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Gatsby's American Dream: Reading The Great Gatsby Critically, Chapter 1

2011-07-18 · explainer · John · 5:04 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Explainer · tags: recurring series

John reads chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby as a novel about the American Dream: its rich characters did not earn their wealth, have it all yet are miserable, and wealth consumes rich and poor alike; he asks viewers whether that portrait is true.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Gatsby as the Great American Novel for its American-ness; the American Dream defined and exported

  • ★★ John devotes his Monday video to the first chapter of The Great Gatsby. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says The Great Gatsby is often called the Great American Novel less for its greatness than for its American-ness. — 00:00:00 · United States
  • ★ John says the United States has, over the last 60 years, been very successful at exporting ideas such as inexpensive hamburgers and the American Dream. (playful) — 00:00:00 · United States

  • ★★★ John defines the American Dream as the idea that everyone, regardless of standing, has an equal opportunity to become successful, which in the US generally means rich. — 00:00:00 · United States

    “everyone, regardless of standing in life, has an equal opportunity to become successful”

00:00:29 — The American Dream as universal; narrator Nick Carraway: Midwest and New York, his remark on Gatsby's dream, inherited wealth, West Egg

  • ★★ John says Gatsby is in many ways about the American Dream but more universal, since the dream has been exported and was never uniquely American. — 00:00:29 · United States
  • ★ John jokes that Americans charmingly see things that belong to the world and claim them as American. (playful) — 00:00:29 · United States
  • ★★ John says narrator Nick Carraway moved from the Midwest to New York and back, something in New York sent him home, and he is a bit highfalutin with words. — 00:00:29 · New York City
  • ★★ John reads Nick's opening as saying Gatsby turned out all right, but his dream, his American dream, was troubling. — 00:00:58 · United States
  • ★★ John notes Nick is rich not through the American dream but through a rich ancestor who paid someone else to fight in the Civil War while he made money. — 00:00:58 · United States

00:01:56 — Gatsby's gift for hope; the Buchanans and Jordan Baker; the dinner, Tom's racist rant and its irony, Tom's affair, Daisy's 'beautiful little fool'

  • ★★★ John says Gatsby's essential trait, shared by later romantic leads like Edward Cullen and Miles Halter, is an extraordinary gift for hope: the creepy belief that getting their dream will make them happy. — 00:01:56
  • ★ John calls Daisy a professional pretty person and Tom a former football player, citing Fitzgerald's line that Tom peaked at 21 so everything after is anticlimax. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John notes the Buchanans are 'polo pony rich', did not get rich by living the American dream, and live in a golden house. — 00:02:26 · United States
  • ★★ John calls it irony that Tom, in a racist rant, credits 'Nordics' with producing civilization while the diners produce nothing, not even lighting their own candles. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says Tom's affair, revealed after the phone call, makes readers realize these people who have it all don't. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John reads Daisy's wish that her daughter be 'a beautiful little fool' as Daisy trying to be one herself, the only way she sees to get through. — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — No one in East Egg having fun; Gatsby and the green light; the butler anecdote: wealth consumes the poor too; the discussion question

  • ★★ John finds it striking that in fashionable East Egg, among the richest people on earth, no one is having any fun. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John points to the green light Gatsby reaches toward at the end of chapter 1 as one of the most important metaphors in American literature. — 00:03:53 · United States
  • ★★★ John says Daisy's anecdote of a butler whose nose was ruined by polishing silver shows that, while the chapter is about wealth consuming the rich, wealth consumes the poor too. — 00:04:23
  • ★★ John asks viewers whether Gatsby's portrayal of luxury, wealth and the American dream reflects the truth, in the Jazz Age and today, and links a Your Pants discussion thread. — 00:04:23 · United States

00:04:52 — Discussion question continued, link to the Your Pants thread, sign-off

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: American Dream · Jay Gatsby · Nick Carraway · The Great Gatsby

Also: People: Alanis Morissette

Projects: Your Pants

Works: Ironic · The Notebook

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: racism

Places: New York City · United States

Events: American Civil War

Characters: Daisy Buchanan · East Egg · Edward Cullen · green light · Jordan Baker · Miles Halter · Tom Buchanan · West Egg

Only in the description or credits: close reading · F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also centred on American Dream: The Great Gatsby: Living the Dream in the Valley of Ashes · Started from the Bottom: Benjamin Franklin and Drake Compared · Is the American Dream Real?

Also centred on Jay Gatsby: The Great Gatsby: Living the Dream in the Valley of Ashes

Also centred on The Great Gatsby: Froghoppin' with Gatsby · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS · The Great Gatsby: Living the Dream in the Valley of Ashes · Our Capacity for Wonder: A Review · The Best Books Get Better

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