I will be writing about the topic of alcohol and mental illness throughout The Great Gatsby. This topic is present in all of the chapters through the drinking and ways that the characters would behave. I am extremely interested in the field of psychology and medicine so I decided to chose this as my number one topic. I am particularly interested in researching effects of alcoholism on the body and how those things relayed on to each of the characters who were drinking frequently, and get the answers behind many of their actions.

The only course reading that really led me to this topic was the book itself. From what I can remember, none of the secondary sources were in relation to this that I have read in class—possibly only briefly touched on it.

Some research that I have touched on is a thesis that talks about alcohol as an authority figure in the works of Fitzgerald and Gatsby in particular. This lead me to narrow down and possibly creat my thesis revolving around alcohol ruling the lives of characters in the novel. A couple questions I hope to answer include; did any of the characters exhibit the traits of alcoholism? How exactly did alcohol control the character’s lives? What was the social impact of alcohol during the time?Possible perspectives and assumptions surrounding the topic can include what an alcoholic looks/acts like. Many people tend to assume that alcoholics are “easy to spot” and often visibly struggling because it is something that is highlighted through the media. An argument surrounding this is the huge presence of functioning alcoholics and the disapproval of people having a mental illness in the public eye without being outcasted. Mental health outreach was little to nonexistent in the time period, and I think it went hand in hand with alcoholism and the behaviors of characters.

My research plan is the observe all of the things mentioned in the above paragraph through scholarly articles and books, as well as the novel itself. I plan on doing my PRELIMS as well as any work by the due date and also keep relevant information related to the topic within them.