F. Scott Fitzgerald Modernism

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This is the final quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The quote fits perfectly with the book as Gatsby tried to recreate his past by getting with his past lover Daisy. Nothing could stop this man from letting his past go. It is the same in society today. The challenging and banning of books is an ancient technique used to suppress knowledge from citizens. This book is being read in high schools all around the country, yet it still gets challenged every year on the grounds of sexuality and profanity (Smith).

F. Scott Fitzgerald was best known as a modernist fiction writer. He was from the “Jazz Age” a term he helped popularize to describe the era after World War I. He rose to fame at the age of 23 when he published This Side of Paradise in 1920. Fitzgerald published his two most known novels following the success of the aforementioned novel. He published The Great Gatsby five years later in 1925, and followed with Tender is the Night nine years later in 1934. All of these novels are keystones in the genre of modernist fiction. The Roaring Twenties started to come to an end, and the Great Depression started to begin. This crushed the rise of Fitzgerald. He went through a decade of alcoholism, and financial problems and his wife became sick. Fitzgerald died in 1940 thinking he was an absolute failure. Fitzgerald always suffered a lifelong inferiority complex. He would always talk about how he “ Talked to the authority of failure.” He never had a great reception from the critics of his time either. “Early critics tended to dismiss him as a “facile” writer” (Fitzgerald Society). He often times wrote in a style of writing critics called Dual Perspective. This means instead of focusing on condemning or praising a certain topic, it allows the reader to experience both sides. It was only after his death that he started to get recognized for his works (Fitzgerald Society).

“The Great Gatsby” is an ultra-modernist novel which was written by American Scott Fitzgerald. The book is a symbolic reflection of what happened in the United States, especially on the collapse of the American dream on aspects of materialism and wealth (Joucla & Fitzgerald 2012). The two elements discussed in the novel relate to the West and East, each with different connotations and people living in each part. The two small islands East and West Eggs, are identical in terms of contours but different in many ways. The two pieces are different in terms of people living where the West egg represents old money, and people living in this part inherited their fortune. On the same note, they look down upon the poor living in the Eastern egg. In return, those in the East egg participate in organized crimes and Hollywood to earn their fortunes. Therefore, both parts (eggs) are characterized in different ways whereas those living in the West have been regarded to be fair, sophisticated, and relatively innocent/naïve. Those in the East were characterized as corrupt and greedy. For example, West egg is less fashionable, and this is where Bick and Gatsby love. On the contrary, East egg is regarded to be fashionably characterized by white palaces where Tom and Daisy live their comfortable and carefree lives. The color white is symbolic to indicate that things could be pure and innocent, but corruption lies on the inside of the Oikos.

The aspect of social class is depicted in the novel representing two different people with money and those without money. The bay between the two small islands represents the difference between the wealthy and poor social classes in the community which may not meet due to the difference in their social standards (Cameron 2008). However, when others join the other, for instance, the poor working for the rich, they are manipulated using excessive force for them to meet the standards of the wealthy. In this case, Easterners, who moved to the West egg, have taken their mannerisms with them in their new life in the West. Gatsby is an excellent example of this novel. Another symbolic aspect in the Valley of the Ashes represents social and moral decay in society due to the unconstrained search for resources and wealth. In this case, the rich treat themselves to be of a high standard and consider their pleasure as of great importance more than anything else in the community. The valley is a colorless and desolate area because it is a dumping site for the ashes, and the parties present in this area are noisy and drunken compared to the parties in the West. They are relaxed and silent while enjoying their pleasure.

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Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby did not receive much attention when originally released until after Fitzgerald’s death when reprints in 1945 and 1953 became very popular. Today it is considered one of the “Great American Novels” and a literary classic (Baldassarre). “The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald’s crowning achievement because of its stylistic and structural concision” (Fitzgerald Society). The Great Gatsby is set in the 1920s right after the first world war and right in the middle of the Roaring Twenties. The book is about Nick Carraway and his new life in New York. Nick moves into a modest house in the midst of a neighborhood full of way richer people. Nick helps his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby, in his quest to win back his past lover Daisy Buchanan (Fitzgerald Society). Jay Gatsby, with his fortune built from bootlegging, would throw huge house parties in hopes that someday Daisy would come. Nick ends up setting up a meeting with Gatsby and Daisy. They go on from there in a terrible showcase of love and selfishness. The story never glorifies being rich and lavish. It does the opposite. It shows the troubled lives of everyone living in their once dreamed-of mirages. The facade that being rich makes one happy gets torn to shreds. It really gives high school students a reality check that being rich will not make a person entirely happy. It shows one has to have love and real friends to actually be satisfied in life (Garrity). This book contains a wide variety of immoral activities, mainly extramarital affairs. It does not glorify these activities either. The characters get punished for all of their wrongdoings. These affairs are a great metaphor for the wasteful and reckless lifestyles of the characters. Fitzgerald makes sure to show how miserable how all the rich and powerful really are. These are the ones who looked down upon those who lived in the “valley of ashes”. This is one of the underlying themes of this story. This book is not all about how powerful the rich are, it also shows the side of the story that no one wants to hear. Those who did not have the money and time to spend partying. Those who were struggling to earn an honest living rebuilding the country after the ravages of the first world war. All while living in a society that turned a blind eye to them in their pursuit of earning money and power (Smith).

The censorship of books has been used repeatedly in history. This practice allows the government, businesses, and corporations to control what they want the population to read, and not read. “Book banning is the most widespread censorship in America” (Webb). Censorship violates the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech; “however some limitations are constitutionally permissible”(Webb). For example, they can not challenge books by generally accepted authors such as Mark Twain (Webb). “We read to understand and express ourselves, to connect with our humanity, to understand our rights, and learn better ways of protecting our constitutional freedoms” (Braden). Taking away someone's right to read is just as bad as whatever content is in the book that is being censored. It takes away the joy of learning. The joy of discovering new worlds, all for the sake of being offended by something somewhat controversial.

The Great Gatsby is one of the more commonly challenged books, “coming in at top of the American Library Association’s list of banned and challenged classics” (Baldassaro). This is a book that is a requirement to read in high school, and yet it still gets challenged on the basis of sexuality and profanity every year. In fact, a majority of copies that are in schools have actually been modified to make them “more acceptable for high school readers”. The language in the book is actually quite tame. Even the sexual references are nothing to make such a huge deal over (Baldassaro). Many groups of people, religious groups in particular, also opposed to the booze and partying that occurred during the novel. Nearly all of these reasons to challenge/ban the book are crucial aspects of the story. This amazing novel that portrays the American dream in a negative light by describing those who gain great wealth and fame, but still lack happiness. Yet those who censor do not want to hear about that. All they care about is keeping the “innocence” of those who read it. One of the other main reasons for banning is one that has recently popped up in universities all around the globe. “It involves professors having to put “trigger warnings” alerts about things in something they teach that might elicit strong emotions” (Reville). Students are saying The Great Gatsby portrays misogyny and physical abuse; So now students who had been exposed to domestic violence can avoid this book whenever a “trigger warning” is placed on it. “The problem with this is that being shielded from everything that might disturb you is completely opposed to basic psychology” (Reville). The best way to avoid your fears is to confront them, not completely avoid them. Another problem with this is that the proper goal of a university is to educate students on ideas that are foreign to them. This process is completely changed whenever these foreign views are optional or even completely banned. Aristotle, known as the father of modern philosophy, once said “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it” (Reville).

The Great Gatsby has never been formally banned. Despite this, the book is always prominently featured on top of the American Library Association list of most challenged books. “The most serious challenge The Great Gatsby has ever had happened in 1987 at the Baptist college in Charleston, South Carolina” (Lombardi). They challenged the book because of “language and sexual references” in the book. This book does have infidelities, but nothing near as vulgar or oppressive enough to justify banning a great novel. “In the same year, officials from the Bay County school district in Pensacola, Florida unsuccessfully tried to ban 64 books, and one of those being The Great Gatsby” (Lombardi). The officials’ statement for the challenge was because it contained “a lot of vulgarity” as well as curse words (Lombardi). None of these challenges went through to successfully ban the book for very good reasons. The Great Gatsby is a true-to-life story that some just do not want to stomach. There is no good reason to take this book off the shelves of schools.

Those who challenged The Great Gatsby have no firm grasp on what is right and what truly is wrong. They live in their own bubble thinking they know what is best for their society. Yes, the book does contain sexuality and profanity. Fitzgerald had a gift with language and he chose words and actions for his characters very carefully. Anyone arguing that the book should be banned on the grounds of profanity is missing the point that it is included for character design (Smith). This book shows the history of the 1920s put into a literary drama. “You can’t paint an accurate picture of the time period by only discussing the good parts” (Baldassarro). Those who keep attempting to challenge the book are ironically just like Jay Gatsby. Borne into the past. Motivated by their own selfish ways, only to end up getting nowhere.