I'm a little bit lost with all the ideas for re-write,
and I am thinking towards re-writing a character from "The Great Gatsby".
Myrtle Wilson - Tom's lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. I want to write in her perspective of life but I am unsure of relating to post-colonialism..
Please help me if you have any ideas thanks
Hi May, I love 'The Great Gatsby'. Its one of my favourite novels.
ReplyDeleteRelating it to a post-colonialist perspective does sound tricky.
Maybe you could write it as if George represents the natives, and Tom Buchanan represents the new imperialist nation. And Myrtle as a second generation native growing up in post-colonial era, torn between the ties of her original ethnic race and culture (George) and the new European authority (Tom). This should help relating it back to the original novel, because Myrtle becomes quite a disposable
person for Tom in the end, like many colonies and their native people become devalued after imperialists have profited from it.
Hope that made sense :)
Hey May, I too love 'The Great Gatsby'.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there are various post-colonial themes, the whole colonist mentality (speaking of industrialization in particular) is well represented in the book.
As per what Hannah has said, is it mandatory that the colonialism affect natives in particular? I ask this because obviously it did affect people from that colony and expats who were directly affected by the notion, perhaps you could probe into this a bit more?
I have found a lot of discourse online in regards to a post-colonial perspective on T.G.G. and here is a link to a simple one:
http://prezi.com/ixy7ootdym0q/the-great-gatsby-post-colonial-presentation/
Good luck!
- Kamal
Hi May,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Myrtle is an interesting and appropriate focus for a re-write of 'The Great Gatsby'.
Thanks to Hannah and Kamal for your helpful comments and advice.
Enjoy!
Esther :)