Jessica Nelson Assignment 1

The illusion made to Fitzgerald in the poem inventing my parents immediately brings up thoughts of his most famous novel, the Great Gatsby to most any reader. The  Great Gatsby was meant as a critique on the American Dream, and seeing as the American Dream is a prevalent theme in this poem it is very fitting to include this allusion. When the author says "Sinclair Lewis's name comes up, and Kay Boyle's, and then Fitzgerald's." she is contrasting the popular culture figure's ideas on the American Dream, Boyle's being positive seeing as he was a supporter of immigration and civil rights offered in America, and Fitzgerald's being negative. Showing the reader the disagreement on the American dream between public figures sets up the rest of the poem as the narrator's parents seem to not know how to feel about current events and the American Dream. The poem says "When he concedes a point, he shrugs... declaring an open mind." this suggests that the father is unsure of what he thinks and that by having an open mind he has been influenced by the thoughts of people like Fitzgerald and Boyle. The light and dark imagery in the lines "its shadow sweeping every town... My mother's face lit by ideas" shows that the couple sees good and bad sides of what's going on and the American Dream, likely because of the ideas presented to them by people like Fitzgerald and Boyle.