F. Scott Fitzgerald The Jazz Age The American Dream

1. F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Jazz AgeThe American Dream Hao Guilian, Ph.D. Yunnan Normal University Fall, 2009

2. “All gods are dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. The Roaring 20’s/The Jazz Age • The 20’s are also referred to as “The Jazz Age,” a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald • The Jazz Age began with the end of WWI, at a time when, for the first time, the U.S. had emerged as a world power. • The Jazz Age ended with the stock market crash of 1929. • This decade saw changes in lifestyle and technology that revolutionized American life in such a way that it has never been the same since.

5. The Great Gatsby Era in America • Model-T became a way of life and people could travel as never before • Mail order catalogues, such as Sears, came out and Americans had access to world’s biggest stores • Hollywood was becoming a factory of the world’s daydreams; Wall Street – the world’s money mart • Americans became obsessed with the frivolous: alcohol, music, dancing, and sex

6. World War I • Pre WW I Propaganda – everywhere, ingrained • America went into the war convinced that we would “make the world safe for democracy” • America believed it was “the war to end all wars” because that’s what Woodrow Wilson said • Soldiers get “over there” and it is hell

7. End of World War I • After soldiers get home they: • Want to forget the horror • People become very self centered. They go into WW I idealistic but come back so disillusioned to the capabilities of humanity and war. • The world no longer makes sense to people, they don’t trust science, government, humanity, people begin to question God • People think, “well we’re going to die anyways, we may as well have a good time.” • It makes sense why so many people turned to alcohol, parties, and excess; they wanted to drown themselves.

8. F. Scott Fitzgerald • said to be representative of the American viewpoint because: • He was one of America’s greatest dreamers. • He reflected America’s exaggerated hopes and dreams, especially The American Dream. • He was self-indulgent. • He was passionate and committed.

9. F. Scott Fitzgerald • Born Sept. 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald • His early life is shaped by the fact that his mother’s family is wealthy but his father is unsuccessful at business so money is always an issue. He is poor but he attends prep. schools which make him feel like an outsider.

10. Early years • Enters Princeton University in 1913. Tries, unsuccessfully, to play for the football team. • Writes for the Princeton Tiger and begins to write and act in plays. Impresses peers this way. • Falls in love with Genevra King, a wealthy young socialite but is rejected. He is not wealthy enough. • 1915--drops out of Princeton • 1916--returns to Princeton

11. The youth • 1917—is placed on academic probation. Joins the army as a second lieutenant. • 1918--meets and falls in love with wealthy socialite Zelda Sayre. They become engaged. Theirs is one of the great love story of their time! • 1919--End of WWI--Fitzgerald is discharged from the army. Zelda breaks off engagement due to Fitzgerald’s lack of financial success. Began working in advertising, writes and submits novel This Side of Paradise. It is accepted by Scribners, and it is a huge success. • 1920. Fitzgerald and Zelda marry!

12. This Side of Paradise, 1919 • It captured the hopes of success of Americans but also the fears of failure and poverty. • A reoccurring theme that runs throughout Fitzgerald’s best works is that happiness and success are unattainable.

13. “He could glamorize wealth and yet stand away from the people who had it – and look at their values with utter detachment and sometimes with horror.”

14. Works written by F. Scott Fitzgerald during this period: • 1922--The Beautiful and the Damned • 1922--Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories) • 1923--The Vegetable (a play) • 1925--The Great Gatsby – the defining novel of the 20’s • 1934--Tender is the Night (last finished novel) is unpopular because it is published after the start of The Great Depression and it is about people with money. People didn’t want to read about success and excess when they didn’t have enough! • His unfinished novel is The Last Tycoon about Hollywood

15. Later years • 1930--Suffering her first of many emotional breakdowns, Zelda is hospitalized in Paris. Later diagnosed with schizophrenia. • 1932--As his popularity as a novelist declines, Fitzgerald begins to work on movie scripts for MGM to work himself out of debt. He despises Hollywood, and despises himself for having to write “commercially.” • 1932-1940--As Zelda’s mental state worsens, the Fitzgeralds gradually separate. • 1940--F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack. • 1940 - 1948—Zelda Fitzgerald spends next eight years in and out of institutions and dies in a fire at Highland Hospital in 1948.

16. This quote describing Gatsby at the end of his novel could just as easily describe Fitzgerald himself. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic 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 one fine morning ------”

17. The Great Gatsby • In nine chapters, Fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, as related in a first-person narrative by Nick Carraway. Carraway reveals the story of a farmer's son-turned racketeer, named Jay Gatz. His ill-gotten wealth is acquired solely to gain acceptance into the sophisticated, moneyed world of the woman he loves, Daisy Fay Buchanan. His romantic illusions about the power of money to buy respectability and the love of Daisy—the "golden girl" of his dreams—are skillfully and ironically interwoven with episodes that depict what Fitzgerald viewed as the cruelty and moral irresponsibility of the affluent American society of the 1920s.

18. Characters of The Great Gatsby • Jay Gatsby- The self-made wealthy man who lives next door to Nick Carraway and loves Daisy Buchanan

19. Characters of The Great Gatsby • Nick Carraway- the narrator, Daisy’s cousin, Gatsby’s neighbor

20. Characters of The Great Gatsby • Daisy Buchanan- married to Tom, Gatsby’s love interest before the war, socialite

21. Characters of The Great Gatsby • Tom Buchanan- Daisy’s husband, has an affair with Myrtle • Myrtle Wilson- Tom’s woman in the city, married to George • George Wilson- owns the gas station, kills Gatsby • Jordan Baker- Daisy’s friend, professional golfer

22. Major themes • The discrepancy between Gatsby's dream vision and reality is a prominent theme in this book. Other motifs in the book include Gatsby's quest for the American Dream; class conflict (the Wilsons vs. the Buchanans and the underworld lowbrows vs. Gatsby); the cultural rift between East and West; and the contrast between innocence and experience in the narrator's life. A rich aesthetic experience with many subtleties in tone and content, this novel can be read over and over again for new revelations and continued pleasure.

23. The American dream • The doubleness of Fitzgerald’s personality melds successfully in this short novel, the subject of which is the American dream: the rise above poverty to wealth and the winning of a love.

24. The American dream • The American Dream is the idea held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage, and determination one can achieve financial and personal success. These were values held by many early European settlers, and passed down to subsequent generations. • What the American dream has become is a question under constant discussion, and some believe that it has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and/or happiness. • The American dream is a concept that permeates its culture and unifies all as Americans despite its racial, religious, and socio-economic diversity. This dream also serves to connect Americans to the nation’s historical past as well as to the generations of the future.

25. Origins of the American Dream: • European explorers and the Puritans—Doctrine of Election and Predestination • The Declaration of Independence—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness • American Revolutionary War—promise of land ownership and investment • Industrial Revolution—possibility of anyone achieving wealth & the nouveau riche • Individualism and self-reliance • Westward expansion and the Gold Rush • Immigration

26. Prolific dime novel writer Horatio Alger, Jr. became famous for his novels that idealized the American Dream. His rags-to-riches stories glorified the notion of the down-and-out who were able to achieve wealth and success and helped entrench the Dream with the popular culture.

27. Near the 20th century, major industrialist personalities became the new model of the American Dream, many beginning life in the humblest of conditions, but later controlling enormous corporations and fortunes. Perhaps the most notable her were the great American capitalists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefellar. This acquisition of wealth demonstrated to many that if you had talent, intelligence, and a willingness to work hard, you were likely to be a success as a result.

28. Conclusion • Like one of Horatio Alger’s novels Gatsby is a self-made man, springing from “his Platonic conception of himself,” beholden to no one. • In the final pages of the novel, the sweep of American history is alluded to in the landscape itself, as Nick is about to leave Long Island. The fresh, virginal country that “Dutch sailors” first saw is evoked, reinforcing the magic of the American promise. This promise has been tragically betrayed. The ideals that give meaning to American life are illusions, but Americans strive for them anyway and doing so gives them tragic grandeur. • Its form, its satisfying complexity, its skillful selection of detail, its great natural appeal, and its concision make The Great Gatsby one of the definitive statements of the American myth.

29. Important Quotes “She’s got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It’s full of—” I hesitated. “Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it. . . . high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl. . . . – Nick and Gatsby talking about Daisy

30. Important Quotes • "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made." – Nick’s description of Tom and Daisy