The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald English 11 American Literature

The American Dream • Hard Work + Good Character = Success!

What happened to the American Dream? • Materialism • Easy Money • Lenient Values • Corruption

F. Scott Fitzgerald • September 24, 1876 – December 21, 1940 • Writer of “The Jazz Age” • Very critical of the wealthy excesses of the 1920’s: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.”

Historical Context:“The Roaring 20’s” • Impact of World War I, “The Great War” • 18th Amendment: Prohibition (1920) • 19th Amendment: Women’s Suffrage (1920) • Harlem Renaissance • Charles Lindbergh, The Spirit of St. Louis • Motion Pictures • Mass Production

However…. • Old Money vs. New Money • Bootlegging, the speakeasy, and the rise of the Gangster • Rise of the KKK • “Black Tuesday” – October 29, 1929

The Century, America’s Time:Boom to Bust ABC News • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

The Great Gatsby • Published in 1925 • Takes place in 1920 • A scathing look at the life of the rich during the Roaring 20’s

Major Characters • Nick Carraway (narrator) • Jay Gatsby • Daisy Buchanan • Tom Buchanan • Jordan Baker • Myrtle Wilson • George Wilson

Literary Criticism “The Great Gatsby is a mystical, timeless story of integrity and cruelty, vision and despair.” -barnesandnoble.com

Quotation “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine mornging—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaslessly into the past.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Symbolism • Look for the use of color throughout The Great Gatsby; Fitzgerald employs color symbols on almost every page! • The Green Light • The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg • . . . and many others

Setting: 1922, New York City and Long Island • East Egg (Old Money) • West Egg (New Money)

Themes • Outward appearances are deceptive. • Attainment of a dream may be less satisfying than the pursuit of that dream. • Wealth can breed carelessness. • Blind pursuit of an ideal is destructive. • The American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth.

Nick Carraway • First person narrator • Moves from the Midwest to West Egg • Neighbor to Jay Gatsby • Cousin to Daisy Buchanan • Purpose: He wants the readers to know about Gatsby and how Gatsby affected / changed him.

Nick Carraway • “. . . I’m inclined to reserve all judgements . . . And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit.” • “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed upon Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald