100 Years of Gatsby, Old Sport!
Note: I first published this article in Book Riot on April 2, 2025. The full, original, version is here, behind a paywall. I’ll paste a full version without a paywall here on my Medium blog. It may differ slightly from Book Riot.
April 10, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The New York Public Library celebrated in January with a party, following a special performance of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. Simon and Schuster recently released a new audiobook with an introduction by Jesmyn Ward.
The novel’s theme of reinventing oneself is timeless. The ideas of living a lie by reinventing yourself and wealth making people callous are equally resonant today. How did this novel become so influential, especially on other American novels, and a fixture on high school syllabi? Was it always a bestseller? What aspects of Gatsby hold up, and which ones have aged terribly?
Fitzgerald’s original title for The Great Gatsby was Trimalchio in West Egg. I think the publisher was right to change it. Trimalchio is a character from the ancient Roman work The Satyricon. Combined with the fictional West Egg neighborhood, this reference is cryptic. Gatsby is now an icon in his own right. He doesn’t need a classical allusion for us to notice the theme of excessive wealth.
In a 2014 NPR interview, Maureen Corrigan, the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, explained how Gatsby became popular. Initial reception was mixed, ranging from the headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest a Dud,” to Modernist poets like T. S. Eliot saying they loved it. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, Gatsby was unpopular (but not out of print). A few years later, it was republished for US service members in World War II, and 123,000 copies were given to members of the military through the Armed Services Editions.
After World War II, Gatsby was no longer an obscure book with mixed reviews. It was considered a classic and became a staple of countless high school syllabi. Constance Grady wrote that Gatsby was ideal for many 20th and early 21st-century English teachers’ emphasis on New Criticism. It’s a great choice for close readings of short passages and analyzing symbolism. However, historical context is also crucial and should never be downplayed, especially in terms of bias.
The Great Gatsby possibly condemns white supremacist theories but uses racist language elsewhere. Tom Buchanan reads white supremacist books and goes on racist rants. Daisy mocks him for this. It’s easy to read this as condemning Tom’s overall bigotry. However, Fitzgerald also expressed racist and antisemitic views in real life.
Gatsby uses the accepted terms for Black people for the time, but it also refers to young, Black men as “bucks.” This was an outdated, dehumanizing term even for 1925. Decades earlier, slave owners had used the word “buck” to describe Black men as livestock. There are no named Black characters, but the Black people mentioned in passing are given racist descriptions.
Many critics call Gatsby’s women characters sexist. Jordan Baker is depicted as strong — but mostly through contrasting her with other women. As Tyler Turner wrote in a 2017 essay, these characters fit many misogynistic stereotypes, but their storylines also reveal how men like Tom abuse women.
Changing reactions to The Great Gatsby show that some books are more appreciated decades after their publication. It was published during Prohibition, and the text strongly implies Gatsby got rich through bootlegging. Several years later, the Great Depression began. Many readers didn’t want to read about the characters’ lavish lifestyles, even though the book exposes their illusions.
Many articles and documentaries say that US service members in World War II enjoyed Gatsby because it evoked nostalgia for a bygone era. This seems ironic considering the violence and destruction by the story’s end. Or perhaps an idealized past initially draws readers in, but they lose these illusions. I think the claims that readers misinterpret Gatsby are overstated. The tension between the allure of wealth and the actions of selfish, rich people is integral to the book.
This tension between glamorous settings and selfish, cruel characters also makes the book difficult to adapt to the screen or stage. Nick Carraway’s narration is important, and so is the subtext, which sets and costumes can’t convey. Like many other readers, I found the 2013 movie adaptation superficial. It misses the subtlety of the book, focusing on how glamorous the parties look and sound. At times, it almost feels like a doomed love story between Jay and Daisy, rather than his unrequited infatuation representing his ambitions.
The Great Gatsby entered the public domain in 2021. This was great news for people like me, who enjoy retellings. They range from Nick by Michael Farris Smith, a prequel about Carraway, to The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, a fantasy with Jordan Baker as the narrator. In this retelling, Jordan is the Vietnamese, adopted child of white parents. Gatsby is about an outsider trying to fit into a wealthy, white social circle. So, it makes sense that important characters are often people of color in fan theories and retellings. Readers keep bringing their own unique perspectives to Gatsby, with all its flaws and contradictions.
You might enjoy a close reading of The Great Gatsby’s iconic last line. The first line is equally memorable.
