Transcript The Great Gatsby - Marlboro Central School District / Overview

The Great
Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
History of the Book
•Published in April 1925
•Fitzgerald wanted Gatsby to be a “consciously artistic
achievement.”
•never satisfied with The Great Gatsby as the title, Fitzgerald
debated between many, including, Among the Ash-heaps and
Millionaires, The High-Bouncing Lover, Gold-hatted Gatsby, and
Trimalchio in West Egg.
•Most critical reviews of the time were favorable; one critic praised
Fitgerald, writing that “…he has mastered his talents and gone
soaring in beautiful flight.”
•The book was not, however, a comercial success, garnering him
only a few thousand dollars; he earned the majority of his money
selling short stories.
•While his death was of little note at the time, critics turned back to
his work and discovered the literary elements for longevity in The
Great Gatsby: themes of dreams pursued, moral disintegration,
illusion vs. reality, and a harsh critique of society’s lust for money.
•The Great Gatsby is a staple of American classics.
Parallels: Gatsby and
Fitzgerald
•From Minnesota, poor--served in WWI
•Fitzgerald fell in love with Zelda Sayre, but she would not
marry him until he had earned enough money to support her
lavish lifestyle--pursuit of love through wealth
•The publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920 made him
instantly famous; they married--he, 26; she, 20.
•They frequented all the major parties and hot spots; both
attractive, their pictures often graced tabloid magazines.
•Both heavy drinkers, Fitzgerald quickly became an
alcoholic. Drinking led to public arguments.
•Zelda was always the life of the party, flaunting her body.
•Zelda suffered the first of many mental breakdowns in
1930; she spent the rest of her life in sanitariums
“That was always my experience—a
poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in
a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a
rich man's club at Princeton....
However, I have never been able to
forgive the rich for being rich, and it
has colored my entire life and works.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters
The Great Gatsby
Literary Devices
Realistic Novel
•A realistic novel contains complex
characters with mixed motives who:
•are members of a specific social
class
•interact with many characters
•undergo everday experiences
Novel of Manners
•work of fiction that recreates a social
world, conveying with finely detailed
observation the customs, values, and
behaviors of a highly developed and
complex society.
•The conventions of the society dominate the
story, and characters are differentiated by
the degree to which they measure up to the
uniform standard, or ideal, of behaviour or
fall below it.
MOOD
•Mood is an emotional tone
that encompasses a section or
whole of a literary work.
•The Great Gatsby contains
various moods, including
mystery and suspense,
timelessness, regret, and
violence and recklessness.
TONE
•Tone is the writer’s or speaker’s
attitude toward his subject, his
audience, or himself.
•The Great Gatsby’s tone is simple and
cohesive, colorful and action-packed,
sometimes comical, and “mythical,”
meaning it has a sense of timelessness,
yet moves along.
IMAGERY
•Language which describes something in
detail, using words to substitute for and create
sensory stimulation.
•The most highly developed sense is sight;
hence, the majority of a work’s imagery is
visual. This appeals to the sense of sight and,
hopefully, creates pictures in the reader’s
mind.
•Good writers will attempt to appeal to many
senses at the same time.
Roaring 1920s on Long Island
•spring through autumn of 1922
•“Jazz Age” and prohibition
•Long Island Sound, New York, and
New York City
•“West Egg”: area of Long Island
for the newly rich
•“East Egg”: area of Long Island
for the established rich
•“Valley of the Ashes”: district
between NYC and the Sound.
East Egg and West Egg
Symbols of The Great
Gatsby
•Colors: green, white, gray, gold
and silver
•Seasons: spring, summer and
autumn
•The Green Light
•Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
•Automobiles (“machine in the
garden”)
•The Eggs (geography)
•Clocks and time
THEMES
•American Dream: its promise and
corruption
“The Great Gatsby is an exploration of the
American dream as it exists in a corrupt
period, and it is an attempt to determine
that concealed boundary that divides the
reality from illusions. The illusions seem
more real than reality itself.”
--Marius Bewley
THEMES, CONT.
•The attainment of a dream may be less
satisfying than the pursuit of that dream
•Corrupting nature of wealth; money breeds
immorality and carelessness
•The blind pursuit of an ideal/dream is
destructive
•Class/social standing
•Morality
•Illusion vs. reality
Central
Characters
•Nick Carraway
•Jay Gatsby
•Daisy Buchanan
•Tom Buchanan
•Jordan Baker
•Myrtle Wilson
•George Wilson
A Closer look at Nick Carraway
•The novel’s narrator (first person POV)
•represents an assertion of the strengths
that made America great (versus Gatsby)
•deeply involved in the novel’s action; a ‘fish
out of water’ story (novel of manners)
•is a “dual hero” alongside Gatsby; how does
Nick change and how does Gatsby change?
•A moral symbol: a hope for moral growth,
and the traditional moral codes of America.