Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s

The Great Gatsby

World War I• Pre WWI Propaganda – everywhere, ingrained• America went into the war convinced that we would “make

the world safe for democracy”• America believed it was “the war to end all wars” because

that’s what Woodrow Wilson said• Soldiers get “over there” and it is hell

– Trench warfare – miles of deep trenches, frequently in water because of rain, soldiers develop “trenchfoot”, rats in trenches ate corpses and sleeping men, surrounded by human & animal waste

– Going “over the top” – out of trench into “no man’s land” where they are met with machine gun fire, barbwire, bombs, and mustard gas (1st time used in history)

– Allied forces deaths: almost 2 million Russians, over 1 million French, 900,000 British, 48,909 Americans died

– 10 million soldiers die and almost 10 million civilians die– The war was NOT what we expected or what we were

told it would be

End of World War I

• Came back on ships and there was the worst flu in human history (pandemic) – 100 million people died– More people died in 24 weeks than all the

people who died in the 24 years that we’ve been fighting the AIDS virus,

– In Philadelphia during one week 1,000 people died every day = over 7,000 deaths in one city in one week; they literally could not bury all of the bodies

End of World War I• After soldiers get home they:

– Want to forget the horror– They don’t want to sacrifice themselves for any cause– People become very self centered. They go into WW I

idealistic but come back so disillusioned to the capabilities of humanity and war.

– The world no longer makes sense to people, they don’t trust science, government, humanity, people begin to question God

– People think, “well we’re going to die anyways, we may as well have a good time.”

• Fitzgerald called the 1920s “the most expensive orgy in history.”

• It makes sense why so many people turned to alcohol, parties, and excess; they wanted to drown themselves.

Literature ~ Modernism

• Modernism: was a direct response to the social and cultural changes post WW I

1.Characters in modernist works are almost always alienated from “mass culture”, they are unresponsive, withdrawn, hurt, etc.

2.Stream of consciousness writing style developed – meandering patterns of thought

3.Fragmentation – no traditional beginnings or end (think Pulp Fiction), OR only getting bits and pieces of information but not the whole story

More on Modernism

• Modernist writers are as notable for “what they leave out of their writing as for what they put in”

• Themes are implied rather than overtly stated.• The reader is left to figure out what is going on.• This is much more demanding for readers – they

must put the pieces together on their own. There are no CLEAR answers – just like there were no clear answers about life for people during this time period. All of their truths were destroyed during WW I.

1920-1929: Changing Times

Literature Music

Media / Technology Women’s Rights

Prohibition Lifestyles

An economy stimulated by WWI fueled a massive economic boom.

The 1920’s were a time of unprecedented social and technological change in so many areas:

Enduring Associations• Fitzgerald has become

identified with the extravagant living of the Jazz Age: “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”

--F. Scott Fitzgerald• He felt that aspiration and

idealism defined America and its people.

• His writing style is known for being clear, lyrical, and witty.

1920’s Cultural Points

• 1920: 19th Amendment granted women right to vote• 1921: knee-length skirts became fashionable, 1st Miss

America pageant• 1922: 5,000 speakeasies in NYC• 1923: 15 million cars registered in US• 1925: Scopes Trial (evolution debate)• 1926: 40 hour work week established; 1 in 6 Americans

owns a car• 1927: 30,000 speakeasies in NYC, 41 die in NYC New

Year’s Eve due to poisoned booze• 1929: Stock Market Crash

The decade of the twenties is always referred to as the “ Jazz Age”. This has as much to do with the jazzy

atmosphere of the time as with the music!

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties

• Prohibition• Speakeasies• Bootlegging• Organized

Crime• Jazz Age• Dancing• Flappers• Women’s Rights

Prohibition

• Introduction of Organized Crime

• Bootleggers

– Gangsters

– Bought, Sold, and consumed alcohol

Al Capone and a ‘gonnection’

Prohibition• The Eighteenth

Amendment (1919) to the Constitution forbade the manufacture, sale, import, or export of intoxicating liquors.

• The Twenty-first Amendment (1933) repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.

Women’s Rights Movement

• Suffrage - the right to vote

• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

• Changing attitudes and fashions help bring about the new woman (Jordan Baker – one of Fitzgerald’s characters in The Great Gatsby)

Lifestyles and fashions of the 1920’s

• No more Victorian Values• Flappers• Independent women• Fun, celebratory

atmosphere• Increasing wealth• Social mobility• Alcohol consumption

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.

Music in Gatsby• Many jazz musicians

came north from New Orleans to Chicago and New York (big cities was where the action was at)

• This was Jazz and Ragtime– Louis Armstrong,

– Duke Ellington

King Oliver

Jazzy Talk -Twenties Slang

• 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

Gee I wish a torpedo would bump off this flat tire

Dumb Dora

Origins of the American Dream

• European explorers and the Puritans—Doctrine of Predestination

• The Declaration of Independence—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

• American Revolutionary War—promise of land ownership and investment

• Industrial Revolution—possibility of anyone achieving wealth & the nouveau riche

• Individualism and self-reliance• Westward expansion and the Gold Rush• Immigration

• Prolific dime novel writer Horatio Alger, Jr. became famous for his novels that idealized the American Dream. His rags-to-riches stories glorified the notion of the down-and-out who were able to achieve wealth and success and helped entrench the Dream with the popular culture.

American Dream continued…

• Near the 20th century, major industrialists became the new model of the American Dream, many beginning life very poor, but later controlling enormous corporations and fortunes.

• Perhaps the most notable were the great American capitalists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

• This acquisition of wealth demonstrated to many that if you had talent, intelligence, and a willingness to work hard, you were likely to be a success as a result.

American Dream continued…

F. Scott Fitzgerald• Born in Minnesota in 1896• Descendent from “prominent” American

stock • Attended Princeton but left without graduating• On academic probation, Fitzgerald joined the

army as a 2nd lieutenant in 1917• Just missed WWI • Published This Side of Paradise in 1920 at the age of 24:

instant stardom• Captured the emptiness and emotions of his

times in his stories• He wrote many stories for the

Saturday Evening Post describing the free-thinking flappers of the 1920’s.

Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald• June 1918: While on

assignment in Montgomery, AL he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge.

• She broke off their engagement in 1919 because she was unwilling to live on Scott’s small salary, but went back to him in 1920 after This Side of Paradise was published.

• They were married one week later in 1920 since Fitzgerald was now rich and famous.

Extravagant Living• He and Zelda were associated

with high living of the Jazz Age -- a term Fitzgerald coined.

• Scott & Zelda begin to live as young celebrities, socializing and drinking heavily.

• They take their first trip to Europe in 1921. They eventually live in Paris, the Riviera, and have a mansion near Wilmington, Delaware.

• October 1921: Their first and only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald is born.

• Wrote what is considered his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, in Europe in 1924-25.

Further Estrangement• During the 1920’s, Scott

and Zelda’s relationship continues to be strained due to his drinking and her mental instability. Zelda is eventually diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Institutionalized.

• Even though Fitzgerald earns about $4,000 per story (equal to about $40,000 today), he and Zelda continue to run into debt.

The Last Years• Summer 1937: Fitzgerald

goes to Hollywood with a screenwriting contract earning $1,000/ week.

• Despite earning $91,000 from MGM, he is unable to save any money.

• Zelda broke down, in and out of institutions.

• 1938: He falls in love with Sheila Graham, a movie columnist.

• Dec 21, 1940: Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack in Graham’s apartment.

• 1948: Zelda dies in a fire at Highland Hospital.

Fitzgerald’s Legacy

• Although Fitzgerald’s drinking gave him a reputation as an irresponsible writer, he was a painstaking reviser.

• While he endured a lot of criticism just after his death, his reputation grew in the 1960’s.

• Today, he is considered one of the great American novelists, and The Great Gatsby is considered his masterpiece.

The Great Gatsby

• Time period – early 1920’s• Settings – East Egg, West Egg, NYC• Main Characters from three social classes:

– Nick Carraway (narrator) (upper-middle)– Tom Buchanan (wealthy)– Daisy Fay Buchanan (wealthy)– Jordan Baker (wealthy)– Jay Gatsby (wealthy, but rags to riches)– George Wilson (working)– Myrtle Wilson (working)

• Fitzgerald’s life is successfully told in this novel. The main theme is the American Dream: the rise above poverty to wealth and the winning of a love.

The Great American Novel

Fitzgerald’s Delineating of Character

1. Naming

2. Description of physical appearance, including clothing

3. Association with objects, surroundings, possessions, or images

4. Direct discussion and analysis of the character by the narrator

5. Actions and behavior, whether described or represented:

a) talk by the character, including

b) talk as performance (lying, boasting, betraying, flattering)

c) talk as self-defining via vocabulary, dialect, rhetoric

6. Self-analysis by the character (“I am…”) whether accurate or not

7. Talk about the character by others, accurate or not. Such talk both characterizes the talker and the character talked about

Setting

The Very Rich…

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.”

-F. Scott Fitzgerald