Candace Rohr- Big Project Part 1: text selection rationale

The text that I will use as the center for the “Big Project” is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The text is an American, Modernist, Fictional novel produced in 1925. Published in the 20th century, scholars consider The Great Gatsby a relatively new addition to the American canon and American English classrooms use this text as an example of the “great American” novel. The main concerns of the novel revolve around the main character, Jay Gatsby’s, relationships with the residents of the East Egg and the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. The Great Gatsby covers the themes of “the American dream”, classism, and desire, while exploring gender roles within society through the main characters. I want to work with this novel, because I enjoy the way the author presents the themes of the text to the reader; also, the imagery and language that Fitzgerald uses to convey setting and mood within scenes causes me to feel a connection to various characters throughout the story, especially Gatsby, Daisy, and Nick. Also, when I read this novel for the first time, a few years ago, the text instantly became one of my favorite novels within the canon. With new experiences and opinions, I intend to re-read the novel with a new mindset, keeping the skills acquired from The Theory Toolbox in mind. Through the research for this project, I expect to gain a new perspective regarding the character’s actions and reactions to the conflicts within the novel. While searching the MLA International Bibliography, I found various academic journal articles that focused on gender, race, desire, identity, and sexuality with the text as the primary subject. For example, Goldsmith’s article “White Skin, White Mask: Passing, Posing, and Performing in The Great Gatsby” relates Gatsby’s extravagant parties to the dramatic process of creating a racial identity. Using the tools of theory that the class studies, I expect to notice additional conflicts in the text that were not discussed as heavily as other subject matter in the text; for example, race in Gatsby’s era, the agency the characters have within their contexts, or the relationship between sexuality and identity in the text.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *