The Great Gatsby

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

What are the attitudes toward various social, sexual and ethnic groups in this film? Specifically what are the attitudes toward the rich versus the poor? Blacks versus whites? And women versus men?

Do you think Daisy was foolish for making the choices she did? Or is she a product of the time period in which she lives?

Considering the short time Gatsby had to become enraptured with Daisy, do you think his motivations for engineering his entire life around the hope of being reunited with her are justified?

Gatsby is seen as the tragic hero or protagonist, yet as we learn of his background, is he ethically any better than Tom? What would some of the unseen consequences be for Gatsby’s choices? Why did the author choose to not display these while explicitly showing Tom’s behavior? Can you think of heroes in other movies who have similar unseen pasts?

This movie is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby.