Francis Scott Fitzgerald (~1925)

1. But there are two other American ideas that reality TV taps into: That everyone should have a shot. That sometimes being real is better than being polite. That no matter where you start out, you can hit it big, get lucky and reinvent yourself. In her own way, Jwoww is as American a character as the nobody Jay Gatsby heading east and changing his name. (Time magazine 2/2010)

2. For Thursday with the quote:1) Locate it; understand its context2) Be able to discuss its significance and meaning – how it connects to character development or a theme, conflict, relationship, symbol, etc.You will be expected to provide one minute of insight on your quote

3. good B+N book 06Chap 1 5 1Chap 2 27 23Chap 3 43 39Chap 4 65 61Chap 5 86 81Chap 6 103 97Chap 7 119 113Chap 8 154 147Chap 9 171 163end 189 180

4. In your reading…Reread Chap 1 + 2 by Tuesday and Note/Highlight: * the quote you pulled* Time references* Nick’s narration or descriptions are funny (dry humor)*Nick’s shifts in his relationship with Gatsby and Tom/DaisyRead the book slowly, like poetry, savor and contemplate each sentence

5. Francis Scott Fitzgerald(~1925)

7. * September 24, 1896 - born in St. Paul, Minnesota* Attended Princeton University* 1917-1919 - served in army* 1920 - married Zelda Sayre* 1940 - died of a heart attack in Hollywood, CA

9. Major NovelsThis Side of Paradise (1920)The Beautiful and the Damned (1922)The Great Gatsby (1925)Tender is the Night (1934)The Last Tycoon (1940) – never finished

10. Personal IssuesF. Scott – became alcoholic but never wrote drunkIncome: 1919 = $8001920 = 18,000Zelda – had a mental breakdown in 1930

12. Possible Labels- the drunken writer- the ruined novelist- the spoiled genius- the personification of the Jazz Age- the sacrificial victim of the Great Depression

13. But note he was a big American dreamer (like Gatsby) in his visions of football glory at Princeton or war glory as a soldierHe learned from his father’s business failure to avoid that fate (like Gatsby and his father) and sought after his goals with an unwavering drive (connect to Gatsby’s drive towards his ideal self or “Platonic conception of himself” – pg 104)

14. The Great Gatsby Issues and Themes- the use of first person semi-involved narrator- the commentary on 1920’s life- the delusions of fantasy versus reality- Gatsby as American creation

15. - old versus new money (class divisions)- love and betrayal- the use of time and reflections on the past- the challenges of the American dream

16. 1920’s Culture

18. Prohibition18th Amendment (1919) illegal to distribute, sell, or drink alcoholcreated secret “speakeasies” – night clubs

20. World War I (1914-1918)- 1920s created time of looser dress styles (flappers) and looser morals- Auto Industry boomed with 4.5 million cars produced by 1920s

25. Background for The Great Gatsby- Written in France in 1924-1925- They lived on Long Island in 1922 summer (see pg 206)- ZELDA had an assumed affair with a French aviator, Edouard Jozan

26. Ginerva King – first love around 1915, “rich girls don’t marry poor boys”- Famously beautiful, socially successful- Shaped his desire for an enchanting, careless and essentially superficial female (all his females have this – the golden girl, pg 127)*Potentially Read his short story, Winter Dreams and compare it to Gatsby.

27. Fitzgerald’s Dream: A Parallel to Gatsby“When I was your age I lived with a great dream. The dream grew and I learned how to speak of it and make people listen. Then the dream divided one day when I decided to marry your mother after all, even though I knew she was spoiled and meant no good to me. I was sorry immediately I had married her, but being patient in those days, made the best of it and got to love her in another way.

28. You came along and for a long time we made quite a lot of happiness out of our lives. But I was a man divided – she wanted me to work too much for her and not enough for my dream. She realized too late that work was dignity, and the only dignity, and tried to atone for it by working herself, but it was too late and she broke and is broken forever.” - Letter to his daughter, 7/7/1938

30. “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful.” (Fitzgerald, beginning of short story “The Rich Boy”)

31. “He thought the rich were a special glamorous race and when he found they weren’t it wrecked him just as much as any other thing that wrecked him”- Hemingway on Fitzgerald in “The Snows of Kilamanjaro”

32. Fitzgerald’s Experience “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.” --Excerpt from Fitzgerald’s letter to Anne Ober, the wife of his literary agent.

33. Preface:Fitz in 1922: “I want to write something new – something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned” (end pg vii)

34. Fitz in 1920: “An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterward” (pg ix)

35. Preface: The Great Gatsby = “Great American Novel” (?) It has become popular to refer to it as such as: It it a great work of fiction with defining American thematic qualities James Gatz/Jay Gatsby is the great American character Gatsby is the American self-made indeed SELF INVENTED man He believes in “the orgastic future,” he fulfills it, and –sadly- confuses it with Daisy and is betrayed by it. “Great” = Irony Gatsby is ostentations, though one must differentiate the ostentatious Gatsby from the admirable…. x - xi

36. Preface: Gatsby is made convincing by means of narrative POV. Gatsby is the hero BUT Nick is the central figure from whom the reader must rely. Nick is a partially involved narrator. Is he reliable? Serves as a trustworthy reporter, and, reluctantly (??) judge. Frame story, but NOT chronological. It is up to the reader to piece the information together. *There are chronological issues, though this works with the theme of time. xii

37. Preface: Reader must reorder the lies and truths of Gatsby to make sense: Chp III: Nick hears rumors about Gatsby at party Chp IV: Gatsby tells Nick a mostly false autobiography during car ride to NY; Jordan briefly narrates about Gatsby’s courtship of Daisy (1917) Chp VI: Nick relates bio of Gatsby’s youth; though impressionistically, not in Gatsby’s words. Chp VII: Gatsby proves he went to Oxford; Tom reveals Gatsby’s bootlegging activities Chp VIII: “It was the night he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody…”; also recounts Gatsby’s falling in love with Daisy and the consummation, his war record, Daisy’s unfaithfulness (no source given), and his return to Louisville after the war. Chp IX: Wolfshiem tells Nick of his partnership with Gatsby; Mr. Gatz shows Gatsby’s boyhood schedule to Nick xii -xiii

39. Fitz wanted The Great Gatsby to be a “consciously artistic achievement” (195)

40. The novel’s sales were disappointing. The first printing of slightly over 20,000 copies sold slowly. The second printing of 3,000 copies were never fully sold before Fitzgerald’s death 15 years later. (203)

42. Current: Connect to Dr. T.J. Eckleburg…

43. To understand the cover art go to:pg 196-198 and last paragraph on pg 85

44. Francis Cugat’s Dust Jacket Design (Scribner) • Fitzgerald pleads in an August 1924 letter, "For Christ's sake don't give anyone that jacket you're saving for me. I've written it into the book." • "Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms” (81).

45. Text Support • Gatsby’s Car: “Circus Wagon” (by Tom) • Gatsby’s Party-goers: “conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks” • “Coney Island” and “World’s Faire” • Step right up to see “the Great Gatsby” (some irony in statement--like carnie) • Eyes: T.J Eckleberg “blue and gigantic and their retinas are one yard high. • They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose.”

46. Text Support… • “Unlike Gatsby. . . “ End of Ch. 4 • “Eckleberg” Begin of Ch 2 • Begin thinking about eyes and perception • Wilson: “when he saw us a damp gleam of home sprang into his light blue eyes. • Tom: “Arrogant eyes” • Ash gray men “stir up and impenetrable cloud which screens their • Obscure operations from your sight”

47. Explanatory Notes: • Begin on pg 207 (the map is on 206) • Refer to your text… • ALSO, don’t forget to read Max Perkins (Fitz’s editor) letter to Fitz on needed revisions pg 199-202 xv

48. OLD Cover

49. Poem? Paradise to Gatsby: A meta-connection? => Thomas Parke D’Invillers: Pen name for F. Scott Fitzgerald and character in This Side of Paradise that was poet and friend of Amory Then Wear the Gold Hat Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her, If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!”

50. Naming Conventions? • Fitzgerald considered several titles for the text: (Consider if “The Great Gatsby” is the most effective of them.) pg 207 • Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires • On the Road to West Egg • Gold-Hatted Gatsby (pg1) • The High-Bouncing Lover • Under the Red, White and Blue • Trimalchio in West Egg (119) • Trimalchio