The Great Gatsby Goes to Movies

Manic Monday:  Having Babies, Reliability, and The Great Gatsby

 



Today, my family and I celebrate my son's 15th birthday. He is my firstborn,and I can tell you for sure that I was freaking out right about this time 15 years ago.

I can't tell you the whole chronology of events, and if I tried, I would have to go back and tell you things as I rememeber them, but not necessarily in order. The only thing I can say for sure is that I was freaking out! I was like "What the heck did I get myself into?" Everything else is a blur. Period.

I could tell you about the whole event and finish saying all I remember, and even then I would forget something and have to go back and tell you about it.  Talk about an unreliable narrator! Which brings to mind Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby.

I was discussing this novel with my students today and trying to help them see and understand the novel as an example of early 20th century modernism. Well, one of the defining elements of modernism is a rearrangement of time and plotting to the point that events are a bit confusining and somewhat vague to readers.  For what purpose?  To recount a story as a first person narrator really would, with a mixed up sense of timing and a reliance on flashback.

I can't even completely and fully tell you anything about any of my own true stories, and if I do tell you anything then it is colored by my experiences and views. Just like Nick. He wants to tell us the story, but he is involved in the story, and he is not telling it to us as it happened either. Deep stuff here!

Which all goes connected to this...the "The Great Gatsby" on the big screen! May 10th! My students are ready, I'm ready, and you too can be ready! Watch the trailer! And, if you havent' read it, well, the plot is not a happy one, but novel is considered an American classic (or should we say an American tragedy?) by many readers. And, like other book-to-movie adaptations, you don't have to actually read it to enjoy all the movie magic of the 21st century.  21st Century Technology for a 20th century text.  Now there is another topic.