Cheers to 100 Years, Old Sport!
The Great Gatsby hits a milestone year and may be more relevant than ever.
As an English teacher, months are defined by the works you teach. May, for me, was always about The Great Gatsby. It was the perfect bookend to the “dreaded junior year,” synthesizing all my students had learned about American Literature and a great excuse to throw a party.
The annual “Gatsby Party” became legendary, with students every year, true to the book, trying to outdo the previous year’s fête. They researched the foods, fashion, jazz, people, dances, science, architecture, pastimes, and lingo of the era, transforming my classroom into a raucous mansion or swinging speakeasy to celebrate this iconic book. Everyone dressed to the nines would raise a glass of sparkling cider to toast Fitzgerald’s “Great American Novel” and the end of the school year.
Since I have left the classroom, I can only imagine what the party would have been like for the centennial celebration. Lucky for me, though, there has been plenty of revelry to go around. Much like the unending stream of parties and booze in the book, Fitzgerald’s masterpiece has spawned a life and lore of its own, including two screen adaptations, a Broadway show, memes, themed events, and several twisted and tweaked adaptations since the text landed in the public domain in 2021.
Does it deserve all the fanfare and fuss? Despite a loathsome cast of characters, an unreliable narrator, and a plot driven by amoral behavior, greed, and lust resulting in tragedy, it remains a standard in classrooms across America—the “golden child” of the literary canon. But is it “The Great American Novel” like Fitzgerald hoped and so many have proclaimed it to be? Or has it stayed too long at the party?
In the tradition of milestone birthdays and anniversaries, I found myself pondering these exact questions. And I have to say, it may be more relevant than ever.
It has a youthful energy.
Most Americans encounter the book when they are teenagers, and interestingly, most of the teenagers like it. Is it the open discussion of sexuality and drinking? Is it the restless energy of dreaming big while navigating social expectations? The romance? The parties? The flashy cars? The murder?
The novel channels both a youthful idealism and restlessness so explicitly that young people see themselves in it, and older readers feel a sense of nostalgia. Gatsby’s drive for success taps into “the instinct…of future glory,” and his pursuit of Daisy leaves the readers' hearts in “a constant, turbulent riot,” just like his. The roller coaster ride of emotions and want is visceral in the novel, leading readers, whether they like it or not, to reflect on their own baser instincts. Its energy is palpable.
It represents the very best and the very worst of America.
But it is not the youthful energy alone that gives the novel its staying power. Somehow, Fitzgerald captured the essence of America’s successes and failures within 180 pages of finely crafted prose. The youthfulness he describes is an idealism that parallels America’s. America, in the grand scheme of the world, is a young nation. Like Gatsby, foundational to America’s identity is the belief that hard work will pay off in the unrelenting pursuit of happiness. Gatsby reaches for the stars as he gazes at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, representing the perennial quest for “what could be.” There is something both naive and endearing about Gatsby’s yearning. Don’t we all somewhere deep inside harbor a dream of something idyllic?
America, from its inception, has banked on the idea of “the dream,” rebranding and owning it as “The American Dream.” And just like Fitzgerald’s book, symbolism abounds. Symbols of success, symbols of an idyllic life, symbols of freedom are woven into the fabric of American culture to continually remind us that the “dream” is out there, within our grasp.
But, under the watchful eyes of T.J. Eckleberg, looming over a wasteland between the worlds of “old money” and “new money,” Fitzgerald reminds us of America’s failures as a nation. The racism, classism, gender stereotypes, and greed that lurk behind the idealism, obliterating it into an ash heap, and defined by the actions of “careless people” who destroy things with no sense of conscience.
The “careless people” - the Toms, the Daisys, the Jordans of the world, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” It is impossible to deny the brutal nature of entitlement the powerful feel. It is impossible to deny America’s history of taking and destroying in pursuit of power. It is as if Fitzgerald asks us to look through the tired eyes of T.J. Eckleberg to see what we are doing to ourselves, asking, “Is this what we want to be?”
Perhaps it endures because it actually personifies the “American Dream.”
And perhaps that question of identity is what is most central to why this novel endures and captivates generation after generation. When reading The Great Gatsby, there is no denying the biographical elements. My students would debate which washed-up character Fitzgerald was. Was he Gatsby himself? Was he Nick Carraway, the bystander and observer? Was he the washed-out mechanic George Wilson, tired and hopeless?
Fitzgerald sat down with the intention of writing “The Great American Novel.” This was his dream. But in 1925, it was modestly received, selling fewer than 25,000 copies. An alcoholic, who lived a vapid life reflected in his cast of characters and died young, Fitzgerald never lived to see the success and enduring power of his masterpiece. But he worked hard to hold a mirror up to America and say, “Look.”
Seduced by the trappings of The Jazz Age, we are still looking in that mirror. But maybe that’s the magic. Maybe it’s about seeing the truth of who we are and hoping that if a washed-up old author can make it, then maybe this experiment in democracy has a chance. Maybe if we see the truth about who we are, America can rise above ourselves. Maybe that’s the “American Dream.”
The end of Fitzgerald’s novel is amongst the most beautiful in all of literature, stating, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” 100 years later, The Great Gatsby keeps us talking about what America is, what America isn’t, and what America could be. To that I say, “Cheers, Old Sport!”
As always, thanks for reading. 💗
What are your thoughts on Gatsby turning 100? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!
ⓒ Angie Gascho 2025. All rights reserved.
Dr. Gascho, thank you so much for this beautifully written reflection on The Great Gatsby and all it continues to stir in us! I really appreciate the way you brought the book to life for your students! Your words reminded me why this novel has stayed with so many of us for so long and made me see it in a new light all over again. :)
This is a great summary. I'm going to have to read it again. I last read it 5 years ago and it left me cold. Richard Yates always held the GH up as the standard to which he aspired.