The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. The Humanity of the Great Gatsby • F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first great American writers to isolate and draw attention to the issue of class conflict in his fiction. • His characters in his novel are all representative of the class system that existed in the 1920’s. • The Great Gatsby shined a light on the social constructions and mannerisms of the people of the 1920’s elite as well as the unanswered dreams that plagued those who desired their riches.

3. Not only is The Great Gatsby a powerful story, but it is also a great time capsule of the 1920’s culture. • The characters of The Great Gatsby seem to have and endless amount of possibilities because of their vast wealth, yet their excessive amount of money only creates the illusion that money can purchase happiness. • Fitzgerald also “rubbed shoulder” with the wealthy elite of the United States in his time, however he was not taken in by the lifestyle (at least in his fiction). • Fitzgerald’s prudence and insight allowed him to create his amazingly three-dimensional characters who not only struggle with an unattainable ideal, but also with their own self-imposed elitism that inevitably shatters not only their own lives, but the lives of those around them.

4. One only has to listen to the words of the narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, to understand the profound depth to which Fitzgerald understood the illusionary power of money and, indeed, the dreams of life itself. • In the final lines of the novel, Carraway reflects on the nature of Jay Gatsby:

5. Nick Carraway: “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the greet light, the orgiastic [frenzied] 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- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the past.”

6. Final Thought: • Fitzgerald’s novel not only provides its readers with an insight into the characters of The Great Gatsby, but it also explores what it is to be a living, dreaming human.

7. The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

8. From a letter to his daughter… “If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has every found before, so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it b lend as one matter- as indissolubly as if they were conceived together” -written near the end of his life…

9. This can also describe his own motivations for writing during his own life. For the majority of his life, Fitzgerald sought to establish himself as a writing of unique voice, subject material and ability with varying degrees of success. • Fitzgerald suffered a number of failures, even after writing The Great Gatsby. • He also was known to have a drinking problem. • He struggled to find success as a writer during his life.

10. The Fitzgeralds • Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, similar to the main character in Gatsby, was raised primarily in the Midwest. • He was born on September 24th 1986, in Saint Paul Minnesota, to Edward and Mary “Mollie” McQuillan Fitzgerald. • While Mollie was pregnant with Scott, her daughters, ages one and three, both died, but a few years later she had another daughter who also died. • In July 1901 his mother gave birth to another girl, Annabel, and made Scott a brother at last.

11. The Fitzgeralds • Mollie was of a Irish background and also established a modest fortune as a result of her family. • She inherited a million-dollar grocery business with the death of her father and $250,000. • Because of this, Scott was able to attend private boarding schools and later Princeton University. • Regardless of her economic security, there was tension between her and her husband that took a toal on their family life.

12. The Fitzgeralds • Edward Fitzgerald tried to support his family, forcing him to move from his home town, to Buffalo only to move back to Saint Paul once more. His continual bad luck in work eventually broke his spirit. • Unable to support his family, Edward and his family had to rely on the dwindling fortune of his wife for the fest of their lives. • His feelings of emasculation and failure eventually developed into a severe drinking problem. • On the other hand, his mother coddled Scott and was extremely over-protective, as well as neglectful in teaching himself-discipline or strong study habits, which he resented later in life.

13. His Early Work… • Scott began to write seriously when he was only twelve years old. • At Saint Paul Academy, where he went to school, he wrote plays for the Elizabethan drama club and also published his first story in 1909 in Now and Then, the school magazine. • His effort into such projects led his grades to suffer and he was eventually sent to a Catholic Boarding School instead. • This experience led to to make the acquaintance of Father Sigourney Webster Fay who played a vital role in fostering Fitzgerald’s creativity and talent for writing and eventually to writing The Great Gatsby.

14. His Early Work… • The second discovery that he made was that in the context of the other kids at his school, he was seen as the “poor boy” attending the rich-person’s school. • He found it difficult to make friends and was often snubbed by the other kids because of his lack of money. • Although he did not do well academically at the school, he decided he wanted to go to Princeton and because of his poor grades had to write an entry exam - which he failed. He did however, quite amazingly, manage to secure an interview with the admissions officer and talked his way into a probationary acceptance.

15. Princeton • Although he still was not an exemplary student at Princeton, he did manage to learn the social games necessary to earn the respect of his peers. • This was partially because he was gaining success as a writer. • He joined clubs that opened doors for him that were previously closed and allowed him to enter the social mainstream at the school. • By the end of his sophomore year he was almost expelled on academic grounds, but argued that he should be allowed special treatment because he was an artist. • To add another obstacle, Scott contracted malaria, which in combination with other facts forced him to withdraw from the university temporarily.

16. Military • In 1917 the U.S.A. became involved in World War I, and Fitzgerald gave into his mother’s wish for him to become a soldier. • In July 1917 he took the examinations to enter the army as an officer and in October Second Lieutenant Scott Fitzgerald was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for training. • However, similar to his academic career, Fitzgerald’s military career was less than exemplary. • He was afraid that he would die, but he had a greater fear in relation to his art. As he once wrote, “I’ve got to write now, for when the war’s over I won’t be able to see these things as important- even now they are fading out against the background of the map of Europe…”

17. Love and Life • While in the army he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, who although she was not rich, she came from a prominent Alabama family and was known as being a socialite, beautiful and having a quick, dark, wit. • After wooing her, Fitzgerald and Sayre were secretly engaged, but Sayre refused to marry him until he could prove a steady income. • He decided to write his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which fueled his growing success. • They got married and soon after Zelda became pregnant and their first daughter, Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald was born. • During this time in his life, Fitzgerald had mixed success in his career.

18. Love and Life • During this time in his life is when his drinking really began to climb. • He would sometimes drink for an entire weekend, and would have to spend a night in jail for unruly and drunken behaviour. • In an attempt to escape his life that seemed to be growing out of control, they moved to France where he decided to focus on writing something different and special. • He started writing a new novel titled Trilmachio, which he later renamed The Great Gatsby. • He decided to incorporate many of his experiences from his past life in New York into the plot. • While he focused on his novel, Zelda began to focus on a French aviation officer named Edouard Josanne, which led their relationship to deteriorate. Although they never got a divorce, Fitzgerald later commented that their relationship was never the same.

19. Love and Life • While in France, Fitzgerald befriended Ernest Hemingway, a young American author who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in literature. • Upon its release, The Great Gatsby was not received with the same enthusiasm as his previous novels. • Although it is now considered his masterpiece, by the end of the year it had sold only twenty thousand copies, barely enough to repay the advances he had made to publish the novel. • It was not until 1926 when it was adapted to become a stage play that Fitzgerald began making money off the play.

20. Love and Life • Zelda suffered two emotional breakdowns which took a significant toll on Fitzgerald, and led him to start drinking more heavily. • Despite his personal life struggles, Fitzgerald found considerable success working in Hollywood for MGM Studios. • His excessive drinking led to not only his physical and emotional demise, but also his professional one. He was unable to maintain his career do to inclement health problems, and eventually it would lead to his demise. • In November 28 1940, all of his work came to a halt when he suffered a heart attack and was confined to bed rest. • He died of a second heart attack on December 21 1940. • He wrote and published work right up to the day before he died.