Can anyone suggest an alternative to

[Excelsior! Academy]

The Great Gatsby?

 

It is on dd's reading list next year.  Dh abhors the book.  He thinks it is a depressing and worthless waste of time.  I see his point, however I am neutral on the matter. 

 

DD is 13 and will turn 14 late November.

[SKL]

LOL.  I read The Great Gatsby at 16 as background for my 11th grade term paper (FSFitzgerald was my topic.)  I hated it too.  :P  I got a rather unimpressive grade on my term paper since my teacher had suggested Fitzgerald as a great writer.

 

Would Hemingway be better?  I found him more enjoyable to read.  Some of the topics were still on the depressing side, but I think he handled them better.

[KungFuPanda]

I'd keep it. It's a common reference that comes up again and again. The fact that DH abhors it will give them something to talk about. The fact that it's controversial in your house will make the whole experience more memorable.

[tshirtyogapantmama]

I am torn too about Gatsby. Recently, I showed my oldest a copy and he wasn't thrilled.

 

Yet, I agree with KungFuPanda that it's referred to often and I hesitate to not assign it. 

 

I did think about just having them read a summary and moving on. My American Lit alternatives are To Kill A Mockingbird, The Old Man and the Sea, or The Last of the Mohicans. 

 

But before I do that... I decided to see if I could "market" it to them (sell them on reading the book) and so far they are warming up to the idea. 

 

They have watched a bit of Downton Abbey with me. I've pointed out the roaring 20's fashion (which my daughter adores) and the history-behind the show (which my son likes to talk about). 

 

They listen to Taylor Swift's 1989 CD often. I found a music video for one of the songs "Blank Space". It gives off a Gatsby vibe. So we watched it together, singning along and then talked about the Gatsby vibe it gives off (the mansion, car, fashions, and torrid relationship).  

 

Last month, DH and I watched the 2013 movie based on the book with Leonardo DiCaprio/Tobey Maguire. I know it got mixed reviews but I found it entertaining even if it was a bit over the top. So I've casually suggested that if we do read the book we could have a viewing (book vs. movie) party. Watching movies based on books we've read is something they always look forward to so I figure it might be a big win for reading the book...I promised to cut their studies for the day and we would indulge in treats of their choosing.  

 

So far...they are coming around the idea of reading the book. If we do, I've already found a PP guide to go with it to make it so I can use it for their portfolios. 

[Word Nerd]

I don't like the story at all (or any of the characters, for that matter, though I suppose that's sort of the point), but the writing is amazing. I wouldn't cut it from the list.

[carriede]

I don't like the story at all (or any of the characters, for that matter, though I suppose that's sort of the point), but the writing is amazing. I wouldn't cut it from the list.

This exactly.

 

I didn't relate to the characters AT ALL.

[itsheresomewhere]

I know I am in the minority but I liked the Great Gatsby.  Have her read it.  

[Tsuga]

I wouldn't cut a book just because your husband didn't like it. I mean, I'll expect my kids to read Hemingway. I hated Hemingway. I empathize with them about Hemingway. It's an important cultural reference. Hemingway and Fitzgerald are complementary--they aren't substitutes for one another.

 

Also, I hated The Scarlett Letter, but I'm glad I read it.

 

I honestly think there are no substitutes for Fitzgerald's ability to capture that easy-money / careless zeitgeist. If you skip it, skip it. Do something else. There's no substitute and you can't get it all in anyway.

[EndOfOrdinary]

I have often proposed that many men dislike Gatsby because Daisy is stuck due the patriarchy of the time and everything spins out of control due to rampant capitalism based in the male dominated social hierarchy. In order to sympathize with the character you have to identify with her and that means you have to look at yourself. For many men that is not a very fun activity. By leaving a book at depressing plot level you are discounting anything which might be ther further.

 

Some of my husband's female students defended Lady MacBeth as an example of how much a woman seizing power had to be considered crazy because otherwise the message allows women to utilize their only power source (sexual power) to dominate men. This would require people to either recognize the corner that puts women in or to condemn women openly. As a white male this caused my husband quite a glitch in his traditional lesson plan.

 

Have her think about the message and very few books are depressing and blah.

[Slartibartfast]

I would let her read it, I don't cut out books just because dh or I didn't care for them. 

 

IMO Nathaniel Hawthorn is nutso but that doesn't mean his books are not worth reading. I cannot stand Madame Bovary and I hate that book with the passion of a thousand burning suns but Flaubert is also one of the most *technically* gifted authors.

 

I liked The Great Gatsby.

[Halftime Hope]

The only thing that I wonder is if just turned 14 is a bit young for grasping some of the nuances and understanding human foibles.  I'd save it for 16 or 17.

[Catherine]

So much depends on your history plan, your other reading selections this year, and your overall goals.  Without knowing that, I'm unsure how to proceed.  But I have a student the exact same age, and we are also doing moderns this year. 

 

I would not assign Gatsby to a 13-14 yo, even though it's a short book and not a challenging read.  It's just the ideas that I think might mostly be lost on my student in that age group.  YMMV.  Moderns we've read this year that have been hits are Huck Finn, a much more challenging read but IMO more accessible, funnier, and more with topics that I think a 13 yo can really grasp and discuss.  To Kill A Mockingbird-it's a straightforward story of justice, prejudice, and learning the truth of a situation that you at first misunderstood.  My student also read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and even though he is a boy, and Francie is of course a girl, the way the book describes their poverty, the adventure of making ends meet, the sadness and loss of her father's death and drinking, all really spoke to him and he liked the book.  I guess the sophistication of the characters in Gatsby seems less accessible to kids in this age group.  He also really liked The War of the Worlds.  

 

People have told me many times that "all" of the eighth graders in my area read Elie's Weisel's "Night", so my son needs to read it.  I just don't agree.  It is sooooo bleak-I just think it's a book better saved for high school.  So feel free to choose what YOU think is right for your student.

[creekland]

I didn't make my homeschoolers read The Great Gatsby as it's a book I never read in high school - and we read TONS compared to today's students.

 

Youngest had to read GG for his public high school, so I finally read it when he was finished.

 

No great loss IMO. Youngest never got into it either - as don't most at school when I've talked with them about it.

 

I can see why my English teachers opted to skip it, but then again, we also read many other books I wish they'd skipped... Light in August by Faulkner is one of the first I'd ax.  The Oxbow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark is another that immediately comes to mind.

 

BUT, I'm not an English lover so YMMV.

 

Books I liked that we read somewhere between 8th and 12th include The Grapes of Wrath, The Count of Monte Cristo, the Diary of Anne Frank, Black Like Me, All Creatures Great and Small, Flowers for Algernon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, To Kill a Mockingbird, Oliver Twist... and probably some others not coming to mind right away.

 

I've no idea what anyone sees in GG to be honest - content or writing.

[Chris in VA]

I agree with Catherine to save it for your next Moderns go-round--if you are planning to link history and lit.

 

 

[J-rap]

I wouldn't care for my 13-year-old reading the Great Gatsby either. 

 

I'd recommend To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, Anne Frank, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, David Copperfield, and many others...

[DawnM]

I know I am in the minority but I liked the Great Gatsby.  Have her read it.  

 

I like it too!  I have even gone to see it in the theater and read it multiple times.

 

I can't imagine cutting it from a list of reading.

 

Now, if you want to discuss books to cut....Moby Dick and any book with a sole survivor of an island comes to mind.

[6packofun]

There are too many classics to read them all in high school.  It really is OK to skip some and read them later in life or, gasp!, never at all.  :)  If you're really torn, listen to it on audio OR try to find another book that touches on the same themes (or from the same time period if that's more important to you). 

 

We can't all read the same list of literature!  I love talking to someone who has read a book that I haven't and I hope to encourage others by some of the lovely books *I* have read.  Too much stress over this.  There is a lifetime of books ahead!  (And there will be plenty of opportunities to be forced to read selections that you'd never choose when you're in college anyway.  LOL!)