I tell students it is my favorite of the classics, and if you pay attention F. Scott Fitzgerald teaches you everything you should avoid in life and love. Drinking and driving, infidelity, lying, cheating and snobbery are all laid out in the style of the 20s, with words that sculpt characters and their dreams.
On Friday we talked about how Gatsby wanted both his and Nick's house to be perfect for the afternoon tea when he and Daisy would reunite after five years. Gatsby commented on how Nick's lawn could use mowing and how he had someone mow it in the rain.
"My dad says that's not a good thing to do because the grass clumps up," Joanie said.
And, Joey said, "Yeah, my dad won't let me go near the lawnmower until the grass is dry."
"How many of your dad's are particular about the lawn?" I asked.
Twenty out of twenty-two hands went up, and we spent the next ten minutes digressing into "dad and lawn" stories.
Tracy said that one time she offered to cut the grass because her dad complained about having to do it all the time. He happily got her started on the riding mower, and she said she cut designs into the grass because it was fun. She was going to go back over it, but her dad came out and got her and said that from now on HE would cut the grass thank you very much.
I told my tale about my husband who got disgusted because our former neighbor used to cut about three feet into our lawn down the adjoining property line. I told him, "Who cares? He's cutting grass that you don't have to cut." "But it's my grass," my husband said, and he began mowing three feet over into the neighbor's yard. So, there was a strip of about six feet that always got cut double. Dueling lawnmowers. My husband should have just gone out and peed down the property line to mark his territory. What is it with guys and their lawns anyway?
OK, back to the book. Most students like reading The Great Gatsby but end up hating almost all the characters except Nick, the narrator. I think they enjoy the trek into the past age of big parties, flappers, gangsters and rousing recklessness. Tom and Daisy are the epitome of total superciliousness, and if they didn't know what that word meant before, they do now.
"We always read sad-ending books," Allen says.
It's true. Most classics have sad endings. But, sometimes enough Disney sap crap is enough, right?
If you like or are familiar with The Great Gatsby, you'll get a kick out of the youtube video a former student (thanks Angella) alerted me to called "Daisy's Lullaby." It's pretty cool. Let me know what you think.
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