Why read this: This article rewards readers who can sit with paradox: that the most famous novel in America is also one of its most misread, and that the very ubiquity of Gatsby branding obscures what Fitzgerald is doing on the page. For an EAL learner at Upper C1, the hook is precisely that ironic register, the deflating idioms set against serious literary criticism from Michael Farris Smith and William Cain. Reading at this level means noticing how an argument can be carried by tone as much as by topic sentences, and how a journalist can respect her interviewees while still gently mocking the cultural noise around them.
What to notice: Track the four voices kept distinct across the piece: the journalist herself, the novelist Smith, the scholar Cain, and Fitzgerald via letter and prose. Watch how their registers differ, Smith intimate and personal, Cain measured and academic, the journalist wryly modal. Notice the deflating images, the chip butty, the worry beads, the sublimely tacky branding, and ask which voice they belong to. Follow the misunderstood-novel paradox as it loops back through reception history, classroom orthodoxy, and the dated treatment of women and race.
Skills practised: You will practise inference across paragraphs, since the argument is associative rather than signposted; you must connect the cologne and chip butty up front to Cain's later complaint about flattened classroom readings. You will distinguish ironic register from sincere claim, the foundation of literary-essay reading. You will track embedded quotation, including a quotation within a quotation when Smith cites Hemingway. And you will hold modal hedging, the may, the seems, the suggests, without collapsing it into bare assertion.
Why The Great Gatsby is the world’s most misunderstood novel
A century on, Fitzgerald’s novel is everywhere in pop culture and almost nowhere in the readings it actually rewards.
Tap any green word in the article to see its meaning.
Few characters embodyembody: To give a tangible or visible form to an idea, quality, or concept; to represent in physical form. — 体现；具体表现；象征 an era as tenaciouslytenaciously: In a determined and persistent manner; holding firmly — 顽强地,执着地 as Jay Gatsby embodies the Jazz Age: the 1920s in America, when jazz music and lively nightlife defined the decade — 爵士时代. A century after F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote him into being, his name has floated free of the novel, shorthand for decadent flappers: fashionable young women of the 1920s known for their bold, pleasure-seeking lifestyle — 放纵的摩登女郎, champagnechampagne: A sparkling white wine made from a blend of grapes, produced in Champagne, France — 香槟酒 fountains and endlessendless: Having no end — 无尽的,无穷无尽的 parties. You can sleep on a Gatsby sofasofa: A raised area of a building's floor, usually covered with carpeting, used for sitting — 下沉式座位, splashsplash: To disperse a fluid suddenly; to splatter — 溅起 on a limited-edition Gatsby colognecologne: A type of perfume consisting of essential oils, alcohol and water — 古龙香水, and chowchow: to eat — 大吃,吃饭 down on a Gatsby chip butty: a British sandwich made of chips (thick fries) inside buttered bread — 薯条三明治. The accumulationaccumulation: The process or result of gradually gathering an increasing amount of something — 积累；积聚；堆积物 is sublimelysublimely: In an utterly perfect or extreme way; impressively or completely — 极度地,无以复加地 tackytacky: In poor taste; cheap or shoddy in style — 俗气的: the man once called James Gatz is now a brand with little to do with the book.
Naming a sandwich after Gatsby is not, on reflection, harmlessharmless: The state or quality of being incapable of causing harm; an innocuous thing or act — 无害之物. The flamboyantflamboyant: Showy, bold or audacious in behaviour, appearance, etc — 炫耀的；在行为或外表上大胆夸张的 host is only one face. He is also a bootleggerbootlegger: An illegal trader of goods, especially of alcohol — 私酒贩,走私者, up to his neck: deeply involved in (something problematic); fully implicated — 深陷 in criminal enterpriseenterprise: A business or company, or a project or undertaking that is bold or complex. — 企业；事业；进取心, and a delusionaldelusional: Suffering from or characterized by delusions — 妄想的 stalkerstalker: A person who secretly follows someone, sometimes with unlawful intentions — 跟踪者,纠缠者 whose showmanshipshowmanship: The quality or skill of giving an engaging or compelling performance; stage presence — 表演能力,作秀本领 slides, by the closing chapters, into something downrightdownright: Really; actually; quite — used for emphasis — 完全地,彻底地 tacky. If he embodies the promise of the American Dream: the belief that anyone in the US can achieve success and prosperity through hard work — 美国梦, he just as plainly embodies its limits: his end is engineered to be as pointlesspointless: Having no purpose; purposeless; unable to effect an aim — 毫无意义的 as it is violent.
Misreading was baked in from the start. Writing to Edmund Wilson after publication in April 1925, Fitzgerald grumbledgrumble: to complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent — 抱怨,嘟囔 that “not one” reviewerreviewer: A person who writes reviews for a newspaper or other publication; a critic — 评论员,书评人 “had the slightest idea what the book was about.” Edith Wharton admired it; reviewers shruggedshrug: To raise (the shoulders) to express uncertainty, lack of concern, (formerly) dread, etc — 耸肩, and one New York paper ran the deflating headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest A Dud.” By the author’s death in 1940, the second print run had been remainderedremainder: To mark or declare items left unsold as subject to reduction in price — 减价销售剩余库存.
The war turned its luck. Almost 155,000 copies were distributed as an Armed Services Edition for US troopstroop: (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general). — 一大群人;众多, and post-war the topicalitytopicality: The quality of being relevant to current events or contemporary concerns — 现实意义,时效性 of the American Dream sharpenedsharpen: To become sharp — 变得锋利. By the 1960s the book had been enshrinedenshrine: To preserve or cherish (something) as though in a shrine; to preserve or contain, especially with some reverence — 珍藏 as a set text: a book required for study in school or university courses — 指定课本. Hollywood did the rest: the word “Gatsbyesque” was first recorded in 1977, three years after Robert Redford starred in a Coppola-scripted adaptationadaptation: The process of adjusting to new conditions, or a version of a work modified for a different medium — 适应；改编；改编作品, and Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 extravaganzaextravaganza: An extravagant or eccentric piece of music, literature or drama — 盛大表演, with its immersiveimmersive: Giving the impression of immersion; surrounding the audience completely — 沉浸式的 soundtracksoundtrack: A narrow strip running down a movie film that carries the recorded sound in synchronization with the pictures — 声轨, deepeneddeepen: to make more thorough or extensive — 加深,深化 the reach. Since the novel’s US copyrightcopyright: The exclusive legal right granted to the creator of an original work to reproduce, distribute, or perform it. — 版权；著作权 lapsedlapse: to become void; to expire through inaction or the passage of time — 失效,过期 in 2021, a Tony-winning Broadway musical and a Florence Welch song cycle have followed.
If this leaves Fitzgerald puristspurist: An advocate of strict adherence to traditional rules or forms — 纯粹主义者 twiddlingtwiddle: to wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around restlessly — 摆弄,把玩 their pearlspearl: A shelly concretion, usually rounded, with a brilliant lustre, formed inside the shells of certain mollusks and prized as a gem — 珍珠 like worry beads: a string of beads someone fidgets with to soothe themselves when anxious — 解忧珠串, some of the new work may perpetuateperpetuate: to cause to continue, preserve, maintain — 使持续；使永久化 the myth that a Gatsby-themed party is anything other than sublimely cluelessclueless: Lacking knowledge or understanding; uninformed — 一无所知的. Other projects may yieldyield: the amount of something produced; the return on an investment — 产量；收益；收益率 real insight. Take Michael Farris Smith’s novel Nick, which gives Carraway, the eponymouseponymous: Of, relating to, or being the person or entity after which something is named — 同名的 anti-hero’s narratornarrator: The person or voice whose viewpoint is used in telling a story — 叙述者, a backstorybackstory: The previous life and experiences of a person, especially a character in a dramatic work, prior to the time when their story is being told — 背景故事 shaped by a love affair in Paris and by trench warfare: the WW1 form of fighting from long defensive ditches dug into the ground — 堑壕战. “I just completely didn’t get it” in high school, Smith confesses; only on rereadingreread: to read again — 重读 in his late 20s did the pages start “speaking to me in a way I had not expected.” Quoting Hemingway, “we didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t in the war,” Smith argues it is this damaged narrator, not the champagne, that keeps Gatsby alive.
William Cain, an Americanist at Wellesley College, agrees in cooler academic register. Fitzgerald chose Nick as a first-person narrator: the character who tells a story using 'I', as if from inside the events — 第一人称叙述者 and intermediaryintermediary: An agent acting as a mediator between sides — 中介人,中间人 between us and Gatsby, Cain notes, so that every encounter runs through Nick’s ambivalentambivalent: Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, or motivations — 矛盾的；犹豫不决的（同时持有对立情感） mixture of admiration and contemptcontempt: The feeling that a person or thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn; disregard for something. — 蔑视；轻蔑；藐视. The riotousriotous: Unrestrained and boisterous; wildly extravagant — 喧闹的,狂欢的 razzmatazzrazzmatazz: Showy, fanciful display intended to impress, often theatrical and exaggerated — 炫目排场,浮夸场面 of the parties is precisely what classroom and pop-culture readings have privilegedprivilege: To grant some particular right or exemption to; to invest with a peculiar right or immunity; to authorize — 使享有特权,优先看待; as a student in the 1960s, Cain heard mostly about symbols (the green light, the automobileautomobile: A type of vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver and a small number of passengers — 汽车,机动车) rather than about Nick.
For Cain, classroom orthodoxyorthodoxy: Conformity to established and accepted beliefs — 正统观念,主流观点 is almost as much to blame as pop culture for flattenedflattened: Made flat or one-dimensional; reduced in depth or nuance — 扁平化的,单一化的 readings of this seminal text. Fewer than 200 pages long, the novel has prose so economicaleconomical: Saving money or resources; using few words to express much — 简练的,精炼的 that its themes are easy to extract and its sentences easy to overlookoverlook: to fail to notice or consider something; to have a view of something from above — 忽视；俯瞰. The American Dream is routinelyroutinely: Done by rote or habit, as part of a routine, without attention or concern — 习惯性地 misreadmisread: Wrongly interpreted or understood — 误读的: Fitzgerald, Cain argues, shows a dream genuinely powerful yet largely unreachableunreachable: Unable to be reached; impossible to attain — 无法企及的, blocked by hard-and-fast class lines no amount of money will let Gatsby cross. Among his students Cain detects a quiet melancholy for that promise, fanned by inequalitiesinequality: a lack of equality, especially in terms of status, rights, or opportunities — 不平等；不均等 the pandemic has deepened.
Other parts of the book have aged less well. Fitzgerald flagged his allegiancesallegiance: Loyalty to some cause, nation or ruler — 忠诚,效忠 by underlining the brutebrute: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless — 野蛮的,残暴的 uglinessugliness: The condition of being ugly; an unsightly quality — 丑恶,丑陋 of Tom Buchanan’s white supremacist: believing that white people are superior to people of other races — 白人至上主义 beliefs, yet repeatedly described African Americans as “bucksbuck: An informal term for a US dollar; also used figuratively in expressions relating to responsibility. — （非正式）美元；雄鹿”; female characters, viewed through the prismprism: [Waves] A transparent block in the shape of a prism (typically with triangular ends), used to split or reflect light — 棱镜; 棱柱 of male desire, lack dimensionalitydimensionality: The quality of having multiple aspects or layers; depth and complexity of character or representation — 层次感,立体感 and agency. Expiredexpired: That is no longer valid — 过期的,失效的 copyright has opened a door for creative responses, from gender-flippedflip: To throw so as to turn over. — 翻转；翻面 retellingsretelling: A new, changed, or adapted version of a story — 重述,改编版本 to Claire Anderson-Wheeler’s The Gatsby Gambit. Great American Novel or not, the centenarycentenary: The hundredth anniversary of an event or happening — 百年纪念 suggests the text remains stubbornly seductiveseductive: Attractive, alluring, tempting — 诱人的. Pick it up at 17, at 27, at 45, and you will find a different novel each time. That, as Smith observes, is what great novels do.
Few characters embodyembody: To give a tangible or visible form to an idea, quality, or concept; to represent in physical form. — 体现；具体表现；象征 an era as tenaciouslytenaciously: In a determined and persistent manner; holding firmly — 顽强地,执着地 as Jay Gatsby embodies the Jazz Age: the 1920s in America, when jazz music and lively nightlife defined the decade — 爵士时代. A century after F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote him into being, his name has floated free of the novel, shorthand for decadent flappers: fashionable young women of the 1920s known for their bold, pleasure-seeking lifestyle — 放纵的摩登女郎, champagnechampagne: A sparkling white wine made from a blend of grapes, produced in Champagne, France — 香槟酒 fountains and endlessendless: Having no end — 无尽的,无穷无尽的 parties. You can sleep on a Gatsby sofasofa: A raised area of a building's floor, usually covered with carpeting, used for sitting — 下沉式座位, splashsplash: To disperse a fluid suddenly; to splatter — 溅起 on a limited-edition Gatsby colognecologne: A type of perfume consisting of essential oils, alcohol and water — 古龙香水, and chowchow: to eat — 大吃,吃饭 down on a Gatsby chip butty: a British sandwich made of chips (thick fries) inside buttered bread — 薯条三明治. The accumulationaccumulation: The process or result of gradually gathering an increasing amount of something — 积累；积聚；堆积物 is sublimelysublimely: In an utterly perfect or extreme way; impressively or completely — 极度地,无以复加地 tackytacky: In poor taste; cheap or shoddy in style — 俗气的: the man once called James Gatz is now a brand with little to do with the book.
Naming a sandwich after Gatsby is not, on reflection, harmlessharmless: The state or quality of being incapable of causing harm; an innocuous thing or act — 无害之物. The flamboyantflamboyant: Showy, bold or audacious in behaviour, appearance, etc — 炫耀的；在行为或外表上大胆夸张的 host is only one face. He is also a bootleggerbootlegger: An illegal trader of goods, especially of alcohol — 私酒贩,走私者, up to his neck: deeply involved in (something problematic); fully implicated — 深陷 in criminal enterpriseenterprise: A business or company, or a project or undertaking that is bold or complex. — 企业；事业；进取心, and a delusionaldelusional: Suffering from or characterized by delusions — 妄想的 stalkerstalker: A person who secretly follows someone, sometimes with unlawful intentions — 跟踪者,纠缠者 whose showmanshipshowmanship: The quality or skill of giving an engaging or compelling performance; stage presence — 表演能力,作秀本领 slides, by the closing chapters, into something downrightdownright: Really; actually; quite — used for emphasis — 完全地,彻底地 tacky. If he embodies the promise of the American Dream: the belief that anyone in the US can achieve success and prosperity through hard work — 美国梦, he just as plainly embodies its limits: his end is engineered to be as pointlesspointless: Having no purpose; purposeless; unable to effect an aim — 毫无意义的 as it is violent.
Misreading was baked in from the start. Writing to Edmund Wilson after publication in April 1925, Fitzgerald grumbledgrumble: to complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent — 抱怨,嘟囔 that “not one” reviewerreviewer: A person who writes reviews for a newspaper or other publication; a critic — 评论员,书评人 “had the slightest idea what the book was about.” Edith Wharton admired it; reviewers shruggedshrug: To raise (the shoulders) to express uncertainty, lack of concern, (formerly) dread, etc — 耸肩, and one New York paper ran the deflating headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest A Dud.” By the author’s death in 1940, the second print run had been remainderedremainder: To mark or declare items left unsold as subject to reduction in price — 减价销售剩余库存.
The war turned its luck. Almost 155,000 copies were distributed as an Armed Services Edition for US troopstroop: (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general). — 一大群人;众多, and post-war the topicalitytopicality: The quality of being relevant to current events or contemporary concerns — 现实意义,时效性 of the American Dream sharpenedsharpen: To become sharp — 变得锋利. By the 1960s the book had been enshrinedenshrine: To preserve or cherish (something) as though in a shrine; to preserve or contain, especially with some reverence — 珍藏 as a set text: a book required for study in school or university courses — 指定课本. Hollywood did the rest: the word “Gatsbyesque” was first recorded in 1977, three years after Robert Redford starred in a Coppola-scripted adaptationadaptation: The process of adjusting to new conditions, or a version of a work modified for a different medium — 适应；改编；改编作品, and Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 extravaganzaextravaganza: An extravagant or eccentric piece of music, literature or drama — 盛大表演, with its immersiveimmersive: Giving the impression of immersion; surrounding the audience completely — 沉浸式的 soundtracksoundtrack: A narrow strip running down a movie film that carries the recorded sound in synchronization with the pictures — 声轨, deepeneddeepen: to make more thorough or extensive — 加深,深化 the reach. Since the novel’s US copyrightcopyright: The exclusive legal right granted to the creator of an original work to reproduce, distribute, or perform it. — 版权；著作权 lapsedlapse: to become void; to expire through inaction or the passage of time — 失效,过期 in 2021, a Tony-winning Broadway musical and a Florence Welch song cycle have followed.
If this leaves Fitzgerald puristspurist: An advocate of strict adherence to traditional rules or forms — 纯粹主义者 twiddlingtwiddle: to wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around restlessly — 摆弄,把玩 their pearlspearl: A shelly concretion, usually rounded, with a brilliant lustre, formed inside the shells of certain mollusks and prized as a gem — 珍珠 like worry beads: a string of beads someone fidgets with to soothe themselves when anxious — 解忧珠串, some of the new work may perpetuateperpetuate: to cause to continue, preserve, maintain — 使持续；使永久化 the myth that a Gatsby-themed party is anything other than sublimely cluelessclueless: Lacking knowledge or understanding; uninformed — 一无所知的. Other projects may yieldyield: the amount of something produced; the return on an investment — 产量；收益；收益率 real insight. Take Michael Farris Smith’s novel Nick, which gives Carraway, the eponymouseponymous: Of, relating to, or being the person or entity after which something is named — 同名的 anti-hero’s narratornarrator: The person or voice whose viewpoint is used in telling a story — 叙述者, a backstorybackstory: The previous life and experiences of a person, especially a character in a dramatic work, prior to the time when their story is being told — 背景故事 shaped by a love affair in Paris and by trench warfare: the WW1 form of fighting from long defensive ditches dug into the ground — 堑壕战. “I just completely didn’t get it” in high school, Smith confesses; only on rereadingreread: to read again — 重读 in his late 20s did the pages start “speaking to me in a way I had not expected.” Quoting Hemingway, “we didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t in the war,” Smith argues it is this damaged narrator, not the champagne, that keeps Gatsby alive.
William Cain, an Americanist at Wellesley College, agrees in cooler academic register. Fitzgerald chose Nick as a first-person narrator: the character who tells a story using 'I', as if from inside the events — 第一人称叙述者 and intermediaryintermediary: An agent acting as a mediator between sides — 中介人,中间人 between us and Gatsby, Cain notes, so that every encounter runs through Nick’s ambivalentambivalent: Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing or contradictory feelings, beliefs, or motivations — 矛盾的；犹豫不决的（同时持有对立情感） mixture of admiration and contemptcontempt: The feeling that a person or thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn; disregard for something. — 蔑视；轻蔑；藐视. The riotousriotous: Unrestrained and boisterous; wildly extravagant — 喧闹的,狂欢的 razzmatazzrazzmatazz: Showy, fanciful display intended to impress, often theatrical and exaggerated — 炫目排场,浮夸场面 of the parties is precisely what classroom and pop-culture readings have privilegedprivilege: To grant some particular right or exemption to; to invest with a peculiar right or immunity; to authorize — 使享有特权,优先看待; as a student in the 1960s, Cain heard mostly about symbols (the green light, the automobileautomobile: A type of vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver and a small number of passengers — 汽车,机动车) rather than about Nick.
For Cain, classroom orthodoxyorthodoxy: Conformity to established and accepted beliefs — 正统观念,主流观点 is almost as much to blame as pop culture for flattenedflattened: Made flat or one-dimensional; reduced in depth or nuance — 扁平化的,单一化的 readings of this seminal text. Fewer than 200 pages long, the novel has prose so economicaleconomical: Saving money or resources; using few words to express much — 简练的,精炼的 that its themes are easy to extract and its sentences easy to overlookoverlook: to fail to notice or consider something; to have a view of something from above — 忽视；俯瞰. The American Dream is routinelyroutinely: Done by rote or habit, as part of a routine, without attention or concern — 习惯性地 misreadmisread: Wrongly interpreted or understood — 误读的: Fitzgerald, Cain argues, shows a dream genuinely powerful yet largely unreachableunreachable: Unable to be reached; impossible to attain — 无法企及的, blocked by hard-and-fast class lines no amount of money will let Gatsby cross. Among his students Cain detects a quiet melancholy for that promise, fanned by inequalitiesinequality: a lack of equality, especially in terms of status, rights, or opportunities — 不平等；不均等 the pandemic has deepened.
Other parts of the book have aged less well. Fitzgerald flagged his allegiancesallegiance: Loyalty to some cause, nation or ruler — 忠诚,效忠 by underlining the brutebrute: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless — 野蛮的,残暴的 uglinessugliness: The condition of being ugly; an unsightly quality — 丑恶,丑陋 of Tom Buchanan’s white supremacist: believing that white people are superior to people of other races — 白人至上主义 beliefs, yet repeatedly described African Americans as “bucksbuck: An informal term for a US dollar; also used figuratively in expressions relating to responsibility. — （非正式）美元；雄鹿”; female characters, viewed through the prismprism: [Waves] A transparent block in the shape of a prism (typically with triangular ends), used to split or reflect light — 棱镜; 棱柱 of male desire, lack dimensionalitydimensionality: The quality of having multiple aspects or layers; depth and complexity of character or representation — 层次感,立体感 and agency. Expiredexpired: That is no longer valid — 过期的,失效的 copyright has opened a door for creative responses, from gender-flippedflip: To throw so as to turn over. — 翻转；翻面 retellingsretelling: A new, changed, or adapted version of a story — 重述,改编版本 to Claire Anderson-Wheeler’s The Gatsby Gambit. Great American Novel or not, the centenarycentenary: The hundredth anniversary of an event or happening — 百年纪念 suggests the text remains stubbornly seductiveseductive: Attractive, alluring, tempting — 诱人的. Pick it up at 17, at 27, at 45, and you will find a different novel each time. That, as Smith observes, is what great novels do.
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Which statement best captures the article's central paradox about The Great Gatsby?
- 02
How does William Cain's reading of Nick Carraway differ from Michael Farris Smith's?
- 03
What is the most likely effect of the article's use of phrases such as "sublimely tacky," "twiddling their pearls like worry beads," and "Greta Gatsby—get it?"
- 04
The article suggests that "Gatsbyesque" branding has come loose from Fitzgerald's text. Drawing on the article, argue whether you think the novel's pop-culture afterlife mostly enriches or mostly distorts public understanding of the book.
Suggested length: ~120 words
- 05
Cain claims that the education system shares blame with pop culture for our limited readings of Gatsby. Assess this claim, using examples from the article and, if you wish, your own experience as a student.
Suggested length: ~120 words
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
Which statement best captures the article's central paradox about The Great Gatsby?
- 02
How does William Cain's reading of Nick Carraway differ from Michael Farris Smith's?
- 03
What is the most likely effect of the article's use of phrases such as "sublimely tacky," "twiddling their pearls like worry beads," and "Greta Gatsby—get it?"
- 04
The article suggests that "Gatsbyesque" branding has come loose from Fitzgerald's text. Drawing on the article, argue whether you think the novel's pop-culture afterlife mostly enriches or mostly distorts public understanding of the book.
Suggested length: ~120 words
- 05
Cain claims that the education system shares blame with pop culture for our limited readings of Gatsby. Assess this claim, using examples from the article and, if you wish, your own experience as a student.
Suggested length: ~120 words