Teacher: Mark Meyer Class: English Date: Grade Level: 10
Room Number: 124 Period: 4 Unit: The Great Gatsby and Marxist Theory
Lesson Number: 9 of 15 Topic: Gatsby, Wealth Distribution, and Marx
Context:
Students have read The Great Gatsby and are currently reading Jake, Reinvented. Students have
been learning about Marxist theory and how to apply a Marxist lens through various texts,
especially The Great Gatsby. Students have also recently read section from Smoke and Steel, in
order to get a better understanding of the 1920’s time period.
Objectives:
Short-Range Objectives:
Students will be able to analyze The Great Gatsby through a Marxist lens by looking at financial
and wealth distribution statistics during the time period.
Long-term Objectives:
Students will be able to critically read through a Marxist lens.
Students will be able to understand the role class and poverty in The Great Gatsby, and the
1920’s, as well as see how many of these issues are prevalent today.
Affective Objectives:
Through practicing critical reading skills and using a Marxist lens, students will be able to
understand the underlying discourse in a text and compare it to the dominant discourse and their
own views.
Rationale:
1. Administrators: In the past students have had trouble critically reading a text in order to
understand author’s viewpoint and underlying message, so this lesson attempts to help
correct this problem. This lesson will also teach students the critical reading skills they
need to do well on the NYS English Regents Exam.
2. Students: This lesson will teach you how to critically read a text which will allow you too
better understand the discourses that are at work in a text. This will equip you will the
tools necessary to make informed opinion as an adult and in life. You will also learn
discussion skills that will help you throughout your lifetime.
3. Critical Pedagogues: In order to be informed adults, active democratic citizens, and
obtain the skills necessary to be a lifelong literacy learner, students will need the critical
reading skills and the understanding of the Marxist lens in order to uncover the
underlying discourses in a text. Students will also learn questioning skills that will help
them delve deeper into important issues.
NYS Common Core Standards:
9. Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational
works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar
themes or topics.
Procedure:

Students will be asked to go to this website and look over the statistics. The teacher will
also display the webpage on the overhead projector.

The teacher will then go over the statistics with the class, discussing their significance.

The class will then discuss how we can see the wealth imbalances of the 1920’s play a
role in the various texts we’ve read so far, including The Great Gatsby.

Students will then be asked to take out The Great Gatsby and work in groups to find
specific places in the text where they can see the affects of wealth distribution.

Students will discuss what the novel is trying to say about wealth in their groups.

The class will then come together to discuss what the underlying discourse in the novel
has to say about wealth distribution and class differences.