The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
Introductory Notes
Historical Context: The Roaring 20s
• Post WWI
• America seemed to throw itself headlong into a decade of madcap behavior and materialism
• The Jazz Age
o Music promoted by phonograph and radio
o Swept up New Orleans to capture the national imagination
o Broke the rules of music (wild)
▪ Mirrored the times
• Prohibition 1920 - 1933
o Eighteenth Amendment (banned sale of alcohol)
o Speakeasies, nightclubs, and taverns sold it
o Organized crime
• Gambling
o “Black Sox” Scandal of 1919
• The New Woman
o Demanded the right to vote and work outside of home
o Flapper: unconventional woman (behavior, short hair, short skirts)
• The Economy
o Prosperity
o Reckless spending and consumption
o Automobile as a status symbol
o Advertising major industry
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
• St. Paul, Minnesota 1896
• Wrote for Roman Catholic NP
• Family inherited money from GF
• Went to Princeton in 1913 (didn’t graduated)
o Continued to write for various organizations
o Entered WWI in 1917
• Zelda (his wife)
o Broke engagement
o Had daughter, Scottie
o 1924 – moved to Paris
o Zelda had affair
o Battled with depression and alcoholism
• Fitz. died 1940
Modernism: 1900-1946 (early 20th Century Modern World)
• Chaotic
• Futile
• Pessimistic
• Fluctuating
• Loss of faith
• Collapse of morality
• Confused identify
• Forces of Modernism
o No center, no values
o Relativistic, changing, strange universe
• Expatriate Writers: The Lost Generation
o Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Miller, etc.
• Characteristics of Modernism in Literature
o Perspectivism
▪ Meaning = individual’s perspective
▪ Personalized
o Perception of Language
▪ Not transparent
▪ the way an individual constructs reality
▪ Language = multiple layers of connotative forces
o Emphasis: Experimental; Reject traditional
▪ POV
▪ Artist is artifact, not reality
▪ Org. non -sequentially
▪ Experience is layered, allusive – fragmentation and juxtaposition
• Modernism Themes
o Collectivism vs. individualism
o Anxiety regarding past
o Historical discontinuity
o Disillusionment
o Alienation, disconnection
o Decadence and decay
o Loss and despair
o Breakdown of social norms
o Sense of place, local color
The Great Gatsby (1925)
• a “fish out of water” story
• Autobiographical Elements
o Fitzgerald spoke of writing as a “sheer paring away of oneself.”
• Setting
o Spring – fall of 1922
o LI Sound
▪ East Egg (old money)
▪ West Egg (new money)
▪ NYC and Valley of Ashes
• Main Characters
o Nick Carraway
o Jay Gatsby
o Daisy
o Tom
o Myrtle
Literary Devices
• Epigraph
• Symbolism
• Figurative Language
• Symbolic Landscape
• Symbolic Appellation
• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Motif
• Verisimilitude
• Zeitgeist
• Epithet
Important Elements
• Colors
• Eyes
• Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s Billboard
• The Valley of the Ashes
• Owl Eyes
• East and West
• Seasons
• Biblical Parallels
• The Green Light
• Time and Clocks
• Cars and Drivers
• Circus/Amusement Park References
• Clothing
• Names
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