Voice of an Era

(the Roaring 20’s)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The 1920s: The Jazz Age

“It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was

an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

The 1920s: The Jazz Age• Most serious indictment

of the American Dream

• Aftermath of World War II– Attitude toward life has

changed – Confusion between the

spiritual and material• God is money

The Early Years• Named after relative, Francis Scott Key• Born in Minnesota • Attended prep school in New Jersey, then Princeton in

1913• So absorbed in the Triangle (a musical comedy society) he was “invited” to repeat his junior year • Went back to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he fell in love with a wealthy socialite . . .

His First “Dream Girl”It was his birthday [Sept. 24th] when he met and fell in love with a beautiful rich girl named Ginevra King. She got engaged to somebody else because Fitzgerald didn’t have many prospects. He later said, “She was the first girl I ever loved … [and] she ended up by throwing me over with the most supreme boredom and indifference.”

Zelda Sayre: “The top girl”

• Returned to Princeton, still a mediocre student;

• In 1917 left Princeton to enlist in WWI

• Went to Camp Sheridan where he met Zelda Sayre

She loves me . . . She loves me not

• Zelda, daughter of Alabama Supreme Court justice and “top girl” of youth society

• Became engaged; he went to New York• She broke off the engagement because she was not convinced he could support her• This Side of Paradise was published in 1920; she married him

Fitzgerald:The incurable romantic

1925 - The Great Gatsby

• The money and fame

enabled him to make

several trips to Europe

• Became friends with

expatriate community

in Paris, especially with

Hemingway

Hemingway “Strikes”Hemingway’s A MoveableFeast had some chaptersabout Fitzgerald andZelda, whom Hemingway did not like.

He created the legendthat Zelda was Fitzgerald’s downfall, the ruin of a great American writer

Scott and Zelda: An Unhappy

ending

• Zelda developed

schizophrenia in 1930• She was hospitalized

in Maryland• She wrote her fictional account of their lives

together in Europe (Save Me the Waltz)• Fitzgerald was able to convince Scribner to

change the content

Taking Care of Zelda . . .Fitzgerald’s last complete novel, Tender is the Night, came out In 1934. It is the story of a man’scare for a woman at the outset of mental illness.

The novel received mixed reviews.

The Last Years: Doomed to Obscurity

• Fitzgerald felt like he was doing “hack” work in Hollywood; disliked writing for

movie studios but did for money• Fitzgerald was living with his lover, a Hollywood

gossip columnist• A heavy alcoholic since college, he suffered two

heart attacks and died at 44.• Zelda died in a fire in an Asheville, NC, mental

hospital.• The year of his death, Fitzgerald’s books sold a

total of 72 copies, for royalties of $13.

A Great Book: The Great Gatsby

Today, The GreatGatsby sells 300,000 copies a year.

“There’s no such thing . . . as a flawless novel. But if there is, this is it.” from Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend

The Great Gatsby: The Movie

The Characters

• Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby

• Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan

• Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway

• Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan

What You Need to Know• Jay Gatsby was a young officer who falls in love with a beautiful young socialite, Daisy. • But while he is away at World War I, she is wooed and won by Tom Buchanan. She admits she did not wait for Jay because he was not rich.• His wealth gained, Jay buys a mansion across the harbor from Daisy, hoping to recapture the past.

The Great Gatsby

Celebration of youth, beauty, and money

A world of illusions

The New American Dream

Illusion versus Reality

Themes in the Novel

• The Corruption of the American Dream

• Hope

• Paradox

• Self-Discovery

• Illusion versus Reality

• Possessiveness and Jealousy

The Corruption of the American Dream

– Early European settlers believed one could start a new life here, limited only by the limits of one’s dreams.

– Jay Gatsby personifies the “extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness” that is the hallmark of the American dream.

– Gatsby believes the American dream be bought. The other characters are corrupted by that same belief to some degree.

– He believes the past can be recaptured.

Important Symbols: The billboard

Dr. T.J. Eckleburg

An optometrist’s

billboard are

“the eyes of God”

Important Symbols:East Egg Versus West Egg

East Egg Versus West Egg

• East Egg: Where people with “Old Money” lived– Considered my legitimate wealth– What everyone wants; values– Say they don’t know anyone in West Egg– Daisy and Tom live

there

Important SymbolsEast Egg Versus West Egg

– Considered “trashy” because they got their wealth too easily and probably illegally

– Spend money too freely– World of illusion-

collapse of America idealism

West Egg: Where people with “New Money” live; Gatsby lives here.

Important Symbols:The Valley of Ashes

• Road between East Egg and West Egg

• Compared to a wasteland; vapid, empty

• Home of the poor, working class people– Home of George and Myrtle Wilson (Tom’s

mistress)

Important Symbols: The American Automobile

• Symbol of power, money, and success

• Status symbol

Important Symbols: The Green Light

•Light at the end of Daisy’s pier•Green=renewal, new life (when he gets Daisy), hope