New Historicism In The Great Gatsby

Sakti Aditama
English 201
August, 4 2014
Sister Lesuma
Jay Gatsby and His American Dream
The Great Gatsby novel is one of the famous books in the US. This book also have been made into the movie and became one of the greatest movies in 2013. But, this response paper will talk about the critical lens in the new historicism view from this novel. According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, new historicism is a method of literary criticism that emphasizes the historicity of a text by relating it to the configurations of powers, societies, events, or ideologies in a given time. The Great Gatsby was written in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story tells the reader of the American dream’s life after the first world war by showing the life of
a millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor, Nick, who recounted his meeting with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties in New York. By the time The Great Gatsby was written, there are three important events of new historicism that shows Jay’s life after the first world war in the United States; they are his differences within other of not consuming alcohol, rapid increase in economic rate, and social life after the war. Jay was made a different step in the life of not consuming the alcohol in his life.
His choice also accompanied by government regulation about the prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition of alcohol in the United States started in 1920 by the constitutional to ban the production, consumption, sale, and import alcohol within the United States and export to another country. The ban of the alcohol inferred by the number of people who consume the alcohol that exceed the limit and caused the death. There are many people who intended to support the government policies to ban the alcohol, but there are more people who want the regulation is eliminated. But, there were people who act of getting the alcohol illegally in the novel, they called as a bootlegger. There is an example in the book that considering the reader how the people in the story drink the alcohol at the party, “in the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another” (Fitzgerald 32). The alcohol prohibition in the United States in the novel The Great Gatsby is directly referred in the novel, but the more luxurious and extravagant parties that Gatsby held almost always had alcohol and the party with alcohol were always attended by many people, from high class people to the lower class people. Much like the American society at the time, even though the alcohol was prohibited by the government to consume by the people, alcohol was freely drunk in the
book. Post world war economic condition in US is getting better due to the transfer of the war cost into the daily cost to improve the government and resources that were damaged because of world war. The increasing in economic is very well represented in The Great Gatsby by many low class people getting quite wealthy, and the middle class getting wealthier. When the narrator described Daisy’s husband's family, he said “his family were enormously wealthy… they left Chicago... and drifted here and were rich together” (Fitzgerald 17). But, the economic boom had a bad link to prohibition, because when people getting wealthier they tended to hold a party that served alcohol. Gatsby is one of reflection of “rags to rich” as most people knew that the American dream is becoming a rich person at that time. The economic boom that happened after the great world war, it also had an impact in society life, especially that lower people’s life that could become a rich person by their own efforts. It's been a historical change that low class people can be a rich person. It’s called self-made man. According to Frederick Douglas, self-made man is a man who does not have anything to birth, nor wealthy, but they get the success in the future of their own hard work and make the opportunity well. It is reflected by Gatsby that he was not coming from a wealthy family, but by following the Carnegie’s advice he become a successful man. In the novel of The Great Gatsby, Carnegie talked about avoiding drinking the alcohol, having a higher purpose of life, and “be a free thinker and sometimes smash the routine regulations and make a new one”(Fitzgerald 8). These words have changed Gatsby’s philosophy of life to get his American dreams. Most of people who followed Carnegie’s word at that time, including Gatsby, has experienced quick success in life which started to save the money since he was a teenager, regardless of the viewpoint that he is a criminal. It is not impossible for every person to move their class to a higher place if they are willing to try harder and change their philosophy of life to get better life. In conclusion, new historicist criticism is a way of the authors to change the viewpoint of the story. The Great Gatsby is one of the examples of new historicist about the American dream that every person who lived in the United States could become a rich person regardless of their background. Jay Gatsby was one of successful people at that time who can reach his dream to become a rich. The ways how to get the American dream are changing the viewpoint of life and started since he was young.

Works Cited
Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Tomkins. "Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. N.p., 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Aug. 2014.
Cawelti, John G. (1988). Apostles of the self-made man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Douglass, Frederick (1992): "Self-Made Men". In Blassinghame, John and John McKivigan (ed.): The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One, vol. 4. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 545-75.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
"New Historicism." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2014.