One Night With Gatsby - Literacy Volunteers Bookstore of Dunkirk

"It was a party like no other. I stood in the midst of the crowd, blinded by the bright lights piercing through the windows. The fancy cakes, the punch, the music; I  know Gatsby had to be in plain sight, but I could not find him."

Literacy Volunteers Bookstore

On Saturday, April 18th at 3:00pm, we (Antonio Regulier and Michael Limoncelli) held our event One Night With Gatsby at the Literacy Volunteers Bookstore in Dunkirk, a neighboring town of Fredonia. Working with the ever youthful Marty Wiser and our very own Katie Bogold, an intern from the English Department at Fredonia State University (FSU), we hosted an extravagant event that far exceeded our expectations. Raising over $150.00 in book sales and more than $50.00 in donations, our event was a complete success in promoting the National Endowment for the Art’s mission of academic reading in the public sphere and our own goal to fundraise for our charitable community partner.

Food Table

To entertain our guests, we had fruit punch, assorted cheese platter, a pyramid of fancy cakes, and two large sheets of pepperoni and cheese pizza generously donated to us by Blasdell Pizza. The Great Gatsby’s (2013) soundtrack played ever so softly in the background to keep up with the crowd as they perused the bookshelves for an all day book sale. Nathanael Terwilliger, an FSU Molecular Genetics major, was Jay Gatsby! He interacted with our audience members, taking pictures and using Gatsby’s infamous catchphrase from the novel such as “ol’ sport.” For photo opts, we had a box full of accessories (masks, boas, bow ties, and fans) that

President Horvath and Gatsby

reflected the time period in which the novel was written. We had a special appearance from the University’s president, Dr. Virginia Horvath who formerly served as a faculty member

Fully dressed up guest with Gatsby

in the English Department.

Our guests had a field day with Gatsby and his presence was much appreciated. After so much festivity and food, our audience was ready to proceed with our book discussion.

Our guest reader, Dr. Kaplin

To begin our talk about the novel, we gathered everyone into a larger circle to make sure our audience members felt included. Dr. David Kaplin, an Associate Professor of English at Fredonia State University, read aloud 3 selected chapters of the book. The first reading selection was from chapter 1 which highlighted the difference in the home of Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The second reading selection from chapter 6 centered around  the  transformation of James Gatz to Jay Gatsby.  The third reading selection from chapter 3 depicted Nick’s first time attending Gatsby’s lavish party. This selection was perfect because the entire first half of our program was designed to embodied the festive air described in the novel and to place our audience in the shoes of Nick who was bedazzled.

Antonio and Michael leading discussion of the book

Our presentation of the novel was a close reading that contextualized the historical and social movements emerging during the early and mid 1920’s while providing a character analysis of the protagonist, Jay Gatsby. First, we discussed the setting of the novel.  In our handout, there were two maps of Long Island: an old map that geographically represented the imaginary line dividing East and West Egg. We referred our audience to Chapter 2 where they could see the difference in how people perceived each Egg. The new money vs. old money conflict in the novel was brought to light when we described the setting as well as how Gatsby came into wealth; whereas Gatsby had to hustle, Tom inherited wealth. During the 1920’s, America’s attitude was very much so “if you want it, go get it.” After being cheated out of his twenty five thousand dollar inheritance from Dan Cody, Gatsby’s was the ideal American dreamer who would stop to at nothing until he escape generational poverty and got what he wanted: Daisy!

To further our discussion, we analyzed some racial tensions in the novel. Specifically, how Fitzgerald utilized the character Tom Buchanan to reflect the fears of white supremacist who saw the Harlem Renaissance as a threat to American culture. We also discussed how Nick and Gatsby both served in the battalion during the Great War (WWI) which yield extreme patriotism, but also a led to the questioned American identity. Although our discussion was not tailored for a talk on feminism, it managed to get there. Students were critical of Daisy’s position in the novel because although she seemed very unimportant, her character represented the new wave of women who stepped outside of their traditional roles in the house, but became objectified by men.

Gift Basket

Our discussion was well received and prompted much guest participation. Some of our audience members did not read the novel and asked us not to spoil the book. It varied greatly and we absolutely loved it. To end our evening with Gatsby, we raffled off three prizes: A Fredonia gift basket graciously donated by the Office of Alumni Affairs (Marty, the director won),

Community Partners, Seniors, Dr. Kaplin, Gatsby

the 2013 film adaptation of the novel, and the gift card from the Bookstore. Lastly, we made a toast to the life of Jay Gatsby whose life was cut short. Marty said “this was by far the most successful student event we’ve ever had.” We were so pleased to hear that, especially from our partner who was essential in bringing this project to fruition.