Ask the Expert Tutor: The Great Gatsby
In this week’s ‘Ask the Expert Tutor’, we solicit the advice of one of BartyED’s expert IB English tutors for advice on how to write about The Great Gatsby for IB English.
Thematic significance of ‘Gatsby’
With a title like The Great Gatsby, one would assume that this is a book about someone called Gatsby. That’s Fitzgerald’s first trick: it is not just about Gatsby. It is a book about the man who is calling him capital-G Great, Nick Carraway, and his motivations. Nick tells us at the start that Gatsby possesses “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.” Here, Nick touches on one of the major themes of The Great Gatsby: how the beliefs we hold—both by choice and by necessity—govern our lives.
As an IB English student, students might disagree with this interpretation of this text. Students might, in turn, argue that the major themes of the work are the decadence and corruption of 1920s America, the fallibility of memory, and the inability to escape from your past. However, to succeed in an IB English programme, it is essential that candidates exhibit intellectual flexibility and, with a tutor’s help, learn how to match their interpretation of authorial purpose to the exam question. Consider the following question which appeared on a past IB English Language and Literature Paper 2 exam:
Show how belief or faith is represented in the two literary works you have studied and discuss how this aspect might be interpreted or understood in different historical, cultural or social contexts.
Note that the question is inviting the candidate to discuss not only the significance of faith or belief but how that significance might be understood by the reader in different contexts. Many IB candidates will fail to respond adequately to the second part. Individualised support in critical argumentation from a qualified BartyED IB English tutor can help students overcome this weakness.
The major textual elements that should be considered in such a question are as follows:
(i) Nick’s belief in Gatsby
(ii) Gatsby’s belief in recreating the past with Daisy
(iii) Faith in the new religion of the stock market
(iv) Doctor T.J. Eckleburg and religious imagery
(v) Belief in the American Dream
Weaker IB English response on ‘Gatsby’
The question is also clearly comparative but for the purposes of this exercise, consider the portion of a paragraph that a weaker student might produce trying to address element (i) above.
The Great Gatsby is a book about a man called Nick Carraway who believes in the goodness and superiority of Jay Gatsby. This can be seen in the title “The Great Gatsby.” Nick believes that Gatsby is better than the rest of the New Yorkers in his capacity of hope, love and sacrifice. The context of the Roaring Twenties emphasises this idea of Gatsby and of the American Dream.
Why is this response considered weak for IB English?
This paragraph is not ideal for the following reasons:
It gestures to context rather than discusses it. It is not entirely clear why the student is bringing up the Roaring Twenties.
No mention of how the novel might be interpreted in different contexts. The student needs to talk about the context of reception and how a modern audience will receive this text.
Why write “book” when you can write “novel?”
Gatsby is not a New Yorker.
There is no argument addressing the question of how belief is represented. Instead, it simply states where the reader may see evidence of belief.
What does an improved IB English response on ‘Gatsby’ look like?
An improved response might look like this:
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the extent to which one individual’s belief in another can be informed by historical and social contexts. The narrator, Nick Carraway, believes in Gatsby as a morally transcendent figure. It is instead those surrounding him, such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who act as the “foul dust float[ing] in the wake of his dreams.” In their last conversation, Nick told Gatsby that he was “worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Nick’s belief in Gatsby remains unshakeable despite rumours that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activities. Gatsby is only a symptom of Fitzgerald’s world, a milieu of moral decay in which aristocrats rub shoulders with organised crime figures at lavish parties. To the contemporary reader upon the book’s first publication in 1925, it would have been second nature to, much like Nick, selectively ignore Gatsby’s criminal background and where his fortune originated. His background is irrelevant as long as he continues to entertain the upper-classes, keeping his house “always full of interesting people [...] Celebrated people.” However, to the modern reader, the debauchery depicted in the novel only appears ominous in light of the Great Depression that followed the excesses of the Jazz Age. It is evident that Gatsby’s way of life is transient; it can only exist and subsist within a certain time and place.
Why is this ‘Gatsby’ response stronger?
This paragraph will score much higher than the earlier paragraph because:
It hits on the most obvious point to discuss for this question: Nick Carraway’s belief in Gatsby.
There is specific and relevant discussion of the context of reception and the modern reader’s response.
There is good use of evidence throughout the paragraph that strengthens the argument.
Date-dropping: Memorising when books are published is always a good thing to do before your exam.
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