Azar Nafisi’s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran references numerous literary works but mainly makes connections to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Henry James’ Daisy Miller, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Nafisi used these literary works because themes, concepts, and characters present in her literary choices are mirrored in her life experiences both in Tehran and the U.S. Connecting to the cultural marks in these outside readings, Nafisi makes comparisons to the culture in which she lives. Since I have read and taught Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, part two of the memoir was most relatable for me. In part two Nafisi takes a risk teaching the book because it may be viewed as “morally harmful” (Nafisi, 2004, p.108) but instructs her graduate class to read The Great …show more content…
Her students are both appalled and intrigued by Fitzgerald’s work. Initially, it serves as a contrast been American and Iranian cultures; the memoir pointed out how Americans dream and focus on the future, whereas “we [Iranians] obsess over the past” (Nafisi, 2004, p.109). In fact Nafisi (2004) stated how the cultures were in contrast, but noted “as time went by, it was the values inherent in Gatsby that would triumph, but at the time we had not yet realized just how far [Iranians] had betrayed our dream”(p.108). A good number of Nafisi’s students struggle connecting to Gatsby, mainly men in the class as it went against their set of ideals. It alarmed one student so much that he proceeded to warn Nafisi. Unfortunately for Mr. Nyazi, “There was…no difference between the fiction of Fitzgerald and the facts of his own life. The Great Gatsby was representative of things American, and America was poison for us…We should teach Iranian students to fight against America immorality” (Nafisi, 2004,