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Exploring Critical Theory Through The Great Gatsby

Join this quiz to delve into the significance of The Great Gatsby as a focal text for Critical Theory Today, understand why students often feel anxious about critical theory, and learn about the concrete ways in which critical theory can benefit us. Explore the themes and characters of Gatsby, including Nick's initial withholding of judgment and his final reflections on the beach.

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Exploring Critical Theory Through The Great Gatsby

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  1. Quiz , Sept. 2nd :Tyson Chaps. 1 and 2, and Gatsby

  2. Why has Tyson chosen The Great Gatsby as the focal text for Critical Theory Today? • Why, according to Tyson, do students often feel anxious about critical theory? • What, according to Tyson, are some “concrete ways” we can benefit from an understanding of critical theory? • Before Nick can really get together with Jordan, what business in his hometown does he have to take care of? • Why does Nick initially withhold judgment of Gatsby or any of the people he gets to know during his summer in New York? (He explains this early at the very start of the book.) • What is Nick doing and thinking about in the very last page of the novel?

  3. Quiz Answers

  4. Why has Tyson chosen The Great Gatsby as the focal text for Critical Theory Today? p. 5 It lends itself well to many critical lenses. You can apply any critical lens to any text, but some texts are particularly suited to particular lenses. Gatsby’s good for just about anything. • Why, according to Tyson, do students often feel anxious about critical theory? p. 2 • It is sometimes wielded as “cultural capital” or as an intimidation tool. Makes us feel dumb! • They worry it will wreck their love of literature.

  5. What, according to Tyson, are some “concrete ways” we can benefit from an understanding of critical theory? p. 2 Critical theory can inform: • “how we educate our children, both as parents and teachers”; • “how we view television, from the nightly news to situation comedies”; • “how we behave as voters and consumers”; “how we react to others with whom we do not agree, on social, religious, and political issues”; • and “how we recognize and deal with our own motives, fears, and desires” (2).

  6. Before Nick can really get together with Jordan, what business in his hometown does he have to take care of? He has to break off a relationship with another woman. • What is Nick doing and thinking about in the very last page of the novel? Sprawls on beach in sand. Thinking how Manhattan must have looked to the first Dutch settlers, final thoughts about Gatsby’s struggle to reach Daisy, how the “green light” of the future is already, even from the moment we desire it, behind us. • Why does Nick initially withhold judgment of Gatsby or any of the people he gets to know during his summer in New York? (He explains this early at the very start of the book.) Because his father told him, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone…just remember that all of the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” By the way, why is this statement SO ironic?

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