The Impact of Critical Lens Theories
The wonderful thing about books is that you can read them over and over again and pick up on new details each time. Any time we read a story, or any work of literature, we are able to experience the story through a variety of perspectives, or “lenses”. These “lenses” -Critical Lens Theories- are what allow us to decode literature by almost forcing ourselves to pick up on different details and possible new meanings. Most stories will already have multiple semi- obvious meanings within them, like The Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald. When you look at this novel from one perspective you may be able to get that it’s about the decline of the American Dream. Or, from a different perspective, it’s about the hollowness of the upper class. This phenomenon can also be observed in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, which is a story about the use of technology to control society. Or maybe, through a different lens, a story about humans and their incompatibility connecting happiness and truth.
To summarize, “If you’re going to understand… the story, you have to read through the eyes that are not your own, eyes that… take in the meaning [they] have provided.” (Foster 232). What follows is an exploration of critical lens theories and how they impact the way certain details create new themes within The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
First, the historical lens. The most important critical lens theory when it comes to setting.
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Examining a work of literature through the historical lens means looking at the specific time and specific place the author chose to write about and its overall impact on the plot. It also means examining why the author chose to write about this specific time and this specific place. The Great Gatsby is known widely for it’s vividly expressed rendering of 1920s New York. The 1920s was not only a lively jazz-oriented time where young soldiers were returning home in a frenzy, but it was also a time where women were learning to show off their independence in ways never seen before!
In Fitzgerald’s stunning novel, we see that the three dominant male characters- Gatsby, Tom, and Nick- are all war veterans. Proceeding to connect this fact to their actions in the novel, it’s easy to see that each of them is disillusioned from the war and is struggling in their own ways to rejoin society and relearn these societal standards. It is because of this disillusionment that Nick moves and becomes neighbors with Jay Gatsby. It is because of this disillusionment that Gatsby becomes obsessively set on marrying his college sweetheart, a Mr. Tom Buchanan’s wife, Daisy Buchanan. It is because of this disillusionment that Tom goes into the city to party and have an affair with Myrtle. And it is because of this disillusionment that all of these events are simply accepted and not questioned by these three men.
Going back to the question “why did the author choose to write about this particular place and this particular time?” Let’s look at Aldous Huxley’s motivation for the futuristic dystopia of Brave New World. Brave New World was written in 1931. This was the time between the first world war and World War Two. This was a time full of optimism towards technological advances, and that is the optimism Huxley feared. Most of the stress found in Huxley’s world is created from the overwhelming belief at the time that technology is the solution to most problems faced in the world at the time which lead to Huxley’s dramatized interpretation of the future world in Brave New World. The novel’s purpose is to serve as a warning and to portray the fear of a future taken over by these technologies.
The social class lens- or better known as the Marxist Theory- hyper focuses on how those of different social classes interact with one another. The Marxist Theory relies on the alienation of social classes as well as states that socialism can only be achieved through conflict between these social classes. Fitzgerald dives headfirst into this exploration of the collision of social classes. He shows us a corrupt version of our American Dream. Fitzgerald uses strong diction to paint a desolate landscape of the lower class to exaggerate the diminishing idea of the American Dream using words like “grey land,” “bleak dust,” and “Sank down himself into eternal blindness.” (Fitzgerald 27). However, when he describes the big houses and lavish parties of the upper classes he uses more lively words such as “cheerful,” and “bright vines,” (Fitzgerald 6). He does this to show how strong the line is between the two worlds, and what transpires throughout the novel is a warning of the confusion and treachery that occurs when the two worlds collide, forcing that internal conflict to explode into something much more serious.
Let’s remember that the Marxist Theory relies very heavily on the alienation, in every meaning of the word, of social classes. It is also known that Marx believed that this separation is what causes internal struggles and conflicts in a society. Huxley’s dystopia relies on these social classes, or in his words “castes”. Each caste is taught that their own caste is the best in comparison to others, which creates that societal internal conflict. Each caste also serves its own purpose, which maintains the stability. And then there’s Bernard Marx; “it makes him feel as though he was more him… More on [his] own, not as completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body,” (Huxley 78). These thoughts reveal that Bernard is not like everyone else. His feelings towards the collective society of which he is a part of completely contradict the views of Karl Marx and shatters our previous thoughts on his character. It can also be argued that Huxley added this part of Bernard as satirical criticism of the capitalistic environment in which he was living in when he wrote the novel.
Next is the psychology perspective. The psychoanalytic lens theory is based heavily on the work of Sigmund Freud and his ideas on the Id, ego, and superego. In his theory, the Id controls any desire or impulse and goes unchecked in it’s own space in the mind. The ego, however, is the force that keeps the Id in check, meaning it understands that not all impulses should be acted upon. Lastly, the superego is the determining factor between right and wrong. All of these components are in a constant battle with one another, yet they all control the behavior and actions of a person. In chapter five, Gatsby is reunited with Daisy. However, even though Daisy is a married woman and their meeting is done in secret, neither Gatsby nor Daisy acknowledges this meeting to be unethical. Throughout the novel, the topic of (or simply just the word) infidelity is never discussed until now, by Nick. Even so, Nick does not do anything to intrude nor does he put a stop to it. This cements the assumption that the characters within this novel lack a superego, or in other terms, a moral compass.
The citizens of Huxley’s world are only after one thing, the pursuit of happiness. They don’t want to feel any other emotion. They, in fact, take the drug soma to avoid these other emotions because they are, in their terms, unnecessary. It is because of this that the assumption is made that the citizens of this dystopia lack a deeper meaning, they lack an ego and a superego. “Feeling lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation. Shorten that interval, break down all those old unnecessary barriers…” (Huxley 43) and the only thing left is the Id. The citizens in this society are very Id oriented, meaning they all act on their impulses without thinking.
They want to be happy, so they take drugs. They want to “have” someone, so they do it. In fact, the entire concept of a relationship between just one man and one woman is alien to them. However, there are two characters this does not apply to; Bernard and John. Bernard is in an upper caste, alpha plus, but is still considered as being inferior due to the fact that alpha plus males are known to be very well built and attractive and he does not fit these standards. This causes him to stay to himself until he comes home with John the savage. After he returned home with this strange man people became very interested in him. He grew very popular and becomes very charismatic due to the human unconscious desire to be accepted. Looking at John, we see that he loathes Lenina because of her desire for him and her constant want to throw herself at him. However, John fought against his Id of sexual desire for her with his superego- the ideologies he grew up with.
The feminist lens theory examines the conventional (traditional) roles that men and women play and how they might reject or protest these roles. “I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald 17) utters Daisy to Nick. Her saying this shows that she alone is not a fool, but a product of an environment that does not reward intellectual women. The generation before her valued a submissive female, and so she was raised to be as such. She portrays her values as her boredom and conforms to the 1920s idea of femininity (attractive and naive) to ignore her familial issues of which she never truly acknowledges.
Examining Brave New World from the feminist perspective discloses that even in a world designed to be “ideal”, women are still treated as objects and viewed as less important. The female’s role in this sexist society are all viewed the same. They are judged by their looks, and used as objects of sexual desire. They are taught to be naive and to reject real feelings towards any one partner by taking soma. Women, unlike men, are even forced to be sterilized so they can’t have children. Women are also not given the opportunity to learn and study and have a job whereas men do. “Bokanovsky’s process is one of the major instruments of social stability.” (Huxley 5) the Director says to a group of all male students. The phrase is used to describe and establish the fact that the role women play in society is only to give up their eggs so the factory can keep mass producing humans.
Tossing everything else aside, (environment, era, author, etc), and focusing solely on how the various parts of a work (setting, point of view, symbols, etc) weld together to create an original and meaningful whole is called the formalist approach. This approach is especially useful for students in an AP english class because it helps the reader look at the figurative language in a text as well as it’s meaning and overall theme. A formalist approach to The Great Gatsby would mean ignoring the “tableau” of the Jazz Age. Instead, the formalist would look at how the author manages to balance time in order to tell a dramatic and encapsulating backstory for Mr. Gatsby. Also, when the author throws in real life pop culture song, such as “Three O’clock in the Morning,” instead of discussing what the song symbolizes in the moment, a formalist would explain how the song reflects or impacts the tone of the scene. To apply the formalist analysis you must ask yourself “How does this piece work?” Look for complexities and find a unifying idea that resolves these tensions.
It is common for each individual to interpret the same work of literature in multiple ways. These interpretations are generally changed depending on individual points of view. Literary lenses are used to explain these different interpretations. They allow readers, writers, and critics to focus on particular aspects of an individual text and view it from a different perspective that they may not have considered before. The impact of critical lens theories is noticed in every story, every novel, every message, and in every classroom.
The Impact of Critical Lens Theories. (2022, Apr 25). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-impact-of-critical-lens-theories/
