Question:

Original- how could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different
readers?
Manipulated- how does the interpretation of ‘The Great Gatsby’ differ between a
reader in the modern day and a reader in 1925?

Title: The Great Gatsby

Outline:
Paragraph 1:
- Thoughts on Gatsby’s monetary position
o 1920s: How did he get the money?
o Now: How is he spending it?
Paragraph 2:
- The great depression
o 1920s: didn’t know, didn’t see potential for failure
o Now: hindsight, warning
Paragraph 3:
- Treatment of women/ lower class/ minorities
o 1920s: Normal
o Now: Wrong

Essay
Novels are snapshots of the culture and behaviours of the society written into them,
Scott Fitzgerald famously captured the context of life in the 1920s New York in his
novel The Great Gatsby. This fictitious novel, published in 1925 is set in 1922 and
follows the outrageous lifestyle of the upper class, revealing the true ways it operates
and how it functions with the other classes and minorities. With the events occurring
between the 1920s and the modern day, the perspective readers each time period
differs greatly, affecting the interpretation of the novel. The novel considers ideas of
wealth and social expectations. What is considered outrageous in reference to
money, the economic position of America’s future and the opinions of minorities are
all examples of factors affected by the era of the reader. Whatever the intention of a
novel, each reader is going to see it through the filter of their life’s experience and the
attitudes in their society, so the disparity between the interpretations of a reader in
2016 and one in 1925 is inevitably huge.
What can be agreed is the shock readers feel when Fitzgerald developed the
character of Gatsby and his incredibly strong financial position, but the reason for the
shock differs depending on the context of the reader. Gatsby came from a family of
lower class, ‘shiftless, unsuccessful farm people’, a fact he tried tirelessly to hide, but
he subsequently built himself into a man of immense wealth. This enormous shift in
economic status was deeply frowned upon in the early 1920s and was assumed to
be due to immoral and illegal activity because the control the old money had over the
lower classes made earning money, when you started with very little, difficult.
Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Gatsby and his acquisition of wealth was shocking in a time
when the wealthy stayed wealthy and the poor stayed poor. Gatsby’s wealth is
equally as shocking for the modern reader, but not because he was wealthy, but
rather what he did with his money. The narrator, Nick Carraway, described the
happenings of Gatsby’s elaborate parties next door, going as far as to explain how
‘on weekends [Gatsby’s] Rolls Royce became an omnibus bearing parties to and
from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight…” In a time when a
car, let alone the lavish Rolls Royce, was a luxury, Gatsby was so rich that he could
afford to casually use such an ostentatious item in a manner as informal and
conventional as a omnibus. Fitzgerald is comparing the two cars to show that the
average for Gatsby -the average for everyone else being a omnibus- is one of the
most expensive and sought-after cars of the time. For a modern reader, this is the
factor that is shocking, while it was standard for the upper class spend like Gatsby in
the roaring 20s, in the modern day it is far more unheard of and exciting. All readers
have a sense of amazement with Gatsby’s wealth, the readers of the 20s were more
concerned with the acquisition of the wealth, compared to the modern reader
astonished by the use of it. Social context affects how a reader views and perceives
aspects of the novel.

Living in the 21st century allows for hindsight that was not available to readers in the
1920s, specifically, the knowledge of the great depression, which occurred not long
after the novel’s release. For a reader in 1925, America was booming economically
post World War One and must have felt like it was on the up and up. The homes in
the East and West Eggs were described as ‘colossal’, ‘spanking new’ and ‘elaborate’
with ‘marble swimming pools’ and ‘more than forty acres of lawn and garden’. These
words create an air of grandeur and prosperity that was felt, or seen, by the
members of society at the time. Fitzgerald’s novel would have seemed more like a
milestone in the growth of America’s power and economic stability. With hindsight,
the modern reader views the novel as more of a turning point in society, as the peak
before the trough of the Great Depression, as a warning to the upper classes of the
impending monarch-like fall. The novel can read like a lesson. It is a common belief
that depression are initiated when rapid economic growth reaches a critical high that
cannot be sustained. Gatsby had an entire library of ‘bona-fide...printed matter’ but
hadn’t even ‘cut the pages’. He spent the money to buy hundreds of beautiful,
expensive books and never once used any. Fitzgerald heavily emphasised the
elaborate and unnecessary spending of the rich, potentially in an attempt to show
how ridiculous it is, in order to initiate change to slow down and find a balance. A
reader at the time of publishing sees The Great Gatsby as a homage to the roaring
economy, a step of many on the way to prolonged greatness. However, with the
knowledge of the modern day, a reader can see the potential for failure in the
impending future. Each reader can gain entirely opposing views of where the novel
was taking America’s success. Each reader, in their respective time period, views the
same text in opposing lights due purely to the knowledge available to them.

Fitzgerald explores the negative treatment of women and the lower class in the
novel, as the treatment was commonplace at the time of publishing, it would have
come across as unsurprising, but for modern day readers it seems shocking and
unacceptable. Throughout the novel men and women were described as ‘men’ and
‘girls’. The use of the term ‘girl’ is commonly associated with children and ‘men’ with
adults, so describing men and women of the same age as men and girls is blatantly
assigning the females with less power and importance. After a party at Gatsby’s
mansion ‘...servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and
scrubbing-brushes and hammers and shears, to repairing the ravages from the night
before’. Those of the lower class were expected to work tirelessly to clean up after
the extravagance of the upper classes and go home to the decay of the Valley of
Ashes. The repetitive use of ‘and’ emphasises the amount of equipment used, and
thus work done, by not allowing for pauses between items, by creating a fast-
sounding flow of items building up. The poor treatment of these groups, while not
totally non-existent today, is vastly more frowned upon and surprising to be displayed
so blatantly for a modern reader. Although, for those living in the time the novel is
set, it is an accurate depiction of daily life. By taking a snapshot of the 20s, Fitzgerald
creates a setting and attitudes unsurprising to those of the time, but shocking to
those living in an entirely different setting.

The era a person lives affects them and their perceptions, so a reader living in the
1920s compared to one in the 21st century will interpret Fitzgerald’s commentary on
social life, The Great Gatsby, differently. Perceptions of Gatsby’s wealth, the
standing the novel has in history and the treatment of certain groups are aspects of
the text that are affected by the era the reader lives in. A text, or any creative piece,
is different for each viewer or reader and it is important to consider the context
around the creation of a piece. One should never take what they interpret as
definitive fact, but rather as a product of their position, is not objective, so dismissing
another’s interpretation as untrue is closed-minded and unreasonable.