1. F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby and The Roaring Twenties

2. 1920-1929: Changing Times The 1920’s were a time of unprecedented
social and technological change in so many areas:
An economy stimulated by WW1 fueled a massive economic boom.

3. General Business Conditions
Stable prices
High employment
Number of firms increased annually until 1929
Steady failure rate
Prime interest rate averaged less than 5%
Stock yield higher than bond yields

4. Income Distribution Equalizing effect of income tax during the war but
1922: Top 1% held 32% of nation’s wealth
1929: Top 1% held 38% of nation’s wealth
“The rich get rich and the poor get… children”

5. The Roaring Twenties
The decade of the twenties is often referred to as the
“ Jazz Age’. However, the term has much as much to
do with the jazzy atmosphere of the time as with the
music!

6. Jazzy Sounds
Prohibition brought many jazz musicians north from New Orleans to Chicago and New York
Joe “King” Oliver” was one of the best
Jazz became the soundtrack of rebellion for a younger generation

7. Jazzy Duds
Flappers were typical young girls of the twenties, usually with bobbed hair, short skirts, rolled stockings, and powdered knees!
They danced the night away doing the Charleston and the Black Bottom.

8. Jazzy Talk -Twenties Slang
Gee I wish a torpedo would bump off this flat tire
All Wet - wrong
Bee’s Knees - a superb person
Big Cheese -an important person
Bump Off - to murder
Dumb Dora - a stupid girl
Flat Tire - a dull, boring person
Gam - a girls leg
Hooch - bootleg liquor
Hoofer - chorus girl
Torpedo - a hired gunman
Dumb
Dora

9. Prohibition
Prohibition was a period of nearly fourteen years of U.S. history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor was made illegal. It led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.
The Volstead Act allowed alcohol consumption if it was prescribed by a doctor. Needless to say, large numbers of new prescriptions were written for alcohol.
For people who didn't buy cases of alcohol in advance or know a "good" doctor, there were illegal ways to drink during Prohibition. A new breed of gangster arose during this period.
Al Capone in Chicago is one of the most famous gangsters of this time period.

10. F Scott Fitzgerald Descendent from “prominent” American stock
Attended Princeton but left without graduating
Missed WWI (just)
Met Zelda but couldn’t afford to marry her
Published This Side of Paradise in 1920 at the age of 24: instant stardom
Married Zelda, his “golden girl”
Wrote “money-making” popular fiction for most of his life, mainly for the New York Post: $4000 a story (which equates to about $50,000 today)
He and Zelda were associated with high living of the Jazz Age

11. Fitzgerald Continued A daughter, Scotty
Wrote what is considered his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, in Europe in
Zelda has an affair and Gatsby poorly received
Attempts to earn a clean literary reputation were disrupted by his reputation as a drunk
Zelda becomes mentally unstable
Moved to Hollywood as a screen writer
Dies almost forgotten aged 45
Zelda perished in a mental hospital fire in 1948
Only became a “literary great” in the 1960’s

12. Literature of the 1920s
Authors wrote about their personal lives as something “knowable”.
Gatsby contains a great deal of autobiographical material and references to the 1920’s.

13. The Modernist Era
Rejection of Romanticism and the advent of moral uncertainty
World War I is over
Embracing the new i.e. mechanization and industrialization
Cars
New (replaceable) fashions
Mass entertainment
Using new means of Representation
Development of cinema
Mass media and advertising

14. The Great Gatsby Characters
Nick Caraway – Narrator Jay Gatsby- mysterious man, protagonist Daisy Buchanan – Nick’s cousin Tom Buchanan – Daisy’s wealthy husband Jordan Baker – Daisy’s friend Myrtle Wilson – Tom’s lover George Wilson – Myrtle’s husband

15. Themes
Money
Honesty
Decline of “The American Dream”
Gender
Class