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α1 Λυκείου2013-14

Υπεύθυνη Καθηγήτρια: Παπαγεωργίου Ελίνα

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key FitzgeraldHe was born in Minnesota, of United States of America on September 24th in 1896 . He was a child of an upper-middle-class family. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. He published many stories and novels, and also some of them were turned into films. All in all, he was a kind person full of love and dreams, and he inspired writers even since his first publications.

In his life, except the problems which he had to face, he didn't give up so easily his work as a writer and there were always some people to encourage him. But the truth is that his career wasn't for a long time. He died in Los Angeles, California on December 21st in 1940 at the age of 44. His death was caused by a heart attack but that wasn't surprising to the eyes of some people because he had been an alcoholic since his college days.

Some of his greatest novels are:

• ''This Side of Paradise'' which was published in New York, 1920

• ''The Beautiful and Damned'' which was published in New York, 1922

• ''The Great Gatsby'' which was published in New York, 1925

• ''Tender is the Night'' which was published in New York, 1934

• ''The Love of the Last Tycoon'' which had been unfinished, but it was published in New York, 1941

The Great Gatsby is a novel which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and it was published in 1925 at New York. The Great Gatsby follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922.

The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his deep passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. So every weekend during one long, hot summer Gatsby has a party in his huge house on Long Island. Gatsby being a man without a past, and having a lot of money that seems to have come from nowhere, eventually he is there for a reason following a dream of love.

The Jazz AgeThe Story itself is essentially about the moral decay that ensued in America during the 1920s. Although, other countries had class divisions the US had the equivalent of an upper class in the form of patricians or members of long-established wealthy families. These New World aristocrats lorded themselves above other people and spent much of their lives partying their way through the ''Jazz Age''.

In addition, 1920 had seen the prohibition of alcohol, with the result that organized criminals had seen a way to make good money by bootlegging, or illegally selling liquor. When both of these groups came together they formed a social order of dilettantism-people who assumed and cultivate pretensions of sophistication. The story of the Great Gatsby spirals into tragedy as the book progresses with a succession of events-manslaughter murder and then suicide-tragedy that seems all the more horrific in contrast to the spirited and frothy excesses that have come before.

It's a book that is representative of an era. This collision of subcultures, the wealthy and excessive nature of the elite, set against the '' average Joe'' that gave the book it's potency. Myrtle, for example the wife of a lowly garage owner gets seduced by the dilettante lifestyle and starts an affair with the moneyed Tom Buchanan leading to tragedy for both her and her husband. There is a moral judgment involved in the process of reading such a story: people tend to get what they deserve in life and the real victims are those who get caught up, either by accident or by attraction.

From a historical perspective the book tells of a bygone age that is part of US history. Prohibition ended in 1933 when the US government realized the irony of the situation. The Great Gatsby became a curious window into a world that had been and gone. A world where elements of US society had drowned themselves in a moral and ethical sump. It was a warning about what can happen when people become decadent and dishonorable. The novel served as an antithesis to the values and image that clean-cut Americans wanted to promote in the 1950s as a new generation became the custodians of their proud nation. Iniquity was brushed under the carpet and only allowed to exist in the land of fiction.

Thoughts and messageswe get from the novel

It is important to follow your dreams, being optimistic and have hopes for a better tomorrow. Love is a motivating power. Money doesn't bring happiness. Gatsby incarnates the American dream.He was the poor child who took advantage of the favourable for him coincidence and gained power and money even by unfair means. The centre of Gatsby's existence was his love for Daisy. Self-made and not of a noble family but with manners of a gentleman he achieved the social recognition through the parties that he organised in his house. His hidden desire was that Daisy might appear there one day.

His soul was pure. His illegal enrichment at the time of liquor prohibition in New York and his partnership with men of the underworld was part of his plan in order to win Daisy's heart. If he became someone powerful he could claim equally and successfully the woman of his dreams. Daisy's marriage was a mistake for him. The war and his professional plans separated them. Everything had to continue right from the point where they stopped five years ago. He succeeded a lot of things out of nothing. Would he give up his dream now that he could almost reach it? He was so close but so far at the same time from his dream. Laxity of morals.

Social hypocrisy: a husband who talks about family values when he deceives his wife. Gatsby's and Daisy's love was unlucky. The car accident was convenient for Tom. He suddenly becomes the protector of his weak wife. He is the moral instigator of Gatsby's murder. One marriage which is saved by mistake and one love that dies unfairly. Although before the accident Daisy looks more determined (she is sarcastic to Tom) and reacts badly to the prospect of their wedding, after the accident she abandons totally herself in his hands. Together they decide to leave the city before Gatsby's murder. Although Nick knows about that he decides not to tell Gatsby himself.

Daisy is irresolute, weak, always dependent on a man (either Gatsby or her husband). In the end Tom and Daisy are selfish; they ruin other people's lives (Myrtle's as well) and afterwards they return undisturbed to their wealth. Death is a mercy for Gatsby. He would be miserable if Daisy was far away from him. Gatsby would probably not give up. He would do whatever he could to win her back. Yet, he imagined her to be the mistress of his tower. She was part of his social evolution. He refused to leave away with her. He wanted the story to be as he had imagined it.

We learn Gatsby's story through the eyes of the unprejudiced and being everywhere Nick Carraway who is eventually proved to be the only true and supportive friend Gatsby has. He was the only one who felt the unfairness in Gatsby's unlucky end and the detraction of his name that was caused after his death. He truly valued the nobility of his character and his chivalry. And that was the image he tried to pass through his book, which was actually a book about Gatsby's life.

Myrtle and her husband are two tragic characters. Myrtle is charmed by the rich Tom and whatever he stands for, she is attached to him and alienated at the same time from her husband, which results in her dreadful accident. Her husband turns out to be a murderer and a suicide. How vain all these seem to be now in contradiction of how much promising things looked in the beginning. As the story ends, ''Gatsby believed in the green light, the magic promise for the future. He didn't realize that as we reach forward towards the dream, it moves ever further away from us. We press on like boats against the current and all the time we are carried back into the past!!''

Extracts

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘’Whenever you feel like criticizing any one’’ he told me,’’ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’’

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy they smashed up things and creatures and them retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…

And as I sat there thinking of the old, unknown world. I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s sea wall. He had come a long away to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to seize it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that enormous darkness beyond the city. Gatsby believed in the green light the magic promise of the future. He didn’t realize that as we reach forward towards the dream, it moves ever further away from us. We press on, like boats against the current, and all the time we are carried back into the past.

ΣυντελεστέςΚώστας Ανδραδόπουλος, Σένια Γρηγορίου

(επιμέλεια παρουσίασης)

Οδυσσέας Δακτυλάς, Ιωάννου Ιωάννα(DVD, φωτογραφίες, μουσική υπόκρουση)

Ευχαριστούμε θερμά την κα Χριστίνα Φωτεινάκη για την πολύτιμη βοήθειά της

ΣυντελεστέςΚώστας Ανδραδόπουλος, Σένια Γρηγορίου

(επιμέλεια παρουσίασης)

Οδυσσέας Δακτυλάς, Ιωάννου Ιωάννα(DVD, φωτογραφίες, μουσική υπόκρουση)

Ευχαριστούμε θερμά την κα Χριστίνα Φωτεινάκη για την πολύτιμη βοήθειά της

Βιβλιογραφία• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.Scott_Fitzgerald• Jane Austen “Pride and Prejudice” Oxford World’s Classics• F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby” Collins Classics, Penguin Readers