Transcript The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald

Used with gratitude from the Hinsdale Central Reading Lab.
The Great Gatsby and
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great
American 1920s
Novel
Introduction
• The Great Gatsby deals with
the tumultuous period of the
1920s “Jazz Age.”
• It was a commercial and
critical success and made him
one of the most prominent
literary figures of the time (and
now!)
• From gangsters to Prohibition
to contemporary bizarre social
customs, Fitzgerald’s work
portrays a slice of rich New
York during the roaring 20s.
• It’s a story of America in the
1920s: prosperous, giddy,
dream-filled… and corrupt
After WWI, the US experienced a
rush of prosperity and optimism.
• The “bull market” and
buying “on margin”
• Early teardown capital:
Skyscrapers spread
across the city (102
stories!), Rock Center
built on bulldozed
university
• Spontaneous hotel-room
cocktail parties are
common (6 PM to
dawn…)
Flappers and hip flasks: New
freedoms for women after WWI
• NLWS (National League
for Women’s Service)
• “Flappers” (short skirts,
short hair cuts, feather
boas, costume jewelry)
• Women could smoke in
public for the first time!
They could drink
cocktails! They could eat
alone in a restaurant!
Flapper Philosophy
New in the 1920s:
How Great Life Can Be!
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Beauty Contests
Radio
The Model A
Silent Movies
Refrigerators
Charles Lindbergh
Louis Armstrong
William Randolph
Hearst
• Dance Marathons
• Harry Houdini
Pictures of the 1920s
Some “Jazz Age” Slang
• slang used for "girls or women": a broad,
a bunny, a canary (well, one who could
sing), a charity girl (one who was sexually
promiscuous), a dame, a doll, cat's meow,
cat's whiskers
• cast a kitten: to have a fit. Used in both
humorous and serious situations. i.e.
"Stop tickling me or I'll cast a kitten!" Also,
"have kittens."
• cake-eater: a lady's man
• chunk of lead: an unattractive female
• bug-eyed Betty: an unattractive girl
• Butt me.: I'll take a cigarette
• "I have to go see a man about a dog.": to
go buy whiskey
Life Under Prohibition
• WCTM, National
Prohibition Party
thought that alcohol
dangerous, destroyed
families
• 18th Amendment
(1919); Volstead Act
• Prohibition causes:
bootlegging, rumrunning, speakeasies
• 21st Amendment (1933)
The National
Prohibition
Party
Unintended Effect of Prohibition:
Urban Corruption
• Tammany Hall (popular name for the small set of
elected or appointed official who dominated city
politics)
• Kickbacks for “overlooking” bootlegging, gambling,
prostitution
• Arnold Rothstein’s “campaign contributions” give
him virtual monopoly over prostitution and gambling
(he was murdered in 1928)
• Herman (Rosy) Rosenthal complains to a journalist
about Tammany Hall corruption… ends up dead
The Growth of Organized Crime
The Black Sox of 1919
• White Sox heavy favorites over
Cincinnati Reds in the World
Series. Players’ salaries cut
b/c WWI
• White Sox owner, Charles
Comisky, had best and biggest
names in baseball; he paid
them like the worst and
smallest names. Chick Gandil
decides to throw the game with
his teammates..
• Local bookie Joseph Sullivan
couldn’t get Gandil’s demand
for 8 players ($100,000), so he
goes to “the number-one
gambler-sportman in America”
named Arnold Rothstein
• “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Fitzgerald’s Life
• Born in St. Paul
• Middle class/ upper class
• Relationship with Zelda, the “rich
girl”
• “admitted” into Princeton
• Thought up the term “Jazz Age”…
and lived it!
• “This Side of Paradise”
• “The Beautiful and the Damned”
• Zelda’s end
• Hollywood and Alcoholism
Fitzgerald’s goal
• FSF set out to write a
novel wholly
representative of his era:
prosperous, exciting,
dream-filled, party-filled,
corrupt, corrupt, corrupt
• “Among the Ash Heaps
and Millionaires”
• “Under the Red, White,
and Blue”
• “Trimalchio in West Egg”
Characters
• Nick Carraway
• Daisy and Tom
Buchanan
• George and Myrtle
Wilson
• Jay Gatsby
• Jordan Baker
• Meyer Wolfsheim
Themes
• What is success?
• What is the cost of reaching
for the American Dream?
• What are the consequences
for having Romantic hopes?
• Does wealth corrupt
absolutely?
Things to Watch for…
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West versus East
New Money and Old Money
Seasons, Weather, Colors
HOW are the characters
created? Notice words
associated with each
character. What do they
think? What do they say?
What do they do?
Setting
fictionalized Long Island NY (see p. 206)
Daisy’s
House
Gatsby’s
House
Myrtle’s
House
(Valley of
Ashes)
East Egg
(Old Money)
West Egg
(New Money)
The First Chapter
• Nick Carraway explains why he came East to
New York
• East Egg/ West Egg explained
• Then it gets more exciting!
• Introduction of Tom Buchanan and Daisy
Buchanan and Jordan Baker
• First party (each of first 3 chapters has a
contrasting party)
• At the very end of the chapter… Gatsby
glimpsed
• http://home.earthlink.net/%7Edlarkins/slan
g-pg.htm