New Criticism (Lex)

After reading Lois Tyson's 'The "deathless song" of longing: a New Critical reading of 'The Great Gatsby'' I finally understand why I found so much pleasure in reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby.' While performing my close reading of the 'great American novel,' I was impressed with the fluidity of the writing, the depth of the descriptions, and the ease of the reading, but I never understood why the novel was so compelling to read. However, in her essay applying New Criticism to ‘The Great Gatsby,’ Lois Tyson proposes that the universal theme portrayed in the novel is that of “unfulfilled longing” (163). Someone reading this story will therefore be surrounded by descriptions of need and desire, such as Gatsby standing in the shadow of his house, reaching for the “green light” (21), and Daisy sitting in the “hot” (126) and “stifling” (126) hotel room, whining for a “cold bath” (126). With every lengthy description and choice word in ‘The Great Gatsby’ relating back to a yearning, the reader experiences that same uncontrollable longing. Unsure how to quell this emotion, the reader hungers to read more, with hopes that by the climax of the book their needs will be fulfilled. The theme of longing that Fitzgerald weaves into every aspect of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is what makes it such an enthralling book to read. New Criticism allows readers to fully understand the reading, regardless of the context. While criticisms that delve into the views of society and its effects on literature have a certain appeal, New Criticism, which looks at only “the text itself” (136), is the most pure and concrete type of literary criticism. When reading a book, it is essential to understand the theme of the writing and the message it is trying to convey. For this reason, I prefer New Criticism to the other types of critical theories. However, to those who do not completely agree with me, I pose this question: If you believe that in order to understand a text you need to set it in context with the society it was created in, why must the world affect literature? Aren’t texts reflections of the author’s own emotions, which, while influenced by society, can occur in any setting?