On tour of Gatsby’s splendid mansion, Daisy weeps amid a pile of colorful shirts, flung at her by her exultant lover. Why does she weep? “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobs, but this is hardly an explanation. Until a reader can explain how each part of a work contributes to the whole, he cannot claim to fully understand the work. Motivated by this standard, and in defense of it, this study of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby will define the object and the means of teaching literature, as it depends on the teacher’s comprehension of the substance of a text.
