The Authorial Perspective

Abstract

As mentioned above, the New Criticism was a movement emphasizing that the text in front of us was the primary focus of attention, and that insights available from secondary or other sources should be used minimally. However, in the case of Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby the situation is not so simple. The themes and, indeed, something of the basic story of The Great Gatsby had been already explored by Fitzgerald in other works, and he was to explore them after 1925. Almost all extended criticism of The Great Gatsby has included a section on these relevant works, as critics recognize the valuable perspective that they can provide on the novel. In particular, the relevance of the short stories ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’ (1922), ‘Winter Dreams’ (1922), “The Sensible Thing”’ (1924, ‘Absolution’ (1924) and ‘The Rich Boy’ (1926) has been debated. These are the stories most often cited by critics on The Great Gatsby in the belief that in them Fitzgerald was working through the themes he was to deal with in the novel.