The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Ms. Hatley AP English and Composition

2. Pre-1920’s • Belief in the invulnerability of the United States’ superiority is shaken: • Sinking of The Titanic in 1912 • World War I • Military tensions • Constant fears at home and abroad • Moral Code • Women’s Sufferage • Shifting role of women • Fashion • Edwardian Dress • Looser garments such as Paul Poiret’s dresses

3. The Roaring Twenties • Loosening morals after WWI • Relief of ended war • Sudden prosperity • Materialism • Jazz!!! • Fashion • Flappers • Skirt lengths • LEGS!!!! • Which led to…. • Prohibition • Rise of the mob • Corruption of politicians/ law enforcement • Speakeasies • Bootleggers • Quick wealth

4. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald1896-1940 • Named after ancestor Francis Scott Key • Intelligent but average student • Not wealthy but sent to boarding school • Enrolled at Princeton but dropped out and enlisted in the army in 1917 • Stationed in Montgomery, Alabama as a second lieutenant • Married Zelda Sayre, who refused to wed him until he was successful • This Side of Paradise earned him literary and monetary success in 1920 and they wed • Marriage is strife with tensions and passionate fighting, estrangements, reconciliations • Their only child, a daughter, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, was born in 1921

5. Francis Scott Key Fitzgeraldcontinued… • The Great Gatsby, his most acclaimed novel, published in 1925 • In 1930, after harming her health through rigorous ballet training, Zelda enter a sanatorium. She lives in and out of sanatoriums for the rest of her life. • After the Great Depression hits, becomes an alcoholic and publishes his last great novel, Tender is the Night, in 1934 • Writes short stories for The Saturday Evening Post to support his wife’s hospital bills and his daughter’s school bills • Goes to Hollywood under contract to MGM for money to pay his growing debt • Meets and falls in love with with movie columnist Sheilah Graham • Dies from a heart attack while writing the draft to The Love of the Last Tycoon, which promised to be his greatest accomplishment

6. The Great Gatsby • While Nick Carraway is the narrator, Jay Gatsby is the main character • Nick Carraway: graduate of Yale, moves to West Egg on Long Island, a gaudy district full of the newly rich who throw lavish parties • His neighbor is Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Nick’s married cousin, Daisy Buchanan and only throws the parties to get her attention from across the bay, where she lives in East Egg • Becomes a harsh commentary on the lifestyle and loose morals of American society in the 1920’s

7. Comparison of Gatsby to Fitzgerald • Both: • Grew up without wealth so idolize the wealthy • Join the military as an escape • Fall in love with women above their reach • Acquire wealth to attain the women they love • Live lavish lifestyles to keep the women they love • Live with the dichotomy of having morals they believe in while living a life of wealth, waste, luxury, over-indulgence • See through this hypocrisy

8. The Great Gatsby Journal • For each of the five chapters you choose to write about, you will be expected to write the following in your Gatsby Journals: • Title entries with the chapter number. • Write a five sentence chapter summary. • For each chapter, choose a different character to focus on. • Name the character • Choose a quote that you think best represents the character (avoid physical descriptions, unless it imparts information about the character’s personality) • Describe his/her best and worst qualities • In a paragraph, describe the character’s role in the novel • From each chapter, choose one meaningful quote and describe its significance in the novel. • For each chapter, note at least two sightings of one or more of the following symbols: the color green, the color white, the colors silver and gold, the ash heap, the eyes of T.J. Eckleberg, Gatsby’s career/ Nick’s career, Gatsby’s library of uncut books/ Nick’s unread books, Dan Cody, East vs. West Egg, rain in chapter five, heat in chapter seven, Wolfsheim’s cufflinks, faded timetable (showing names of Gatsby’s guests), Gatsby’s cars/ clothes.

9. Example of Journal Entry from The Scarlet Letter • Chapter 2: The Market Place • Summary: The chapter opens on a crowd of people waiting outside a prison door in puritanical Boston, Massachusetts. A strikingly beautiful young woman steps out of the prison holding a baby and is escorted to a scaffold. On her chest is an intricately embroidered scarlet letter. Through the crowd’s discussion, the reader realizes that the woman has committed adultery. As the crowd stares at her, the woman remembers her previous life and accidentally clutches the baby tighter, making it cry out and she realizes that this is her new reality. • Character • A. Hester Prynne • B. “…he laid his right hand upon the shoulder of [Hester]…she repelled him, bay an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will.” (Hawthorne 103) • C. Best: Accepts punishment, Dignified, Compassionate Worst: Prideful • D. Hester Prynne is the main character. She lives a life bent on rectifying her greatest sin: adultery. Even though she is an outcast in her society, she shows great moral strength by continuously giving to those in need. She will not reveal the name of her fellow adulterer because she feels he can do more good untainted by their sin. • Meaningful Quote: “…wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another…” (Hawthorne 103). Hester takes on her shame as part of her character and lives to rectify her sin through raising her daughter in a Godly fashion and serving her community. Her daughter, Pearl, becomes another symbol of her sin, just as the scarlet letter is a symbol of her sin, as the novel progresses. Pearl only gains true character when the name of the other sinner is revealed and the sin is fully purged. • Symbols: In this chapter, we see the symbols of the scarlet letter, the scaffold, and light verses dark