 Francis Cugat’s painting  Preceded finished manuscript.  Cover art “written into” novel.  Pervasive use of color symbolism and light motifs.  After having read the novel, Fitzgerald’s publisher declared the cover art a “masterpiece.”

  Parents from opposite economic backgrounds.  Father’s family included the author of the “Star Spangled Banner.”  American Dream vulgar yet promising.  Jay Gatsby – dazzled by American Dream; Nick Carraway – can’t help but be suspicious.  Married Zelda.  Determined to make money in New York to support her.  Zelda began to break down.  Fitzgerald remained a heavy drinker.  Died of a heart-attack at 44.

 Leading writer of Jazz Age.  Invented term.  Both participated in and critiqued the “high life.”  Chief quality of his talent: His ability to be both a leading participant in the high life he described and a detached observer of it.  “I am too much a moralist at heart.”  The Great Gatsby was his masterpiece.  Not immediately popular.  A few years after his death, his books won him the recognition he had desired while alive.

 Classic study of the American Dream.  highs, lows, excesses, joys  Zelda – ideal flapper.  No “single feeling of inferiority, or shyness, or doubt, and nor moral principles.”  Bucked custom at every opportunity, refusing to cross her legs at the ankle, staying out late with boys, saying whatever she felt.  Incredibly famous couple.  Jumping into fountains, riding on top of taxis, passing our together after getting plastered at a party.  Fitz became alcoholic.  Zelda became schitzophrenic.  Always in his shadow.  Danced and wrote.  Couple separated but didn’t divorce.

 A number of poets, intellectuals, writers, and artists who fled to France after WWI.  Searching for life’s meaning.  Rejected the values of American materialism.  Disillusioned by American Dream.  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, and John Dos Passos  Typically characterized as “hedonistic,” “morally irresponsible,” “hard- drinking,” and “fast-living,” their lost generation was, nevertheless, creatively successful.

 Defied convention: cut their hair short, refused to use corsets, short skirts, drank and smoked in public.  Women lived in a time where change was necessary.  Victorian image of being a woman had now been shattered.  Flappers created the “new woman” or the “modern” woman.  Opened up a new world for future generations.

 Term coined by Fitzgerald to refer to the decade after WWI that he called “the gaudiest spree in history.”  Racially mixed social scene.  “A whole race going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure.”  71% of American families below the poverty line.  White elites embraced the African American music; it was “rebellious.”  Prohibition: “The Noble Experiment.”

 Industrial and technological production  break with tradition.  Pleasure was sought in defiance of WWI.  Great economic prosperity; US economy transferred from wartime to peacetime.  US augmented its standing as richest country in the world.  African Americans, recent immigrants, farmers and the working class lived below the poverty line of $2,000 per year.

 Thoroughly read the selection and be prepared to present it to the class. On a sheet of paper, complete the following:  List the main points.  Choose two significant quotes and explain them to the class (What is the quote saying, and why is it important?).  Write a summary of the reading.