1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The Greaty Gatsby”

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald Born September 24, 1896
named after ancestor, Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Intelligent, but did poorly in school;
sent to boarding school, later enrolled
at Princeton in 1913.
Never graduating, Fitzgerald
enlisted in the army in 1917.

3. Became a second lieutenant, stationed at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama.
Met and fell in love with a
17 year-old girl, Zelda.
Zelda finally agreed to marry him, but made him wait until he could prove to be a success.
Published This Side of Paradise in 1920, and did so.
Published The Great Gatsby, his most famous novel, in 1925.

4. The Roaring Twenties dissolved into the Great Depression
Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown
Fitzgerald turned to alcoholism
Published Tender is the Night in 1934
Sold short stories to The Saturday Evening Post
Left for Hollywood in 1937 to write screenplays
While working on a novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon, in 1940, Fitzgerald (age 44) suffered a heart attack and died.

5. The Great Gatsby: Setting
Long Island’s North Shore and New York City from spring to autumn in 1922.
(fictional) West Egg and East Egg, Long Island. Next to Nick’s rental house is Gatsby’s mansion.

6. The Great Gatsby: The Roaring Twenties
A period of economic prosperity, also known as “The Jazz Age.”

7. The “flapper”
The Charleston
Art Deco – linear symmetry

8. Bootlegging
Prohibition

9. Rise of the stock market Decayed social and moral values
increase in the national wealth and newfound materialism
A person from any social background could, potentially, make a fortune
families with old wealth scorned the newly rich

10. Themes The Decline of the American Dream
originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness
easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream
The Hollowness of the Upper Class
Newly rich greatly different from aristocracy (old money)