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F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald grew up in the 20’s Joined the Army Zelda The Great Gatsby 1924 The importance of wealth Zelda, Scottie and Paris Everyone must have a downfall
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F. Scott Fitzgerald • Fitzgerald grew up in the 20’s • Joined the Army • Zelda • The Great Gatsby 1924 • The importance of wealth • Zelda, Scottie and Paris • Everyone must have a downfall "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 "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman...I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe."
War Changes Men • "I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life."
Wealth • A booming stock market • Young, educated Americans with money to spend • Extravagance "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.“ "One thing's sure and nothing's surer/ The rich get richer and the poor get - children./ In the meantime,/ In between time--"
With wealth comes…..extravagance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o "It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy--it increased her value in his eyes."
Prohibition "I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library."
The Automobile • Everyone MUST have an automobile! • “In the ditch beside the road, right side up, but violently shorn of one wheel, rested a new coupe’ which had left Gatsby’s drive not two minutes before.”
A Bit About The story • Nick Caraway is the narrator (watch for a bit ‘o Gatsby in Nick) • Story takes place in Manhattan (wealth) and West and East Egg • Between the city and the country lies the Valley of Ashes- an industrial wasteland
A Bit More • Nick moves to New York to become a bonds man. • Lives next door to Gatsby • Nick is cousins with Daisy • Nick is friends with Tom, Daisy’s wife
And Now The Plot Gets all Soap Opera On Us • Gatsby loves Daisy • Tom loves Myrtle • Nick doesn’t know what he wants
Isn’t this the American Dream? • What constitutes a dream? • Has the concept of the American Dream changed much from the Roaring 20’s? • Can dreams be sold? • Is the American Dream linked to celebrity? • How much materialism exists behind the American Dream? • Do we define ourselves by what we own? • What values does American society hold?