The purpose of this study was to examine how adult students in a reading class offered in a college-affiliated ESL program responded to The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 1925; GG, afterwards) in small group book discussion sessions over eight weeks, and how they perceived their reading and discussing experiences. Analysis of students' literary responses demonstrated students' strategies in constructing textual meaning and transformation of their meaning-making strategies across time. Students in this study made sense of the text by making connections between the textual world and the text, themselves, and the world around them. Students also brought into discussion their reading experiences and a critical approach to the text. The percentage of comments devoted to each response category illustrated the changes in the focus of discussion and meaning making strategies across time. Taking up the novel, initially students spent more time discussing the historical context of the text and formulating connections with themselves and the world. Students were self-conscious about their reading difficulties. Further along in their reading, as they derived more information from the text, their discussion became more text-centered. Inferential comments and emotional reactions became more frequent elements in discussion, and talk about the reading experience itself and contextual information about the text diminished. Perceptions expressed about their reading experience of the literary text in their second language were predominantly about the enjoyment of reading and challenges and rewards in terms of: 1) language challenges, 2) culture challenges, and 3) literary challenges. Analysis of students' perceptions of their experiences in literary discussion as they read GG revealed their enjoyment of discussions and appreciation of how literary discussion had enriched their interpretation of the novel by providing opportunities for: 1) checking up on the textual information, 2) exchanging opinions, and 3) building a sense of learning community. / text

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the social and cultural revolution in post-World War One American society on gender relationships in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels and a selection of his short stories. In his fictional works, Fitzgerald becomes a kind of social and cultural historian, reflecting the fundamental changes that began to occur in the 1920s. There were many factors that contributed to this Jazz-Age revolution in "manners and morals": the emancipation of women, giving rise to the American New Woman; the influence of Freud and his psychoanalytic theories on the already blossoming sexual revolution; and the mechanization and commercialization of all aspects of life in the machine age, drastically altering the way men and women had traditionally thought, behaved, and, communicated with one another.

A presente dissertação aborda a questão da experiência nacional representada alegoricamente no romance –O Grande Gatsby. Meu objetivo é estudar esta relação baseada na sedução estética do romance e a sua proposta de redirecionamento do Sonho Americano dos anos 20. Estudos Culturais e de Gênero fazem parte do embasamento teórico na observação de valores que são questionados e/ou perpetuados através de representações de gênero, classe social, raça e etnia no romance. A organização espacial da narrativa é entendida como um sistema estrutural em que o pertencimento de personagens a determinados “lugares” e cenários gera relações hierárquicas de poder, representadas por polaridades espaciais. Este trabalho sugere que os privilégios de algumas posições sociais estão representados alegoricamente na narrativa. O conceito de alegoria de Walter Benjamin enfatiza o estudo da temporalidade associada ao espaço narrativo e permite que se faça uma leitura do sentido gerado por essas representações, na medida em que expõe, e não omite, as contradições da narrativa. Estas remetem à impossibilidade de concretização histórica do Sonho Americano que é questionado e também re-valorizado através de sua ligação a um ideal pastoril em conflito com as demandas de uma ideologia marcadamente materialista no período entreguerras. Desta forma, a sobreposição de níveis temporais no romance liga a crença do excepcionalismo americano, patriotismo e herança cultural a um imaginário pastoril, em que uma versão do passado é legitimada e projetada para o futuro nacional. / This dissertation approaches the issue of a national experience represented allegorically in the novel – The Great Gatsby. My aim is to study this relation based on the novel’s esthetical seduction and its proposal of representing the new directions of the American Dream in the 1920s. Cultural and Gender Studies are employed as theoretical tools in order to observe the values questioned and/or perpetuated by the novel’s representation of gender, social class, race and ethnicity. The spatial organization of the narrative is conceived as a structural system in which the characters’ sense of belongingness to specific places and settings creates their hierarchical relations of power, represented by space polarities. This dissertation hopes to prove that specific social positions are inscribed allegorically in the narrative as owners of privileges in the representation of society. Walter Benjamin’s concept of allegory emphasizes the study of temporality, which is associated to space in the narrative, and allows one to conceive the meanings created by the mentioned representations, exposing the narrative’s contradictions. They lead to the historical impossibility of fulfillment of the American Dream. In the novel, the dream is questioned and also re-valued due to its link to a pastoral ideal in conflict with the demands of a materialistic ideology in the world war period. In this sense, the superposition of temporal levels in the novel connects a belief in American exceptionalism, patriotism and cultural heritage to a pastoral imagery, in which a version of the past is legitimized and projected to a national future.

A presente dissertação aborda a questão da experiência nacional representada alegoricamente no romance –O Grande Gatsby. Meu objetivo é estudar esta relação baseada na sedução estética do romance e a sua proposta de redirecionamento do Sonho Americano dos anos 20. Estudos Culturais e de Gênero fazem parte do embasamento teórico na observação de valores que são questionados e/ou perpetuados através de representações de gênero, classe social, raça e etnia no romance. A organização espacial da narrativa é entendida como um sistema estrutural em que o pertencimento de personagens a determinados “lugares” e cenários gera relações hierárquicas de poder, representadas por polaridades espaciais. Este trabalho sugere que os privilégios de algumas posições sociais estão representados alegoricamente na narrativa. O conceito de alegoria de Walter Benjamin enfatiza o estudo da temporalidade associada ao espaço narrativo e permite que se faça uma leitura do sentido gerado por essas representações, na medida em que expõe, e não omite, as contradições da narrativa. Estas remetem à impossibilidade de concretização histórica do Sonho Americano que é questionado e também re-valorizado através de sua ligação a um ideal pastoril em conflito com as demandas de uma ideologia marcadamente materialista no período entreguerras. Desta forma, a sobreposição de níveis temporais no romance liga a crença do excepcionalismo americano, patriotismo e herança cultural a um imaginário pastoril, em que uma versão do passado é legitimada e projetada para o futuro nacional. / This dissertation approaches the issue of a national experience represented allegorically in the novel – The Great Gatsby. My aim is to study this relation based on the novel’s esthetical seduction and its proposal of representing the new directions of the American Dream in the 1920s. Cultural and Gender Studies are employed as theoretical tools in order to observe the values questioned and/or perpetuated by the novel’s representation of gender, social class, race and ethnicity. The spatial organization of the narrative is conceived as a structural system in which the characters’ sense of belongingness to specific places and settings creates their hierarchical relations of power, represented by space polarities. This dissertation hopes to prove that specific social positions are inscribed allegorically in the narrative as owners of privileges in the representation of society. Walter Benjamin’s concept of allegory emphasizes the study of temporality, which is associated to space in the narrative, and allows one to conceive the meanings created by the mentioned representations, exposing the narrative’s contradictions. They lead to the historical impossibility of fulfillment of the American Dream. In the novel, the dream is questioned and also re-valued due to its link to a pastoral ideal in conflict with the demands of a materialistic ideology in the world war period. In this sense, the superposition of temporal levels in the novel connects a belief in American exceptionalism, patriotism and cultural heritage to a pastoral imagery, in which a version of the past is legitimized and projected to a national future.

A presente dissertação aborda a questão da experiência nacional representada alegoricamente no romance –O Grande Gatsby. Meu objetivo é estudar esta relação baseada na sedução estética do romance e a sua proposta de redirecionamento do Sonho Americano dos anos 20. Estudos Culturais e de Gênero fazem parte do embasamento teórico na observação de valores que são questionados e/ou perpetuados através de representações de gênero, classe social, raça e etnia no romance. A organização espacial da narrativa é entendida como um sistema estrutural em que o pertencimento de personagens a determinados “lugares” e cenários gera relações hierárquicas de poder, representadas por polaridades espaciais. Este trabalho sugere que os privilégios de algumas posições sociais estão representados alegoricamente na narrativa. O conceito de alegoria de Walter Benjamin enfatiza o estudo da temporalidade associada ao espaço narrativo e permite que se faça uma leitura do sentido gerado por essas representações, na medida em que expõe, e não omite, as contradições da narrativa. Estas remetem à impossibilidade de concretização histórica do Sonho Americano que é questionado e também re-valorizado através de sua ligação a um ideal pastoril em conflito com as demandas de uma ideologia marcadamente materialista no período entreguerras. Desta forma, a sobreposição de níveis temporais no romance liga a crença do excepcionalismo americano, patriotismo e herança cultural a um imaginário pastoril, em que uma versão do passado é legitimada e projetada para o futuro nacional. / This dissertation approaches the issue of a national experience represented allegorically in the novel – The Great Gatsby. My aim is to study this relation based on the novel’s esthetical seduction and its proposal of representing the new directions of the American Dream in the 1920s. Cultural and Gender Studies are employed as theoretical tools in order to observe the values questioned and/or perpetuated by the novel’s representation of gender, social class, race and ethnicity. The spatial organization of the narrative is conceived as a structural system in which the characters’ sense of belongingness to specific places and settings creates their hierarchical relations of power, represented by space polarities. This dissertation hopes to prove that specific social positions are inscribed allegorically in the narrative as owners of privileges in the representation of society. Walter Benjamin’s concept of allegory emphasizes the study of temporality, which is associated to space in the narrative, and allows one to conceive the meanings created by the mentioned representations, exposing the narrative’s contradictions. They lead to the historical impossibility of fulfillment of the American Dream. In the novel, the dream is questioned and also re-valued due to its link to a pastoral ideal in conflict with the demands of a materialistic ideology in the world war period. In this sense, the superposition of temporal levels in the novel connects a belief in American exceptionalism, patriotism and cultural heritage to a pastoral imagery, in which a version of the past is legitimized and projected to a national future.

This essay investigates the status of alcohol consumption in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby (1925). The analysis focuses on character study reading of Jay Gatsby, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan in conjunction with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, by placing habitus in the specific historical context of the novel. The analysis focuses on the social structures of the alcohol-consuming upper-class Americans, and the reproduction of internalized practices during Prohibition. Drinking alcohol is seen as a valued, cultural capital among the elite society and used as a tool in a competition of power. The Buchanans, as true members of their class, are constantly intoxicated. For Gatsby, a sober man and an imposter of the elite society, drinking has no cultural value. I argue that, from the cultural aspect, Gatsby’s fall is a consequence of his soberness among the drunkenness of the hierarchy.

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The present essay attempts a psychoanalytic interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby’s id, superego, ego, and core issues. The first stage of the paper offers an analysis of Gatsby’s id, superego and ego; and finds that the id largely rules his behaviour, with few instances where the ego takes control and manifests the superego. The second stage proposes that three psychoanalytic core issues are identifiable in the character of Gatsby: fear of abandonment, low self-esteem and insecure or unstable sense of self. Through the lens of Psychoanalytic Criticism, the present essay looks at fictional literature in order to gain insight into the human psyche, in hopes of discussing and spreading awareness about mental health.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald encapsulates the Roaring Twenties, a period of social and political change. The economy is thriving, and the American Dream, with its promise of monetary wealth, happiness and upward mobility, is seemingly within reach. Females gain suffrage, and a New Woman emerges, the flapper, who can be seen challenging stereotypical gender roles with her short skirts and bobbed hair. Ostensibly enjoying increased freedom, she dances the night away at speakeasies, a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, defying Prohibition. This essay aims to evidence that the American Dream as constructed in the novel is a dream available only to the male gender, as the women remain shackled by a patriarchal society. By looking at The Great Gatsby through a feminist lens and with the help of well-established concepts within feminist critical theory and feminist narratology, this essay analyzes how the female characters are portrayed, along with their language, and their actions. The result reveals that in Gatsby’s world women orbit around the men, maneuvering for their attention, affection, and material wealth. Any transgressions of stereotypical gender roles result in punishment: loss of status, withheld affections, dismissal, or death. Consequently, instead of following their own American Dream, women are limited to pursuing the man who most successfully embodies it. Thus, for the females in The Great Gatsby, the American Dream stays an elusive idea as they remain reliant on the men to manifest it.

This project is a discussion of the continuing need to address gender issues while teaching core curriculum in English classes at the secondary level.