Question
In Tyson's essay titled But where's Harlem?: an African American reading of The Great Gatsby, what is her main idea? What supporting ideas does she
In Tyson's essay titled "But where's Harlem?: an African American reading of The Great Gatsby," what is her main idea?
What supporting ideas does she utilize to make her case? And finally,in her end comment, she writes, "It is ironic, then, to say the least, that 'The Great Gatsby has become an international source for American social history and is read as a record of American life at an actual time and place' (Bruccoli, "The Text of The Great Gatsby" 193). For if this is the case, then the world has a record of American life during the Jazz Age that omits the place and the people largely responsible for creating the era that the novel examines. M. Gidley says, "Fitzgerald, who was known . . . as the 'laureate of The Jazz Age,' so much of the quality of which era emanated originally from the nightlife of Harlem, strikes us now, I would suggest, as a prisoner of prejudice who yet sees beyond his own chains" (181). I agree that Fitzgerald was a prisoner of prejudice, but at least in terms of The Great Gatsby, it is evident that he was unable to see beyond his own chains (Tyson 410).
What do you think she means by Fitzgerald becoming a prisoner of his own prejudice?
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