TheGreatGatsby ByF.Sco)Fitzgerald

Fairbloom,Blyth

Do you AGREE or DISAGREE???1. Daydreams can be more real than reality.2. You should never condemn anyone for dishonesty.3. The behaviour of adults is usually acceptable.4. Anything you can do to “get ahead” in life or better your situation is acceptable.5. You can and should only be in love with one person your whole life.6. Reality is what we make of it.7. If you have unintentionally done something wrong, you should not have to be

responsible for your actions.8. The American Dream is possible for anyone.9. Money can get you anything.10.A person’s open behaviour, occupation, and apparel are good indicators of what

kind of person someone is.11.If it seems possible to achieve a goal you have always wanted, you should be

able to do anything necessary to make it happen.

How do people achieve true happiness?The novel deals with themes that are very adult in nature. These themes in the book are all examples that Fitzgerald uses to show outlets of how individuals during the 1920‟s would attempt to find happiness (i.e. adultery, revenge, money). Because of the extremity in these acts, and the lack of happiness in the actors, it is clear that happiness is difficult to achieve. By allowing for the discussion of what contributes to true happiness, which addresses revenge, adultery, and money, students can develop their own ideas of what truly makes them happy.

What value do we place on money?Fitzgerald was able to capture the 1920’s with his unique talent of imagery and description. The excess of money and time during this period was complicated because previously, much of the money was “old‟ money from families that had been influential for a long time. During this time there was an uprising of „new‟ money, which resulted in unknown families, having influence. Within the book there is a debate as to what is really important, old money vs. new money or if money is important at all.

The Roaring Twenties• The 1920s were an era of “mindless materialism and consumption and pursuit of

private wealth.”• The novel comments on the gaiety and the moral decadence of the period: wild,

extravagant parties and the shallowness and the aimlessness of the individual.• Fitzgerald stresses the need for hopes and dreams to give meaning and purpose

to man’s efforts; but the hopes and dreams have to fail because ideals standing behind both are mainly too fantastic to be realized.

Political• Herbert Hoover was elected to the presidency in 1928. He was popular with the

people.• He was raised up by the country's prosperity until the beginning of the Great

Depression began to carve its trough into the nation's economy early on his presidency.

Social• Red Scares refer to the fear of Communism in the U.S. just before and during the

1920s • Historians often point out that Americans had withdrawn into a provincialism as

evidenced by the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan, restrictive immigration laws, and Prohibition the 18th amendment banning the manufacturing, sale and transport of intoxicating liquor.

• However, many people disliked the law and imbibed in unlawful nightclubs called speakeasies. Gangsters took control of bootlegging (illegal distribution of liquor) and violent lawlessness erupted. Lacking public support, the federal government was virtually unable to enforce Prohibition.

• Youthful "Flapper" women provoked older people with brief skirts, bobbed hair, and cavalier use of makeup and cigarettes.

• Social crazes such as dances like the Charleston, dance marathons, flagpole sitting and flying stunts erupted.

• Babe Ruth and other sports figures became heroes.

Prohibition• The 18th Amendment (1919) prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol.• Although alcohol was illegal it was distributed through" bootleggers"• Bootlegging means the production and sale of liquor.• Alcohol was served in illegal night-clubs which were called "speakeasies"

• It was the time of famous gangsters like Al Capone and events like the St. Valentine's Day massacre happened. During that time the Mafia became important in American society.

• In "The Great Gatsby" Jay Gatsby is suspected to be a bootlegger and a murderer.• Meyer Wolfshiem is said to have "fixed the World's Series" in 1919. • Even Jordan Baker is someone who cheated at playing golf. • Illegal gambling and bootlegging led to wide-spread corruption in the United States

at that time. Prohibition is not taken seriously in "The Great Gatsby": in almost every chapter alcoholic drinks are offered.

Spirit• Urbanization and the move away from the land• Fascination with the dream of success• Development of the cinema as a medium of

entertainment• Popularity of jazz• Increased mobility brought about by the mass

produced automobile

The Changing Role of Women• The 19th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote.• During the Twenties 9 million women were employed and earned money on their

own, many younger women used their money to enjoy themselves

Optimism Criticism• Business, change and innovation• Laissez-faire economy• Rapid growth of industry and

mechanization: unlimited progress effecting an even wider distribution of the blessing of civilizations: electricity and automobiles

• Even skeptics believe in progress and in solving of problems

• New “Golden Age” of America

• They called the decade the “Decline and Degradation”

• Americans are caught up in the surge of materialism: people who had failed to grasp the meaning and significance of life

• They feel disillusioned or disenchanted; they lost faith in life and in the possibility of social progress that caused their absolute lack of interest in politics

• They were able to drink and smoke in public. For the first time female alcoholism is a major problem.

• The liberated young women were called “flappers”. In The Great Gatsby Jordan Baker is such a new type of woman. She is living alone and has equal relationships to men. She is self-confident in dealing with others. Tom comments on her new freedom as a woman.

• The role of women changed – their behaviour, looks, and aims connected to the 20th century speed.

• World War I brought about the first step towards a new role of women in American society. During the war women were employed in all jobs of the work force because of the manpower shortage. Then during the twenties they had found entrance to business and politics though in the very minority. In the work sector about ten million women earned money themselves now

• Suffrage: In 1920 women's suffrage was finally fixed throughout the United States: The right ... to vote shall not be denied or abridged ... on account of sex. The Nineteenths Amendment didn't effect American politics.

• Behaviour: But the relations between the sexes changed radically during the decade. Prohibition of alcohol reshaped into secret fun: men and women began drinking together at private cocktail parties which replaced the illegal saloon. Women started smoking. For those who could afford it the automobile became a further means of liberation. And they enjoyed sports like golf. On Saturday afternoon quite a few also attended the Big Game, watched football. The new dancing style expressed a new joy of life. The new woman revolted against being treated as a love object or male property. Feminist leaders fought against the general idea of women as a mother and housewife. The conduct shows the disintegration of the values and customs of the older generations.

• Looks: And just as well the looks of the young women experienced drastic change. Girls had their hair cut short like boys (in a bob) and went hatless. They wore short shirts or dresses and their coats reached only to their knees. These young women were known as flappers.

• Sex: Sexual relations were now more like open discussions. Some feminists denounced sexuality as a male problem. Some men described women as becoming frigid and masculine.

Facts About The Decade• 106,521,537 people in the United States • 2,132,000 unemployed, Unemployment 5.2% • Life expectancy: Male 53.6, Female 54.6 • 343,000 people in military (down from 1,172,601 in 1919) • Average annual earnings $1236; Teacher's salary $970 • Illiteracy rate reached a new low of 6% of the population. • Gangland crime included murder, swindles, racketeering • It took 13 days to reach California from New York

F. Scott FitzgeraldVideo: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/aml15.ela.lit.youngfitz/the-young-f-scott-fitzgerald/

Facts:• Born in 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota.• He attended Princeton University.• 1917 joined the army.• Met his wife Zelda.• Published The Great Gatsby at 23 in 1925.• Regarded as the speaker of the Jazz Age.• Drinking and wife’s schizophrenia • Died in 1940.

The Way UpAlthough Fitzgerald's father went bankrupt, Fitzgerald still played with the rich kids in town. This paradox would later inform his fiction. His awareness of his situation sharpened during his years at Princeton, where he studied from 1913 to 1917 until he accepted a commission from the U.S. Army. He never saw combat. During World War I, Fitzgerald was stationed near Montgomery, Alabama, where he began revising what became his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920). There he also met the love of his life, Zelda Sayre, the charming, mercurial daughter of a judge. Fitzgerald's early literary successes soon made him and Zelda celebrities of the Jazz Age—a term he coined. During the 1920s, Zelda served as his editor, confidante, and rival. Their appetite for excess made them notorious in an age when excess was the norm. The Fitzgeralds moved to France in 1924 with their young daughter, Frances

(nicknamed Scottie), where they fell among a group of American expatriate artists whom the writer Gertrude Stein christened the Lost Generation. In 1925 publisher Charles Scribner's Sons came out with Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which has become his most enduring work.

The Way DownFitzgerald would not publish another novel for nine years. In 1932, Zelda suffered a breakdown from which she never fully recovered. She spent most of her remaining days in mental institutions. Fitzgerald sold stories to The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire to keep financially afloat. Implicitly acknowledging his wife's mental illness and his own alcoholism, he drew on their life abroad in the novel Tender Is the Night (1934). Fitzgerald relocated to Hollywood in 1937 to write screenplays. His sole screen credit from this period is for the film Three Comrades (1938). It joins his other script credit, Pusher-in-the-Face (1929), from an earlier California stint. Eventually Fitzgerald began sustained work on his novel The Last Tycoon (1941). Tragically, his end came before the book's did. Several chapters shy of finishing, Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in the apartment of his Hollywood companion, columnist Sheila Graham, while eating a chocolate bar and listening to Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

The American Dream• Define “The American Dream”.• Is the idea of the American Dream unique to Americans, or is it a “Human” Dream?• Do you believe the American Dream has changed overtime? If so, how?• Do all U.S. citizens have equal opportunities to achieve the American Dream?

What do you base your opinion on? • Is the belief in the American Dream necessary to society? Why or why not? • Video: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/aml15.ela.lit.gatsamdream/

gatsby-chases-the-american-dream/ • The American Dream describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to

the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. • The failures of the American Dream that we will see later on in The Great Gatsby

include: poverty, discrimination, exploitation, hypocrisy, corruptions and suppression.

• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These wishes were expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

• The concept of the American Dream is presented from two different points of view

Can we live to achieve a dream from our past?The book closes with the quote that says “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This idea of trying to achieve an old dream, which is what Gatsby attempts to do when he tries to rekindle a relationship with Daisy, attempts to answer the question if dreams from our past are worth our emotional investment.

Spiritual and Material Improvement• Materialism achieved too quickly.• Thus, lacking spiritual life/purpose.• Gatsby is a character that represents

this DREAM.• The American Dream relates to a desire

for spiritual and material improvement.• But what happened was the material

aspect clearly outraced the spiritual ideals, meaning it was achieved too quickly. So there emerged a state of material well being, which lacked in spiritual life or purpose.

Failure of the American Dream•The American Dream has totally failed to bring any kind of fulfillment, whether spiritual or material. •For all the progress and prosperity, for all the declaration of democratic principles, there are still poverty, discrimination, exploitation•As far as morality and values, there are also hypocrisy, corruption and suppression.•The Great Gatsby also comments on this condition.

Introduction to The Great GatsbySummaryA vision into the roaring 1920’s, Fitzgerald captures the decades indulgences. The novel is written through the eyes of a man named Nick Carraway. This fellow is an outsider who, for a summer, experiences the grandeur and glamour of New York. The protagonist, Gatsby, is his neighbour and seems to be a member of the quintessential 1920’s. His parties are the talk of the town, though he is not throwing them for enjoyment. The reason for the parties is an integral part of the romantic theme throughout the book. Juxtaposed with these parties is his wealth, which makes them possible, but seems to be ill gotten. Ultimately, the contention that comes from money, love, and power result in terrible deaths.

ThemesClass Distinctions: A major theme in the book is that the aristocratic society is being broken into two separate groups. The groups are those with established names, and those who have come into money very quickly. Within this conflict each groups shallowness and inhumanity is demonstrated. Instead of living lives of worthy pursuits, they are concentrated on petty, insignificant parties and commodities.

The American Dream: The book centres on Gatsby who gave everything in his power to become financially established in order to win back his professed love Daisy. With this goal in mind he attempts to fulfill the American dream, which includes hard work and financial success. The complexity of this theme deepens throughout the novel when it becomes clear that Gatsby earned his “American dream” through unlawful acts. It addresses the important question: at what cost is the American dream worth it?

Love: The book describes many relationships that are complex and difficult. This is illustrated in the relationship between Daisy and Tom. Tom has a long established affair with Myrtle, while Daisy and Gatsby are rekindling their old friendship. Due to the adultery in this book, many question the formality of marriage. Eventually Daisy’s jealousy results in the murder (or accidental) death of Tom’s mistress. This act sets off a string of events that lead to the death of Gatsby. In the end the married couple, Tom and Daisy, go off together. The deaths and affairs, coupled with Daisy’s profession of being able to love more than one person, spark the debate of what love really means and if marriage is a constraining or enduring.

Appearance vs. Reality: People often disguise who they are in order to get what they want. Gatsby does it in order to get Daisy, and Tom does it to get Myrtle and to hide it from Daisy. Jordan does it to get out of any sticky situation, and perhaps Nick does it, though we aren’t quite sure why. If Nick “the only honest man he has ever known?” The things we dream about are generally not as amazing as we anticipate them to be, and often become more real than reality. Gatsby’s “green light fantasy” of Daisy and Daisy’s love of Gatsby though loving Tom, and Jordan’s lack of holding on to dreams. What does Nick dream about?

Money: Money is a consistent part of the book, and it illustrates that often people with money fail to realize what is really important. In the book this is shown by those with money participating in activities that are of little worth just as parties and expensive goods. They fail to help those around them or find anything of permanent happiness.

Gender: There are extreme gender issues within the text. For example, Daisy has a child when her husband is off with his mistress and she says “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” The reason she says that girls should be fools is so that they are not hurt. There is a common tone throughout the book that the women are participants in a men’s world. There is sense that women are expected to do what the men say, which includes being ok with affairs as well as leaving parties and social events early. Women were expected to conform to the men, but they didn’t as illustrated by their own affairs. This demonstrates that telling women what they should and shouldn’t due ultimately hurts everyone, with each relationship being compromised.

Other themes include:

SettingThe novel takes place in New York. Nick, the voice in the novel, is originally from Minnesota but travels to New York. There he experiences the differences between the East Egg and West Egg districts of New York. In the novel, West Egg is a representation of the newly rich, a common occurrence in the 1920’s, and the East Egg represents the old, established rich families. Nick and Gatsby both live in the West Egg because their fortunes are new, whereas the representation of aristocratic poise and wealth is embodied in Daisy and Tom who live in the East Egg. Lining the West Egg is a desolate piece of land called the Valley of Ashes. This valley illustrates the moral corruption of the time.

Point of ViewThe point of view of this novel is mainly narrated by Nick Carraway, but often incorporates dialogue in which Nick is not present. Nick is a friend of Daisy and Tom’s and he moves to New York after the war in order to pursue his employment in the bond business. In the beginning Nick tries to establish credibility by stating that he is “inclined to reserve all judgments” (1) and claims to have many confidences with the characters in the book. Assuming this is mean to give credibility to Nick and his outlook on the situations, it also causes concerning for why he would feel the need to say anything about his ability to reserve judgment, which gives the possible inclination that he doesn’t always reserve judgment. The final portion of the book is Nick reflecting about Gatsby’s funeral years after he leaves New York.

Symbols

Lantern: Fitzgerald is an incredible writer, as proven by his use of symbols. A major symbol in the book is a lantern that Gatsby can see across the bay. This lantern is a part of Daisy and Tom’s house, and with every longing look that Gatsby gives to the lantern it becomes a symbol of his devotion and desire to have Daisy back.

Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg: The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is an advertisement that is described as old and faded, but his eyes take on a more symbolic meaning. They can be interpreted as representing a type of deity that is seeing the moral decline of the people of New York during the 1920‟s. The eye’s can be judged in a different way, which is illustrated by Wilson, Myrtles husband. He views the eyes as a representation of a loss of humanity and the worthlessness of the lives of those around him.

Antihero• Central character in the story, movie or drama who lacks conventional heroic

attributes such as idealism, moral goodness, and altruism• Jay Gatsby is an example of an antihero because he represents the hope of the

American Dream, but becomes rich through dishonest means• Gatsby pursues Daisy even though she is married. He lies and tells her that he

made his millions through pharmacies. However, it is later revealed that his pharmacies are a cover up for illegal liquor stores during prohibition.

• Nick is the opposite of Gatsby. He is earnest and doesn’t believe in liars, or cheats. Although, he doesn’t stop others from being dishonest, he will disassociate himself from these people.

Movie Trailers- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_3bob4nPdM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o

Lets get to know the characters…Nick Carraway (Narrator)

• “I’m inclined to reserve all judgments”• “A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth”• “My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for

three generations”What does each of these quotations from chapter one add to our perception of the narrator?

Jay Gatsby• He “represented everything for which I have unaffected scorn”• “There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the

promises of life”• He had “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness”

What does each quotation above, from Nick, in chapter one, add to our perception of Gatsby? What does it add to our perception of Nick?

Tom & Daisy Buchanan• They “drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were

rich together” —> What does the quotation above, from Nick, in chapter one, add to our perception of this couple? What does it add to our perception of Nick?