setting and place 1920s america objective: to explore the importance of setting and place in the...

Setting and Place

1920s America

Objective:To explore the importance of setting and place in The Great Gatsby

Aspects of narrative - Setting and Place

• What are the major locations where the action is set?

• How much ‘space’ does the author give to describing the place?

• Do any of the places seem to be especially significant – if so how? How has the author signaled this significance?

• Is speech used to represent the way local people might talk?

What does America Symbolise for you?

What does America symbolise for others?

• The American Dream is to have the undeniable opportunity to be what you want and the sky is the limit. It is not necessarily attainable and it depends on how much effort someone wants to put into it, but the chance is there. That is not always the case in other countries who have strict laws on what you can do, believe in, or what yoursocial class is. The sky is the limit in America because while we do have regulations that have to be abide by, everyone no mater what their race, sex, or social status have the same opportunity.

One misunderstanding is that the American Dream is a given. It is not! It is just an opportunity to attain ones dream, it doe not mean it will happen. Ideally, if one pursues their goal wholeheartedly they will have security or "riches". I don't like to think of it that way, because our streets never were paved with gold. Just having the peace of mind that my family can have a reasonable dream is American Dream enough for me.

How is the idea of ‘America’ presented in the novel?

• The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.

• Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure.

• The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals.

• When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy.

• The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels.

• A person from any social background could, potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy—families with old wealth—scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.

Key idea!Places and setting in the novel are HIGHLY symbolic

Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomize the various aspects of the 1920s American society that Fitzgerald depicts.

Setting and Place: Chapters 1-2• America • East Coast America• West Coast America • East Egg• West Egg• Nick’s house• Gatsby’s house • Tom’s house • The Valley of Ashes • George Wilson’s garage • New York City • Tom’s City Apartment

20 minute Task:Complete your task sheet in pairs using as much detail as possible

Analysing setting and place

Setting / place Quotes Symbolic significance

East Coast America

West Coast America



East Egg

West Egg



Gatsby’s Mansion

Nick’s house



The Valley of Ashes

George Wilson’s garage



New York City

Tom’s House

Homework

• In preparation for the mock examinations after half term. We’re going to be completing some timed responses over the next few weeks.

• Please plan and prepare for the following question on Monday:

b) What significance do journeys have in The Kite Runner as a whole? (21 marks)• You can use the plans when completing the

timed response.

setting and place 1920s america objective: to explore the importance of setting and place in the...

Documents