The Great Gatsby - - - F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925

1. The Great Gatsby - - - F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925

2. The Novel • One of the most popular American novels • Considered by many to be the best work of American fiction • Published in 1925 • A reflection of Jazz Age America • A common pop culture reference • Still popular today—new film version in 2013

3. Movie Poster, 2013 Adaptation

4. F. Scott Fitzgerald • Lived 1896 to 1940 • Born in Minnesota • Humble beginnings • Attended Princeton, was a poor student • Enlisted in Army during WWI • Stationed in Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayre, a young socialite • Zelda agreed to marry him but delayed the wedding until he proved a success • Fitzgerald became a success in 1920 with the publication of his novel This Side of Paradise

5. F. Scott Fitzgerald (cont.) • The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, made Fitzgerald a celebrity • The Fitzgeralds lived a wild, lavish lifestyle • Obsessed with wealth and status • These aspects of Fitzgerald’s life are reflected in The Great Gatsby • Celebrity status faded in the 1930s • Suffered from alcoholism • Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown, was institutionalized • Fitzgerald died in 1940 while working on his last novel in Hollywood

6. F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920s

7. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald, 1920s

9. Major Characters • Nick Carraway (narrator) • Jay Gatsby • Tom Buchannan • Daisy Buchannan • Jordan Baker • Myrtle Wilson • Meyer Wolfsheim

10. Setting • New York City, early 1920s • The story takes place in Manhattan and on Long Island • Gatsby’s mansion is located in the West Egg section of Long Island, where many newly rich people live • The Buchannan’s mansion is located in the East Egg section, a fashionable area of the island where the established upper class live

12. Tom’s Apartment East Egg (Buchannans) West Egg (Gatsby) Valley of the Ashes

13. New York City, 1919

14. Times Square, New York City, 1920s

15. Mansion on Long Island, 1920s

16. Themes • The themes of The Great Gatsby are dark—Fitzgerald is making harsh criticisms about modern society through the novel • The American Dream • The lure of wealth and status • The moral corruption of modern society (materialistic, no spirituality)

17. Is Nick’s narration necessary?

18. Is Gatsby “great”?

19. Daisy: a voice “full of money”

20. The Green Light

21. The Valley of Ashes

22. T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” • Poem published in 1922 • Important piece of modern literature • About the disillusionment and despair of modern society • Movement away from traditional values causes confusion, frustration, sadness • The Valley of Ashes could be an allusion to this well-known poem

23. An Excerpt from “The Waste Land” What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Modern society is weak -- no “roots” It is fragmented -- “stony rubbish,” “a heap of broken images” It is lifeless -- “dead tree,” “dry stone,” “no sound of water”

24. The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg

25. Are we repeating the past?

26. Gatsby and The Jazz Age • What aspects of 1920s America are reflected in Fitzgerald’s classic novel? • “Roaring” economy • Consumer culture, rise in materialism • Immense divide between rich and poor • Jazz, movies, and other entertainment • Prohibition • Bootlegging and organized crime • Racial tension, fear of immigration • Change in moral values, modernism