The Great Gatsby
Download
Report
Transcript The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
Take Notes
Background Discussion
Prohibition
Speakeasies and Bootlegging
The Jazz Age
Suffragette Movement and Sexual Freedom
Rise of the Stock Market and Speculation
Movie Industry
Organized Crime
Industrial Magnates and High Society
The Lost Generation and Roaring Twenties
Long Island
Southampton
About Gatsby
Tom: dictator/bully
Daisy: clinging vine
Myrtle: clinging vine/weakling
Gatsby: calculator
Nick: nice guy/judge
George: nice guy/protector
Jordan: calculator
Themes
The corruption of the American Dream
Sight and Insight (Many images of blindness/No one
seems to see what is really going on)
The meaning of the past(holds something for Gatsby and
Nick; a simpler, nobler time;when people believed in the
importance of the family and church)
The education of a young man (Bilungsromen: German
for Initiation theme: growing up. Nick writes the Great
Gatsby to show what he has learned.)
Illusion vs. Reality
Color Symbols
Gray: death, lifelessness (people &land)
Green: money (light at end of Daisy’s peer), Gatsby’s
goal
Blue: dream (eyes of Dr. Eckleburg-rep’s. sightlessness)
White: corruption is underneath-wedding cake, Daisy’s
and Jordon’s clothes(airiness and fairylike)
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
Daisy: wealth, position, status, “golden girl,”
Eckleburg: represents capitalistic profit(He is the God of
the Wasteland.)
Ashes: gray, lifeless, wasteland, death, True Reality
Apartment: on outside, a beautiful wedding cake; inside,
there is corruption, greed & selfishness
Gatsby’s house: white: garden: blue Chauffer’s
uniform:blue
More Symbols
Buchanan’s house: red and white/carpet crimson
Nick’s boats: red & gold: dream stained by violence
Myrtle: wears brown when in Valley of Ashes; changes
to ecru or cream dresses; she becomes unreal and
someone else.
Sunday: Most people worshipping/ people at Gatsby’s
house partying: un-God-like
East and West: represent old and new wealth, names of
people who go to Gatsby’s parties are listed: reader
knows the difference between the old and new wealth(the
new have acquired wealth by ruthless means.)