The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great American 1920s

Novel

Used with gratitude from the Hinsdale Central Reading Lab.

Introduction• The Great Gatsby deals with

the tumultuous period of the 1920s “Jazz Age.”

• It was a commercial and critical success and made him one of the most prominent literary figures of the time (and now!)

• From gangsters to Prohibition to contemporary bizarre social customs, Fitzgerald’s work portrays a slice of rich New York during the roaring 20s.

• It’s a story of America in the 1920s: prosperous, giddy, dream-filled… and corrupt

After WWI, the US experienced a rush of prosperity and optimism.

• The “bull market” and buying “on margin”

• Early teardown capital: Skyscrapers spread across the city (102 stories!), Rock Center built on bulldozed university

• Spontaneous hotel-room cocktail parties are common (6 PM to dawn…)

• NLWS (National League for Women’s Service)

• “Flappers” (short skirts, short hair cuts, feather boas, costume jewelry)

• Women could smoke in public for the first time! They could drink cocktails! They could eat alone in a restaurant!

Flappers and hip flasks: New freedoms for women after WWI

Flapper Philosophy

New in the 1920s: How Great Life Can Be!• Beauty Contests• Radio• The Model A• Silent Movies• Refrigerators• Charles Lindbergh• Louis Armstrong• William Randolph

Hearst• Dance Marathons• Harry Houdini

Pictures of the 1920s

Some “Jazz Age” Slang

• slang used for "girls or women":  a broad, a bunny, a canary (well, one who could sing), a charity girl (one who was sexually promiscuous), a dame, a doll, cat's meow, cat's whiskers

• cast a kitten: to have a fit. Used in both humorous and serious situations. i.e. "Stop tickling me or I'll cast a kitten!" Also, "have kittens."

• cake-eater: a lady's man • chunk of lead: an unattractive female • bug-eyed Betty: an unattractive girl • Butt me.: I'll take a cigarette • "I have to go see a man about a dog.": to

go buy whiskey

Life Under Prohibition• WCTM, National

Prohibition Party thought that alcohol dangerous, destroyed families

• 18th Amendment (1919); Volstead Act

• Prohibition causes: bootlegging, rum-running, speakeasies

• 21st Amendment (1933)

The National Prohibition

Party

Unintended Effect of Prohibition: Urban Corruption

• Tammany Hall (popular name for the small set of elected or appointed official who dominated city politics)

• Kickbacks for “overlooking” bootlegging, gambling, prostitution

• Arnold Rothstein’s “campaign contributions” give him virtual monopoly over prostitution and gambling (he was murdered in 1928)

• Herman (Rosy) Rosenthal complains to a journalist about Tammany Hall corruption… ends up dead

The Growth of Organized Crime

The Black Sox of 1919

• White Sox heavy favorites over Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Players’ salaries cut b/c WWI

• White Sox owner, Charles Comisky, had best and biggest names in baseball; he paid them like the worst and smallest names. Chick Gandil decides to throw the game with his teammates..

• Local bookie Joseph Sullivan couldn’t get Gandil’s demand for 8 players ($100,000), so he goes to “the number-one gambler-sportman in America” named Arnold Rothstein

• “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”

Fitzgerald’s Life

• Born in St. Paul• Middle class/ upper class• Relationship with Zelda, the “rich

girl”• “admitted” into Princeton• Thought up the term “Jazz Age”…

and lived it!• “This Side of Paradise”• “The Beautiful and the Damned”• Zelda’s end• Hollywood and Alcoholism

Fitzgerald’s goal

• FSF set out to write a novel wholly representative of his era: prosperous, exciting, dream-filled, party-filled, corrupt, corrupt, corrupt

• “Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires”

• “Under the Red, White, and Blue”

• “Trimalchio in West Egg”

Characters

• Nick Carraway• Daisy and Tom

Buchanan• George and Myrtle

Wilson• Jay Gatsby• Jordan Baker• Meyer Wolfsheim

Themes• What is success?• What is the cost of reaching

for the American Dream?• What are the consequences

for having Romantic hopes?• Does wealth corrupt

absolutely?

Things to Watch for…

• West versus East• New Money and Old Money• Seasons, Weather, Colors• HOW are the characters

created? Notice words associated with each character. What do they think? What do they say? What do they do?

Setting fictionalized Long Island NY (see p. 206)

Gatsby’s House

Daisy’s House

Myrtle’s House (Valley of Ashes)

West Egg

(New Money)

East Egg

(Old Money)

The First Chapter

• Nick Carraway explains why he came East to New York

• East Egg/ West Egg explained• Then it gets more exciting!• Introduction of Tom Buchanan and Daisy

Buchanan and Jordan Baker• First party (each of first 3 chapters has a

contrasting party)• At the very end of the chapter… Gatsby

glimpsed

• http://home.earthlink.net/%7Edlarkins/slang-pg.htm