Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald  Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald in 1896, to an upper-middle class family in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Spent his childhood in St. Paul and New York City.  Showed a love of theater and writing at an early age.  Wrote his first novel at age 13. It was a detective story.

Princeton University  Attended Princeton University where he wrote scripts for university drama department. U.S. Army  Left Princeton to serve in the U.S. Army, where he would remain for two years. New York City  After he was discharged, he moved to New York City where he worked in advertising and began his writing career.

Zelda Sayre  Married Zelda Sayre in Zelda was a southern belle from Montgomery, Alabama. ballerina  She was a talented artist, writer, and ballerina. Ballet became her obsession later in her life.  On their honeymoon, the couple was asked to leave the Biltmore Hotel because of their notoriously wild, outrageous parties.

flapper  Zelda embraced the flapper lifestyle by dressing provocatively, smoking cigarettes, and drinking alcohol.  Fitzgerald would draw from Zelda’s personal diary while creating his heroines. flapper girl  Due to her reputation as a flirtatious, wild young woman, Zelda is considered by many to be the original “flapper girl.”

celebrities  The couple settled in Connecticut, where they would become celebrities due to their outrageous conduct and fabulous parties.

 Soon after their marriage, Francis became jealous, suspicious, and even abusive. He also turned to alcoholism.  Meanwhile, Zelda became obsessed with her ballet to the point of emotional and physical disintegration. troubled marriage  Fitzgerald’s troubled marriage with Zelda inspired many of his story’s plots.

 During the mid 1920’s in Paris, Fitzgerald becomes part of the group of expatriate American writers which included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound.

Jazz Age Roaring Twenties  Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel. It is known for it’s portrayal of the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties. Jay Gatsby  It tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a young man who falls in love with a woman from the social elite and attempts to climb the social ladder in order to win her love. materialism hopesocial class American Dream  The novel explores such ideas as materialism, hope, social class, and the corruption of the American Dream.

“A generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.”

 Gatsby was both written in and set during a unique period in US History. Roaring Twenties  After moving from isolationism to international involvement in WWI, America experienced a time of great prosperity, often referred to as the "Roaring Twenties.”  The Eighteenth Amendment  The Eighteenth Amendment, passed in 1919, prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol. Prohibition speakeasiesOrganized crime  Prohibition made millionaires out of bootleggers and owners of underground saloons, called "speakeasies.” Organized crime became a major problem during this time.

19 th Amendment  The 19 th Amendment was passed in 1920, granting women’s suffrage.  Once granted the right to vote, women began to be treated more like equals. Many women even began dressing (shorter skirts, loose clothes, short hair) and acting like men (smoking, working outside the home). WWI  After WWI, many women stayed in the work force, keeping their wartime jobs.

“nouveau riche”  Fitzgerald glamorizes the “nouveau riche” (new money) of this period. He includes lots of descriptions of their beautiful clothing, lavish parties, and extravagant homes with great attention to detail and wonderful use of color.  While the lavish lifestyle is glamorized in the novel, it is also questioned and criticized for it’s hollowness and excessiveness.

East and West EggLong Island 1922  The story takes place in the fictional East and West Egg in New York’s Long Island in  Nick Carraway narrator  Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner who has recently moved to the East Coast to learn the bond business, is the narrator. Jay Gatsby is Nick’s neighbor. Nick, much like F. Scott Fitzgerald, is both intrigued and appalled by the lavish lifestyles of the Long Islanders.

 East Egg  West Egg  Various colors  (yellow, red, blue, green, white)  Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Gatsby  Weather  The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg  The Green Light  The Valley of Ashes

Happiness Hope The American Dream New Rich versus Old Rich The shallowness of the upper classes The ostentatious conduct of the new rich