The Great Gatsby

By:F. Scott Fitzgerald

Setting-Long Island, New York

-Approximately 20 miles outside of New York City/Manhattan

-East Egg & West Egg

-1920s

Historical Context: 1920s-Beginning of decade, two major events in the country: Prohibition; women gain the right to vote

-Result? Many people rebel against authority because of Prohibition

-The rich lived recklessly: wild parties, glamorous clothing, very materialistic; life= make $$ and spend $$

-Rich people first “celebrities” to average/working class; first example of gossip/tabloid magazines

-Known as “Age of Bigness” as cities grow, buildings taller, cars faster

Historical Context: The Historical Context: The 1920s1920s

• 3 major influences: cars, radio, movies

• Also known as “The Jazz Age” or “The Roaring Twenties”

• NYC & Urban Corruption• 1919: The Black Sox Fix• 1929: Stock Market Crash• The Great Depression begins;

lasts until World War II (approx. 10 years)

Plot SummaryPlot Summary-Story of a self-made man whose dreams of love and social acceptance lead to scandal and corruption and in the end tragedy

-Shows a fascination and distrust of wealthy society

-Spans from Spring to Fall, 1922

-Told as a flashback in first person

-Themes: the American Dream; materialism and greed; simplicity vs. corruption and evil; wealth and power corruption; belief in romantic destiny

Other Important Themes

• Point of View• Setting• Satire• Light / Dark Imagery• Characterization• Symbolism• Modernism• Conflict

Characters

Nick CarrawayJay GatsbyDaisy BuchananTom BuchananJordan BakerMeyer WolfsheimGeorge WilsonMyrtle Wilson

Pammy BuchananOwl-EyesHenry C. GatzMichaelisEwing KlipspringerMr. and Mrs. McKeeCatherineMr. Sloane

Characters

F. Scott Fitzgerald-Born in St. Paul, Minnesota; Sept. 24, 1896

-Family moderately well-off; strict Protestant upbringing

-Attended Prep School in New Jersey; college at Princeton University

-Left college to serve in Army from 1917-1919; did not see any overseas action

-1920 marries Zelda Sayre; have one child, a daughter, in 1921

-First published in 1920, This Side of Paradise; became bestseller immediately

More about FitzgeraldMore about Fitzgerald

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- Lives the “fast life”: Long Island; France, New York, Rome; California (worked as a Hollywood scriptwriter); considered celebrity

- Zelda has a nervous breakdown in 1930; institutionalized in 1934; dies in 1948

-Leads to Fitzgerald “cracking up” and relying heavily on alcohol

- Died Dec. 21, 1940 at the age of 44 of a heart attack

- Credited with naming the era “The Jazz Age”

- Died believing he was a failure; thought of as one of (if not the) greatest American writer

- The Great Gatsby used as example of the classic American novel