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Why Every American Should Read The

Great Gatsby, Again
04/09/2013 05:39 pm ET | Updated Jun 09, 2013

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R. Clifton SpargoNovelist and Author

You have to read it again.

If, like most of high school-educated America, you read F. Scott
Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby in some long ago class under orders from a
teacher, you owe it to yourself to revisit this strange American fable now
that youre wiser for the years, humbled by loss and longing, better able to
appreciate the stubborn, absurdly persistent idealism of one of American
literatures most mysterious, mythic characters.
A 2009 study by the National Center on Teaching and Learning showed the
novel to be required reading in 64 percent of Catholic schools, 54 percent of
public schools, and 49 percent of independent schools; and, that doesnt
include all those classes in which teachers not required to teach the novel
assign it anyway. Why is the book so often taught to teenagers? For a classic
its considered accessible in language, content, and subject matter (but is
it?). Its supposed to be a solemn treatment of the American dream, the notion
that any man can pull himself up by his bootstraps (are we sure about that?).
Its replete with easy symbolism, including green lights at the end of piers,
women who reminisce about their white girlhood, and weather-beaten
billboards advertising the services of an optometrist whose eyes stare blankly
over the Long Island Sound.

All these wondrous images do occur in the book, but Fitzgerald keeps asking
us to think twice about them. Daisys bragging about her white girlhood is
framed by her husbands racist rant about the superiority of the Nordic race.
Jay Gatsbys rags-to-riches story all that social climbing undertaken in
quest of the girl of his dreams is contrasted with the less fantastical, far
more realistic pursuit of success made by Nick Carraway, who serves as the
novels narrator and has moved in next door to our title character. And of
course Gatsbys own outsized existence he throws huge, brilliant Long
Island parties in an epic attempt to attract the attention of a woman he lost
because he had no money when they fell in love is juxtaposed with the
lonely, ugly end (shooting, swimming pool) to which he comes.
The strangest quality of Gatsby is that its a book almost without a protagonist.
Nick tells the story, but hes a mere cypher. We understand (thanks in part to
James Wests admirable critical edition of Trimalchio, a late-in-the-game draft
of Gatsby) that Fitzgerald had scattered sentences and observations here and
there offering greater insight into Nick in the pre-publication draft, but slowly
stripped such material away. And what do we really know about Gatsby? Hes
a liar and con artist, someone who makes himself up as he goes along. Its
implied that he earned his money in bootlegging or some other criminal
activity; he may have killed a man along the way. He cavorts and does
business with people who run scams and fix the 1919 World Series. The only
thing we are certain is upright, sincere, or trustworthy about Gatsby is his
steadfast love for Daisy. What sentiments should such a thinly drawn hero
inspire in us?
The Great Gatsby isnt made lesser for all the apparent flaws of its hero, or
the flimsiness of its plot structure. And perhaps the books status as a classic,
its revered place in the high school curriculum, keeps us from recognizing the
real surprise in its marvelously cryptic characters. Its a strange fable of the
1920s fable being the operative word. Critic H.L. Mencken worried that the
plot of theGatsby was nothing more than a glorified anecdote; even the

esteemed writer Edith Wharton chided Fitzgerald for failing to provide

adequate backstory for his main character. And while Gatsby seems too
couched in mystery, the other major figures in the novel often border on
caricature.
Mencken may have been right, but its clear that Fitzgerald made these socalled mistakes deliberately. Discussing the book with his editor, Maxwell
Perkins, the still young but cocky author said that hed originally written the
1926 short story Absolution a tale about a boy given to telling great lies
and then feeling guilty about them as part of Gatsbys backstory, but later
omitted that material from the novel to cultivate the aura of mystery around the
title character. Of course, it is Nick who takes measure of Gatsbys mystery, a
practical young man who otherwise resists the title characters preposterous
self-invention every step of the way. In one scene, in which Gatsby seems
unnecessarily secretive, Nick confesses, I dont like mysteries.
The genius of this novel lies in the narrative tension between Nicks
perceptions and Gatsbys mythmaking. Nick is no ready-made disciple. He
attended Yale with Daisys husband, Tom Buchanan, and recognizes their
wealth and privilege as far above his own place on the class ladder. He
resents it when Tom, as a member of the social elite, claims never to have
heard of the bond firm for which he works, but then concentrates his own
somewhat snobbish skepticism on his self-made neighbor. Though Nick
almost succumbs to Gatsbys charm on their first meeting, he quickly reminds
himself that his neighbor is only an elegant young roughneck, a year or two
over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.
Hes right, of course: Gatsby is ridiculous in his pretensions, in his fauxgentlemanly habit of saying, far too often, old sport, in his too perfect closet
full of suits and his ambitious library of unread books. Theres something sadly
comical about such a character, in keeping with Fitzgeralds underappreciated
brand of humor. When Gatsby talks about himself, he utters so many clichs
about his personal and professional history about the something very sad

that had happened to him long ago that its all Nick can do to keep from
laughing.
Its that double-edged quality in Nick as someone resentful of his own class
deprivations, yet critical of Gatsbys class strivings that energizes
Fitzgeralds American fable. Far from being simply enamored of the rich (a
sentiment Hemingway famously attributed to his friend and rival), Fitzgerald
understands the trap of class better than most of us. Often characterized as
the drunken scribe of the roaring 20s, Fitzgerald was also the decades most
trenchant critic. In interviews he gave to newspapers in the late 1920s, well
before the Wall Street crash, Fitzgerald predicted that Americans would soon
pay the price for the decades glorious excesses. He wasnt a prophet he
was simply declaring what The Great Gatsby had already shown in the form of
a fable.
Fitzgeralds take on the American dream is, in the end, a cautionary tale. And
yet, for all his resistance, Nick starts to sympathize with Gatsby and his quest
and the reader gets drawn in. There may be something pathetic in Gatsbys
class striving, but theres something innocent about it, too. Hes a stranger in
the world he inhabits, floating through his own parties without enjoying them,
bestowing his largess on mostly uninvited guests who are really just users.
The book is populated by liars, cheats, and characters out only for
themselves. In the middle of the novel, Nick recalls a newspaper article he
read about Jordan Baker, his romantic interest: she had kicked her ball from a
divot to improve her lie; it was a minor scandal in the golf world until the
witnesses to the incident renounced their testimony. Tom and Daisy
Buchanan, after cheating on each other and making each other miserable in
married life, prove to be soulmates in their carelessness about other people.
The truth is you cannot begin to understand this novel until you take account
of Nicks simple declaration: I am one of the few honest people that I have
ever known.

In a novel filled with liars, Gatsby is the grandest of them all. Hes a legend to
all those around him, but they have no idea who he really is (humble James
Gatz) or what it is that sets him apart from them (unrelenting devotion to
Daisy). He is simultaneously ruthless and innocent in his bizarrely singleminded devotion. Oh, you want too much, Daisy will eventually say to him,
and no remark could be truer.
Gatsby is dreaming an impossible dream, and perhaps the real question for
us is simple: why do dreams matter? Cervantess wonderful 17th-century
romance Don Quixote, another high school favorite if only via its watereddown Broadway recapitulation as Man of La Mancha, asks us to join the hero
in his quest and dream the impossible dream. Fitzgeralds Gatsby is
American literatures very own Don Quixote. He wont settle for a reality too
small for his imagination. Hes a dreamer chasing the lapsing idea of nobility.
Just as Don Quixote wishes to be a knight, Gatsby longs desperately to be a
gentleman. Don Quixote devotes himself to the simple peasant Dulcinea by
reinventing her as a beautiful princess; Gatsby dedicates himself to Daisy
based on his aspiration to regain what he has lost. In his purely American
way, James Gatz is someone who believes that if you cant realize your
idealistic goals, you might as well settle on delusions. And the great irony of
Fitzgeralds novel is certainly that for all of his preposterous posturing, our title
character is the only real thing in the book.
So read the book again, now, with a mature and sobered soul on the
anniversary of its publication (April 10), weeks before the release of the much
anticipated Baz Luhrmann film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey
Maguire during a cultural moment when our political economy recalls the
great crash that followed the glorious party of the 1920s. It will remind you
how hard we have to fight for the nobler version of ourselves, even when
reality isnt yielding the results we desire. When, near the end of the novel,
Nick remembers having once said to Gatsby, Youre worth the whole damn
bunch put together, hes right. Gatsbys great dream is about holding

hypothetically to a better form of himself, even after its become unlikely.

Because in Fitzgeralds vision of the world and mine wanting too much
will always prove more interesting than not wanting enough.
R. Clifton Spargo is the author of the novel Beautiful Fools, The Last Affair of
Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.