to reason that in an effort to solidify the timeline, Fitzgerald would somehow include that major element of the times in his storyline. In addition to the lavish parties, expensive cars, and dramatic deaths associated with the primary characters in his novel, Fitzgerald also casually used sports references, particularly baseball, to define their social status and connections. Johnson took a deconstructionist approach to his review since his purpose was to reveal a lesser- known theme that works to subtly establish the culture and status of the characters in relation to their identification with particular sports. He suggests that to understand Fitzgerald’s intent, not only in the inclusion of sports into the storyline, but also the social inclination of their inclusion, one must understand the historical nature of their importance. He argues that “Fitzgerald recognized long before it became common practice how well baseball embodies the contradiction of capitalism... The two references he makes to the 1919 World Series scandal show how the use of baseball offers one of the novels most endearing and powerful critiques of the American Dream”.

The novel’s characters represent the elite of American Society in their time. They held positions and reputations that set them apart from the common man. By virtue of their very existence, they were in positions of esteem. For this reason, Gatsby, who was not of noble birth, nor associated with high society by default, fought relentlessly to establish himself in that arena. Johnson’s review explains how excellence in sports was one avenue those seeking the American Dream took to do just that. For instance, “Tom Buchanan is introduced as “one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven...This immediately places Tom in a socially elevated position because of college football’s aristocratic status” (Johnson 31). Ironically, the sport Gatsby was associated with was not one of social renown at the time. Johnson suggests that the author’s intent was to establish Gatsby as one who identified with the common man seeking to live the American Dream. In the early 1900s, baseball was the route many from humble beginnings used to pursue that dream. Nevertheless, his association with the likes of famous cricket players and wealthy tycoons such as Wolfsheim, who was responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series, worked to shuffle Gatsby back into elitist circles.

Another review of the novel that highlights an uncommon theme is Tessa MacLean’s “Preserving Utopia: Musical Style in Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby.’” MacLean’s focus in the article is more geared toward the film, yet the thematic approach to the timeline of the story remains relevant to the review. In much the same way that Johnson sought to establish baseball as an avenue of historical significance in the story, Tessa sought to establish the historical place of the music with the plot. Her article focuses on the musical style of the times and its purpose within the novel. As jazz played a huge role in 1920s, it had to fit somewhere into the setting of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald went to great lengths to include it in the plot. He even gave his characters lines that made specific reference to it, yet MacLean suggests it is a theme that is often overlooked. She referenced Nick Carraway’s position within the story as one that failed to adequately represent the true heart of the music Fitzgerald wished to underline in the novel. Even so, it is connected with the storyline on various levels. She writes, “Fitzgerald’s use of popular music alludes to struggles for power and domination that always lie beneath the polished public veneer of individuals and societies. His particular choice of ‘white’ jazz references ‘blur the boundaries’ between ‘white’ and ‘black’ and between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture'. MacLean finds it interesting to note that while the African American jazz culture was on the rise in the early 1900s, it was not highlighted by Fitzgerald. His intentional nod to ‘white’ jazz reflects the times and builds his characters’ position within the society.

On the same level as the music’s purpose to progress the setting of the novel, the highlighting of automobiles is another avenue Fitzgerald used to establish his timeline. Jacqueline Lance, another author who wrote to expose an overlooked theme, wrote, The Great Gatsby: Driving to Destruction with the Rich and Careless at the Wheel, to reveal the many automobiles referenced in the novel. She also highlights the significance of Fitzgerald’s assigning of color to underline the owner’s status and position within the society. The automobile industry was greatly expanding in the time represented in the novel. For those in high society, a vehicle that stood out above all others, by its design and color, was a mark of status to say the least. For this reason, Fitzgerald intentionally highlighted Gatsby’s automobile as a yellow Rolls Royce, to represent not only his position in society, but also to represent his goal of obtaining the American Dream.

In keeping with the theme of critics who exposed a less than obvious element in the novel, Eric Rawson wrote to expose the use of the telephone as an intentional inclusion to represent a sign of the times in The Great Gatsby. His article, The Telephonic Logic of The Great Gatsby, suggests that an ‘unseen’ character’s rude intrusion into the storyline was an intentional, drastic, and even disastrous scheme Fitzgerald used to establish historical significance and character status. Written in 1922, The Great Gatsby would have been one of the first, if not the first, in which the author chose to forward the plot with an unseen character over the telephone. Rawson argues that the fact that technology would allow the inclusion of a character who interrupts in real time, without the use of a letter, a diary, or some other form of written communication was transformational.