Transcript The Great Gatsby Intro PowerPoint (i.e. Mega Notes)

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
(1896-1940)
1920s Background Info
• World War I ends – 1918
– America is a stronger, more powerful nation
• After the war – people are full of energy
• People had been repressed because of a bad
economy
– $$ saved for possible hard times because of the war
• Protest & Violence followed the end of
the war
Prohibition (1919-1933)
• Restricted sale & Use of liquor
• Originally to abolish saloons
– Thought to be immoral & dangerous to
society
• Bootleggers
– People who made & sold liquor illegally
– Often ran drugstores & other “front”
businesses in order to sell liquor
The Roaring Twenties
• Carefree time of wild parties, illegal
drinking & extravagant lifestyles
– Young people of America embraced
• Time of change in fashion & music
– “The Jazz Age”
– Flappers
Flappers
• Described young girls in the US & Britain who were ideally
“lovely, expensive & about 19”
• Defined as “giddy, attractive and slightly
unconventional…inclined to revolt against the precepts
(rules)…of her elders”
• Nearly a generation of men died in WWI
– Women were not willing to waste away their youth waiting for
spinsterhood
– Decided to enjoy life
• New Trends
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No corsets
Waists @hipline
Bobbed hair
Makeup
1920s Literature
• Showed a mood of rebellion with
alarming topics
• More freedom of language &
descriptions
• New & freer attitudes toward the
representation of sex
F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Born (1896) in St. Paul, Minnesota
• Studied for 4 years @Princeton
– Wanted to play football but didn’t make the
team
– Developed a drinking problem - flunked out
– A girl did not like him because he was poor
(huge influence)
• Did not graduate – joined the Army
– Met & married Zelda Sayre - rich, Southern
Belle
– Zelda - Fitzgerald’s muse
Fitzgerald’s Outlook
• Father was fired and a failure in
business
– Caused obsession with success/money
• Used his talent for writing to produce
plays for school so he could cast
people he wanted as friends
Fitzgerald’s Writing
• This Side of Paradise (1920) describes life @Princeton among the
glittering, bored and disillusioned
– Novel was an overnight success
– Fitzgerald known as King of the Jazz Age
The Great Gatsby
• Published in 1925
• Critical success
• Sales were disappointing
Gatsby Characters
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Tom: dictator/bully
Daisy: clinging vine
Myrtle: clinging vine/weakling
Gatsby: calculator
Nick: nice guy/protector
George: nice guy/protector
Jordan: calculator
Theme(s)
• Corruption of the American Dream
– Defined as the idea that in America one
might hope to satisfy every material desire
& thereby achieve happiness
– Fitzgerald believed this to be deceptive
• How can the goal of all you desire be something
you can attain?
• desire = material possessions = dissatisfaction
– One can end up with great wealth & “stuff”
and be quite empty
More Theme(s)
• Old $$ v. New $$
• Prosperity, Material Excess, Bootlegging
v.
• Discovery, Individualism, “Pursuit of
Happiness”
Even More Theme(s)
• Sight/Insight
– Many images of blindness
– No one seems to really know what’s going
on
• Meaning of the Past
– Gatsby & Nick hold on to a simpler, nobler
time when family & church meant
something
• Illusion v. Reality
Color Symbol(s)
• Gray - death, lifelessness (people &
land)
• Green - money (light at end of Daisy’s
peer), Gatsby’s goal
• Blue: dream (eyes of Dr. Eckleburgrep’s. sightlessness)
• White: corruption is underneathwedding cake, Daisy’s and Jordon’s
clothes(airiness and fairylike)
More Color Symbol(s)
• Darks & Lights: Gatsby’s world is
deceptive
• Gold or Yellow: wealth, materialism
• Red: violence/violent death
• Pink: violence underneath
Other Symbols
• Valley of Ashes: The Wasteland T.S.
Eliot
– Explores the “hollowness @the heart of
things”
– Purgatory
– Moral & Social Wasteland
• Daisy: wealth, position, status, “golden
girl”
• Dr. Eckleburg’s Eyes (billboard):
capitalistic profit (He is the “god” of the
Wasteland)
Even More Other Symbols
• Ashes: gray, lifeless, wasteland, death,
True Reality
• Apartment: on outside, a beautiful wedding
cake; inside, corruption, greed &
selfishness
• Gatsby’s house (white), Garden (blue),
Chauffer’s uniform (blue)
• The Green Light (Buchanan’s Dock)
– Positive & Negative aspects of the color
• Opportunity v. Greed
Still More Other Symbols
• Buchanan’s house: red & white/carpet
crimson
• Nick’s boats: red & gold (dream stained
by violence)
• Myrtle: wears brown in Valley of Ashes,
changes to Ecru/Cream dresses:
becomes unreal & someone else
• Sunday: day of worship except
@Gatsby’s where people party (unGod-like)
The Eggs
• West Egg
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Modeled after Long Island
Known for affluence & high quality of life
Represents old wealth
Those who HAVE
• East Egg
– Less fashionable than the West Egg
– New wealth
– Wealth most likely acquired by ruthless (read:
illegal) means
– Those who HAVE NOT