Revisiting The Great Gatsby, high-school-style, in quarantine

“One reason why Gatsby is called a ‘Great American Novel’ is that it illuminates a conversation we haven’t stopped having in this country. We keep pretending to be people we’re not.” –Rolf Potts

In this episode of Deviate Rolf and his old high school friends reflect on the role of Nick Carraway as the narrator of The Great Gatsby, how he deals with race and privilege, and whether or not his perspective is reliable (7:00); Fitzgerald’s use of language and juxtaposition in depicting characters and their relationships (22:00); the characters’ lack of moral grounding amid the opulence and wealth, and how it drives the story (28:00); how the youth and the age of the characters in Gatsby resonates differently depending your age when you read it (38:30); and how big questions like love, money, and life are addressed in the novel (49:00). [Easter Egg “Lightning Round” kicks in at 51:45.]

Kaye Monk-Morgan is an Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wichita State University, where she facilitates leadership and professional development opportunities for low-income and first-generation students. Erin Perry O’Donnell operates Dovetail Community Workshop, which teaches woodworking classes in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tom Davis teaches English at Sumner Academy of Arts & Science in Kansas City, Kansas.

Notable Links:

• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel)
• Wichita North High (public school)
• Black buck (racial slur)
• Nouveau riche (class-specific term)
• Unreliable narrator (storytelling point-of-view)
• Bromance (close male relationship)
• Wall Street Crash of 1929 (stock market crash)
• 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (influenza outbreak)
• Poor Richard’s Almanack, by Benjamin Franklin (book)
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (memoir)
• Immanuel Kant (German philosopher)
• Baby boomers (demographic cohort)
• “The Ivy Crown,” by William Carlos Williams (poem)
• Playboy Mansion (former home of Hugh Hefner)
• Kato Kaelin (pop-culture personality)
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl (stock character in films)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.