“Make it NEW!” Ezra Pound

Intro to The Great Gatsby A Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The 20s: An Age of Transition Before World War I "The world must be made safe for democracy" Woodrow Wilson the President had declared, "Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundation of political liberty." --- a spirit of idealism Americans entered the war with in After World War I a general disillusionment among the people which caused nervousness: racism, intolerance, violence, Ku Klux Klan, immigrants, political intolerance "ghost of bolshevism" behind every form of social protest/ strikes.

Modernism: The Movement  Modernism grew out of the disillusionment that many writers, artists, and thinkers felt after World War I.  THE AGE OF HEROES IS OVER. “They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.” - Ernest Hemingway

Louis Hines Photographs

View of Man  It is a constant struggle to remain an individual in a complex world.  “Without help, some men are doomed to unfathomable pain and suffering.”  “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” -e.e. cummings

View of Nature ➢ The world is objective (reality); it is our interpretation of it that is subjective (perception). ➢ Perception vs. Reality = TENSIONS! ➢ Nature can be warped into a war machine for man’s use.

Guide to Truth  Universal truths are difficult to know. ➢ Communicate your self and the world around you honestly.  “Modernism may be seen as an attempt to reconstruct the world in the absence of God.” – Bryan Appleyard  “Traditional beliefs and values have led man astray.” – Gerturde Stein

Roaring Twenties  Economy booming/industrial growth  America partied like it was the 1920’s!  Organized crime; bootlegging  Prohibition Act  Decline of moral standards

“The Jazz Age” -- Coined by Fitzgerald  The Jazz Age took place during the 1920s or the Roaring Twenties  Originated with African American music in New Orleans ➢ Meshed with white, middle-class ideals of the time; old money continued to support classical music  This era ended in the 1930s with the beginning of The Great Depression  It has lived on in American pop culture for decades.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dropped out of Princeton University in 1917 to fight in WWI, but the war ended before he shipped out. This Side of Paradise was a huge success, defining the modern, young American adolescent. The Great Gatsby was not successful until Fitzgerald’s death. Was one of the most influential and accomplished writers of the movement (part of the “Lost Generation”).

Zelda Fitzgerald -- “The Golden Girl”

The Decline of the American Dream: Truth about the 1920s  The disintegration of the American Dream in an era of prosperity and material excess.  Unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals  Americans, who fought in the War, disillusioned  New Wealth scorned by old wealth (“robber Barons”)  Rich industrialists, speculators and bootleggers vs. old wealth

Decline of the American Dream  American Dream -- individualism, hope, pursuit of happiness  1920s, as portrayed in The Great Gatsby -- WHAT has corrupted this dream?? MATERIALISTIC??  Gatsby’s “dream” of loving Daisy is ruined by social class/status; his own blindness (?)  He needs to resort to crime to impress her (bootlegging)  She needs rampant materialism to support her lifestyle (What is Daisy’s “dream?”)

The Meaning of the Past  The Past holds something that both Gatsby and Nick long for: ➢ A simpler, better, nobler time that no longer exists.  Are Tom and Daisy creatures of the present?? ➢ so attractive, but so rootless and spiritually empty ➢ BUT they so backward, so tied to the past, in other ways -- racism, old money

The Hollowness of the Upper Class  East Egg—old aristocracy  West Egg—newly rich, vulgar, ostentatious and lacking social graces and taste  Gatsby—ornate mansion, pink suit, Rolls-Royce, but is not accepted by old money.  Old aristocracy—grace, taste, elegance epitomized by the Buchanans’ tasteful and classic home, flowing white dresses

The Hollowness of the Upper Class  Old aristocracy—lack heart—careless, inconsiderate bullies; don’t worry about hurting others  The Buchanans purchase a new house at the end; fickle and uncaring  West Eggers—Gatsby, sincere and loyal heart

The Education of a Young Man  The Great Gatsby, a story of Nick’s initiation into life  He hits 30, he realizes his youth is over, and he needs to reevaluate his choices  Nick, writes The Great Gatsby to show us what he learned

The Great Gatsby: Point of View  The “I” of the novel becomes ourselves, and we, like Nick, wonder who Gatsby is  By writing from limited first person point of view, gives it an air of realism  We find out more about Gatsby because Nick does  We care about Gatsby because Nick does

Motifs in The Great Gatsby  Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes  Geography—places and settings epitomize aspects of the 1920s American society; characterization  Weather—the weather in the novel matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story ➢ Rain (melancholy), sun (love reawakens), hottest day (confrontation)

Symbols The Green Light The Valley of Ashes The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg

1.An inscription, as on a statue or building. 1.A motto or quotation, as at the beginning of a literary composition, setting forth a theme. epigraph (n.)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 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!” — Thomas Parke D’Invilliers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Dropped out of Princeton University in 1917 to fight in WWI, but the war ended before he shipped out. This Side of Paradise was a huge success, defining the “Flapper Generation.” Also wrote The Beautiful and the Damned and The Great Gatsby. Was one of the most popular and accomplished writers of the movement. Ch. 1

Two people for whom a second cousin relationship is one generation removed. The child of one's second cousin; also the second cousin of one's parent. Ch How are Daisy and Nick related?

"Bonds" are financial instruments issued by governments and corporations -- but mainly by governments -- as a way of raising money. In effect, they are loans taken out by the issuing government or institution with the promise of repaying the loan with interest. The “bond business” simply refers to divisions of financial services corporations that are established to buy and sell -- or trade -- in bonds on a major scale. Ch The Bond Business

“I had a dog -- at least until he ran away -- and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman...” (pg. 4)

Ch Georgian Colonial Mansion

Essential Questions for The Great Gatsby Why We Are Reading This. -OR- Why Are We Reading This?

How does the past we experience affect our future actions/ perspectives? EQ #1:

How does being a caring and empathetic person make you vulnerable to being taken advantage of? EQ #2:

How can the American Dream be simultaneously inspiring and demoralizing? EQ #3:

How can we, today, avoid Jay Gatsby’s fate? EQ #4: