F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a wonderful summer read! Whether you are relaxing at your home, sitting by
the pool, or going hiking, you can still bring this book along and enjoy it. Set during the Gilded
Age, Fitzgerald’s classic novel is a tale of greed, vanity, intrigue, and betrayal with characters that
are complex and multi-dimensional: endearing, frustrating, and even disgusting at times.
With such corruption and vice on full display, why would Fitzgerald’s novel be considered one of
the great novels of the twentieth century? And why is it heralded as an important contemporary
work within the Western Tradition? Even more, why would MCA students—keen on the pursuit
of truth, goodness, and beauty—be assigned this novel?
The reason is that, in the pages of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald has captured deep truths related
to the human condition/predicament in modern America. His insights and questions have
remained as relevant in 2016 as they were in the “Roaring 1920s:” What is the American dream?
What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to be happy? To what and for what am I
hoping and aspiring and why? These are just a few of the questions and related themes that he
explores during this novel. The result is not only a masterfully told story. It is also an exploration
of truth, goodness, and beauty by exposing gilded imitations of the real thing that are so attractive
to us today and yet leave us so empty and lost.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy a great summer read! I look forward to discussing it with you in the
fall.
--Dr. Roberson
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Assignments
During the summer, you will have two assignments. Both of these assignments will be due on the
first day of class in the fall.
First Assignment: Please write a two-page essay (MLA format, double-spaced) about one of the
two topics below.
1.
Option #1: The theme of seeing and not seeing, or variations on blindness, permeates the
novel. Eyes are everywhere: Dr. T. J. Eckleburg’s on the billboard, Owl Eyes, a dog
“looking with blind eyes through the smoke (41), a man “blinded by the glare of the
headlights” (59), and Nick’s comment that the East is “haunted for me . . . distorted
beyond my eyes’ power of correction,” (185).
Analyze the treatment of blindness, and of seeing and not seeing, in the novel.
2. Option #2: Using the novel’s portrayal of the American dream as a backdrop, write a
persuasive essay that explains both the meaning of the American dream and how should it
be pursued?
Second Assignment: Please complete one of the two projects below.
1.
Option #1: “American Dream” Interview Assignment
*To complete this assignment, you will need to conduct an interview with one person
from three of the following six age groups:
1) 15-18
2) 19-25
3) 26 – 35
4) 36 – 45
5) 46 – 55
6) 56 and older
**Ask each person the following questions:
“Please define the ‘American Dream.’ ”
“What does the ‘American Dream’ mean to you?”
These questions may sound the same, but they are actually very different.
***Record the interviewee’s answers.
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****Write detailed notes about each person’s answers and be ready to discuss these
different answers during class in the fall. Please note that you do not need to write an essay for
this assignment. You should, however, take detailed notes and then organize the data so that you
can analyze it properly (e.g. a chart or graph that compares and contrasts each person’s
responses to the questions).
2. Option #2: Francis Cugat originally designed the iconic blue cover for The Great Gatsby,
and it was completed before Fitzgerald finished the manuscript. Interestingly, when the
book was first released, the cover was not glorified and appreciated in the way that it is
today. Ernest Hemingway wrote in his memoir “A Moveable Feast” that he was
“embarrassed by the violence, bad taste, and slippery look of it,” even going so far as to say
that “it looked like the book jacket for a book of bad science fiction.” In this way, you can
see the significance of a book’s cover in representing the themes and ideas behind the
novel as well as its ability to affect the reader’s initial perception of it. In this assignment,
you will be creating your own book cover for The Great Gatsby. This assignment will
challenge you to demonstrate your knowledge of what symbolism is and how Fitzgerald
employs symbolism through his writing. Your book cover should:  Be designed on a sheet
of 8 ½’’ x 11’’ paper  Include an artistic representation of two to three symbols or symbolic
messages that you discovered in your analysis of the text. Feel free to browse through
some preexisting book covers for The Great Gatsby to get an idea of how others have
interpreted Fitzgerald’s work. Use these for inspiration, but make sure that you allow your
own creativity to shine in your own work.
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