June’s Book Club Pick – The Great Gatsby!
Our pick for June’s Book Club is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Read on to find out how to get involved with our free online Book Club, and what to expect from the classes this month.
Vocabulary
Clarities (noun) to be coherent, to be understood.
Illusionary (adj) characterised by illusions.
June feels like the perfect month to read The Great Gatsby, not just because the novel takes place over a summer but because at the beginning of the book our main character, Nick Carraway, decides to move to West Egg in June 1922.
Most of you will have some idea of what The Great Gatsby is about or have some notion of it due to Baz Luhrmann’s fantastic adaptation.
But, for clarities sake, let’s talk about what The Great Gatsby is actually about. The novel is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man who decides to move to West Egg, which is located on Long Island, New York. There, Nick begins to hear of the mysterious Mr. Jay Gatsby whose mansion looms over his own small house.
Parties full of booze, dancing and discussion take place in Gatsby’s mansion, all of the guests trying to figure out the mystery of their host. What is Gatsby’s secret longing? And where will it take everyone?
At the heart of this story is a society living in a post-war period, where wealth and status means everything. Fitzgerald gives us a deep dive into these people, their dreams and disasters, their ugliness and their beauty. Fitzgerald also asks us: what is the line between reality and illusion? Where will it take us?
As Gatsby himself says, after being told he can’t repeat the past, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can.” Gatsby is a dreamer, an illusionary person, a believer.
These are just a few of the topics we will discuss in Book Club. The class is 60 minutes long and structured around reading a chapter (or a few pages, depending on length), discussing vocabulary and sharing our thoughts about what we’ve read.
So, for the remaining four Wednesdays of June we’ll be exploring West Egg, Nick, Gatsby, Daisy and all the rest.
The Book Club dates are:
Wednesday 8th June at 10am (UTC)
Wednesday 15th June at 10am (UTC)
Wednesday 22nd June at 10am (UTC)
Wednesday 29th June at 10am (UTC)
And you can book a seat here.
For those of you that do not have access to a physical copy of the book, here’s a free version on The Gutenberg Project:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64317/64317-h/64317-h.htm
Here are some of the questions we’ll be discussing in the class:
- What do we think about Gatsby as a character and the fact he can’t put the past behind him?
- What do you think of Fitzgerald’s writing style?
- What is your impression of Daisy upon meeting her? Does it change at all throughout the book?
- How is alcohol used in the book?
- How is money discussed and used in the book?
- What does the green light mean/represent?
- What adaptations of the novel have you seen? How does it compare?
This is just a taste of some discussion points. Book Club is all about not just expanding our vocabularies but our minds.
This content was written and recorded by Intrepid English Teacher Thomas.
You can find out more about Thomas on his Intrepid English Teacher Profile Page.
Book a free trial lesson today to discuss this topic in more detail, and talk about your English learning goals with an experienced and friendly native English teacher.
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