I Inadvertently Triggered a Mass Trauma Response with The Great Gatsby
So, it's my first year teaching high school after 11 years in the middle school trenches. I read "The Great Gatsby" at the end of this year with my juniors, and while some seemed like they were into it, a lot of them gave me the same emotional response they've had all year: blank stares. So we just finished the book last week, and next week is finals, and I figured what the hell: let's watch the 2013 movie version with my boy Leo.
At the beginning of the film, it was a typical sight: some paying attention, some staring at their phones, some asleep. Whatever, it's the end of the year, and I don't mind watching the movie 5 times, so it's typical business as usual. However, today we got to the midway point where Daisy and Gatsby reunite, and the damnedest thing happened that I haven't seen in all my 12 years of teaching: almost all of the girls and a few of the boys started breaking down uncontrollably.
For those of you that haven't seen the film, the montage features Gatsby and Daisy reunited after years of being away from one another, laughing and crying and doing all sorts of relationship honeymoon activities while Toby Maguire stands by awkwardly like some kind of third wheel Spiderman. The thing is: there's a song that plays throughout the film, that apparently was made for the film, by Lana Del Rey called "Young and Beautiful".
Now, I've heard the song a few times before, thought it was a bit somber and catchy, and went about my life as usual. However, when this song and the montage hit, it was like a god damn emotional cyclone hit the room. I ran out of tissues for them faster than I do during a single flu season. And then, the last few minutes of class, a girl comes up to me with a mascara tear streaked face that would put Brandon Lee from "The Crow" to shame, and tells me that they played that song at her quincenera. Then another girl chimes in and says the same. Then another. And another.
It turns out that this particular song has been used for over a decade as a popular quincenera entrance choice, and it's embedded itself into the collective consciousness of most of my students as a result. All god damn year, these kids have the pokerface of a master's tournament Texas hold em champion, and it takes some song from 2013 to emotionally wreck over half the class each time? Anyways, now I've probably accidentally got them all to traumatically associate a book from the 1920's with a popular coming of age ceremony, and it's all Leo's fault. And I've still got the whole second half of the film to go.
TLDR: I accidentally M-Quince Ultra'd most of my juniors thanks to a Gatsby montage.