The Great Gatsby Project

Select one of the following projects to complete. The projects marked with an asterisk (*) are the only group projects.

1. Investigate the lives of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Chart the similarities and differences between the Fitzgeralds’ relationship and Gatsby & Daisy’s affair. Create a vivid visual.

2. Read one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other novels, such as This Side of Paradise, Tender is the Night, or The Last Tycoon. Summarize the story and compare elements such as characters, plot, and theme to those of The Great Gatsby.

3. Create a short story or a one-act play about incidents from Jay Gatsby’s early life. You could focus on his relationship with his father, Dan Cody, or Meyer Wolfsheim.

4. With some of your classmates (no more than 6), stage a Roaring Twenties Party of the type that Gatsby might have hosted (minus the alcohol). Serve one or two of the dishes described in the book and provide music from the period. In a written report, provide the passages from the book that you used as references for your party. Be sure to dress the part.

5. Research the historical background of The Great Gatsby and the Roaring Twenties. What impact did World War I have on the period? Prohibition? Women suffrage? Gangsters and racketeering? How are these portrayed in The Great Gatsby? What events brought the Roaring Twenties to an end? Present the results of your finding in an oral or written report.

6. Create a booklet of original poems that revolve around themes or characters in the novel. Give a “reading” of your poetry to the class.

7. Investigate the role of women in the 1920s, particularly after women gained voting rights in 1920. Compare the women of The Great Gatsby to the “typical” woman of that decade. Create either a written or a visual report.

8. Adapt a scene from the book into a short play to be presented to the class. (no more than 4) You must be sure to stay true to the text and use the dialogue provided—

9. though you may add some of your own to make it more believable.

10. Adapt a scene from the book into a short film to be presented to the class. Again your script must stay true to the text.

11. Create a mural of the most significant events in the novel.

12. Read Nancy Mitford’s biography entitled Zelda. Then write a report comparing and contrasting Zelda with the character of Daisy.

13. Locate the lyrics to one or more songs of the Jazz Age. Reproduce the lyrics for your classmates, and in an oral or written report, comment on how the lyrics suggest an essential mood or idea in The Great Gatsby. Then do the same for one or more songs from today. Finally, comment on why you think music can be an important expression of the values or concerns of a time period.

14. Tom Buchanan quotes ideas about race from a book called A Rising Tide of Color by Lothrop Stoddard. Locate and read this book or research the history of black-white relations in the 1920s. Summarize your findings in a written report and comment on how those relations form part of the historical backdrop of the novel.

15. Create a timeline of the major events in The Great Gatsby. Illustrate this timeline and provide quotations from the novel. Also write a 1-2 sentence summary.

16. You have probably seen critics giving their opinions about movies. Often one critic gives the movie a “thumbs up” while the other rates the same film “thumbs down.” Produce a similar program about The Great Gatsby. The program should have two reviewers. IT could be presented live or videotaped. Reviewers should know ahead of time what topics will be discussed so they have time to prepare. Each reviewer should have sections of the novel ready to read to support his/her points about each topic. Possible topics include:

i. The most interesting charactersii. The most exciting (or boring) parts of the bookiii. Themes (such as greed, right or wrong, the

pursuit of s dream, etc.)

iv. Qualities that make The Great Gatsby worth (or not worth) reading

v.17. Create a children’s book that follows the ideas & themes

found in The Great Gatsby; however, modify the story in order for it to be appropriate for children. In other words, lose the alcohol and the affairs…which makes it a challenge.

18. Write a 4 page synopsis of a possible movie remake of The Great Gatsby—however, change the time period and the age of the characters and turn this movie into a possible teen-age high school film. The synopsis should be a summary of the story. You are to include ideas of current actors who might play the roles.

19. Write 3-4 original songs that reflect the themes and ideas of The Great Gatsby. Have one song be based on one of the characters from the novel.

20. Create a board game based on the novel.

21. This entire novel was told from Nick Caraway’s perspective. Take one of the sections from the novel and retell it from a different character’s perspective. (You are not retelling the entire novel, simply a section.)

From http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/dbrunkhorst/documents/TheGreatGatsbyProject_000.doc

22. The most popular project might be to make a video. One of the best and funniest I have heard was The Beverly Hillbillies Meet The Great Gatsby. Another group composed “The Great Gatsby Bunch” based on the Brady Bunch (Here's the story of a man named Gatsby, Who was rivals with this real mean guy named Tom. Both of them were much hung up on Daisy, Who was just Da Bomb!)

23. Take Gatsby’s most pivotal scenes and make them into a pop-up book format.

1920's Written and Oral Report Ideas

24. Between 1920 and 1929, automobile registrations rose from eight million to twenty-three million. What effects have automobiles had on the lives of American people (pollution,

gas use, industry, roads, car accidents)? What contribution did Ford make to the automobile industry?

25. Research Marcus Garvey and his “back to Africa” movement to resettle African Americans in Africa during the 1920's. Who was receptive to his message, and why? Research his newspaper "Negro World".

26. How did women's fashions change in the twenties? Have these styles survived or ever been revived? How do they reflect the new freedoms many women were enjoying in the twenties?

27. Research the case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italians convicted in the 1920 murder of a Massachusetts paymaster and his guard. Explain why the case was so controversial. What was the general feeling towards immigrants at the time and how might that have affected the trial's outcome?

28. Immigrants began to come into the United States in large numbers after WWI. Research the history of immigration to the U.S., particularly during the 1920's. What legislation was passed by Congress concerning immigration in the 1920's (see the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and the Immigration Act of 1924)?

29. In The Great Gatsby there are many references to illegal activity--world series fixing, bootlegging, police complicity in crime. Research criminal activity in the 1920's, including the Harding Administration scandal, the Teapot Dome scandal.

30. Discuss the stock Market crash of 1929. Why did it happen and what was its aftermath? How did it lead to the Great Depression.

31. The Eighteenth Amendment, the Prohibition Act, was passed in 1919. How and why did the temperance movement win this battle? How did it affect the country? When and why was it repealed?

32. Charles A. Lindbergh was a very important figure in the 1920's. In 1927 he made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight. How did this flight affect Americans? And what other parts of Lindbergh's life became important in the psyche of the American people?

33. The Nineteenth Amendment was made effective in 1920. Trace the history of the women's suffrage movement. What arguments were made for and against women's

suffrage. Were any of these ideals or worries realized? How has women's right to vote changed the United States?

34. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920's and 1930's. Report on the variety of arts and people that were involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Why would it have happened in such a specific place and at such a specific time?

35. Research a few of the major literary figures of the 1920's discuss their contributions to American literature. Some of these writers include: F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Weldon Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Robert Frost, Eugene O'Neill, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Claude McKay, Carl Sandburg.

36. The 1920's is often called the Golden Age of Sports. What accomplishments were made in sport in the twenties? Who was involved in these accomplishments?

From www.teachervision.fen.com/novels/resource/2925.html