The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
What do you need to know before
you read the novel?
Define the American Dream
“Life should be better, richer, fuller for everyone”
• Be successful
– Have material wealth; financial security
– Work a job you choose…white collar; not blue collar
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Create your own identity; hard work pays off
Be more successful than parents
Freedom
Be well-liked
Conceal weakness
Imagery
– White picket fence
– 2.5 children
– Dog
Let’s see if we can link:
American Dream to P Themes
• Be successful political- success comes at great
risk/power struggle a lot of the time
– Have material wealth; financial security
– Work a job you choose…white collar; not blue collar puritan
because white collar is “better” or “right”
• Create your own identity; hard work pays off puritan
• Be more successful than parents political- conflict
• Freedom The idea that the American Dream is unique
implies the puritan P Theme..so many people immigrate
here
• Be well-liked puritan
• Conceal weakness political
• Imagery is “perfection" pastoral
– White picket fence
– 2.5 children
– Dog
Viability of the American Dream
• Do all US citizens have equal opportunities or are there still conflicts
concerning the origin or believes of certain groups?
• If we say that everyone can become rich if they work hard enough–
does that mean that the poor are only too lazy?
• Why does it have to be the American dream? Wouldn’t the same
dream be possible in other countries?
• What makes so many people want to live in the United States?
• What are the advantages / disadvantages (for the individual and
society) if people only try to pursue their very own dreams?
• Why is the word “happy” not included in the tenets of the dream? Is
it just assumed that happiness will occur with the obtaining of the
tenets? Is it possible to be UNhappy even with the tenets of the
dream?
• Is the American Dream alive and well now or is it just an illusion? In
other words, is the American Dream a reality?
• What do musicians say about the Dream? Can you think of any
particular songs that comment on it?
The Author known as
“Speaker of the Jazz Age”
Time Period
• “Roaring Twenties”- economy roared
through the roof..
• New rich vs. old rich
• Partying everywhere
(secretly)=speakeasies
• Prohibition= legal ban on alcohol
• Made gin in their own bathtubs or bought from
organized crime
• Jazz Age - glittering lights and unbridled
romance
• Setting of novel: Summer 1922
• The Silent Screen stars included:
the chic Rudolph Valentino , sexy Clara Bow. Rudy Vallee sang
through his megaphone.
• The first talking picture, Don Juan, starring John Barrymore
premiered on Broadway in 1926. This made movies big business.
• The first Oscars were given in 1927. First Oscar movie was a
Paramount Picture, Wings. . Broadway reached an all time peak.
Gershwin was hot with An American in Paris, Jerome Kern and
Oscar Hammerstein created Show Boat starring Helen Morgan.
Fred and Adele Astaire opened in Funny Face. There were 268
plays offered in New York City in the year 1927. This compared with
50-60 in the 1970s.
• Radio networks began during this decade: David Sarnoff's NBC and
William Paley's CBS both went on the air. Billboard Magazine
published its first charts in 1928. Bing Crosby and other crooner
singing stars aided their sales with their live and recorded radio
performances.
FADS & FASHION
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Slag terms used for "girls or
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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
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Coined words and phrases:
23 skiddoo -- to get going; move along; leave; or scram
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The cat's pajamas -- the best; the height of excellence
Gams -- legs
The real McCoy -- sincere; genuine; the real thing
Hotsy-totsy -- perfect
Moll -- a female companion of a gangster
Speakeasy -- a place where alcohol was illegally sold and
drunk during Prohibition
The bee's knees -- excellent; outstanding
Ossified - drunk
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Jazz age jargon included: Joe
College - better yet a Joe Yale - or a
Joe Zilch , jazzbo, jellybean, blind
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date, upchuck, jazz babies, pos-aloot-ly, and the real McCoy.
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Games included mah-jongg, Ouija
boards, and crossword puzzles
Endurance races of all sorts gained
popularity and included Marathons
and flagpole sitting
Dance marathons - began in 1923 and
really became the rage.
Harry Houdini was the great escape of
the 1920s.
American Baseball! and other sports
were very popular.
Miss America contest began in Atlantic
City in 1921. Margaret Gorman (16
years old) was the first winner with
measurements of 30-25-32
Dance crazes included the
Charleston, the Black Bottom, and the
Shimmy.
Dining at Sardi's.
Bible Belt= region on south US where
fundamentalism was dominant
“There's nothing surer;
the rich get rich and the
poor get poorer." was
considered the credo of
the Roaring 20’s.
• Harlem was hot!
– Chicago was hot!
• The Cotton Club
was open to both
whites and blacks
& packed nightly.
– Jazz was hot!
. . . whether men purchased their suits
in the United States, strolled through the
shops of London's Savile Row, or had
one custom made in a small tailor's
shop in Rome (like Al Capone) men's
fashion in the 1920's was distinctive yet
classic.
Historical and Cultural Events
• Living the 1920’s
• First Transatlantic flight: Charles Lindbergh, James Doolittle first
one-day.
– Air flying companies outbid the railroads for transporting the mail (1926)
– Business travelers took to the skies on scheduled coast to coast flights
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Prohibition, speakeasies and bootleg alcohol
Gangland warfare, Sing Sing, sawed-off shotguns, and Al Capone
Inventions of the 1920’s
Women vote for the first time in a national election in 1920
Ku Klux Klan is active in the south and midwest
Admiral Byrd - Flew over the North and South Poles during the 20s
Stock Market Crashed: October 24, 1929, bank closed - panic on
Wall Street
Setting of the novel
Long Island & Manhattan 1922
Source: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
The “green light”
can be seen across
the bay at Tom And
Daisy Buchanan’s
dock (which is in
East Egg)
Nick lives in West Egg; So does Gatsby
Nick lives near the train & takes it into work in
Manhattan
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby is not set in just one location. From Long Island to Chicago to Detroit, pertinent action
takes place all over the United States. These locations in the 1920s, however, were nothing like they are in modern times. If one
considers the phenomenal technological breakthroughs that have occurred in modern times, one can begin to appreciate how much the
following modern cities have changed from the era that the novel takes place
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New York City
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Years ago, New York City was a small-scale version of the bustling metropolis that it is today. The 1920s was a time of great change
and innovation and a town of "roaring music, gaudy entertainment and perpetual prosperity" (Arakian and Smith n.p.).
New York City is composed of five different sub-cities, known as "boroughs." The five boroughs are Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx,
Queens and Staten Island. In The Great Gatsby, Nick, Myrtle, and Tom most likely go to Manhattan on their excursion, as Manhattan is
the "original New York" (Climo). Manhattan is the home of skyscrapers, subways, Fifth Avenue, Greenwich Village, theaters, museums,
and concert halls. Even in the 1920s, buildings as high as 66 stories stretched to the sky. The subway, originating only a decade earlier,
was growing and becoming a staple in NYC transportation. Tom would be particularly attracted to Manhattan because of the fashionable
Fifth Avenue and trendy Greenwich Village, both appealing to the wealthy in general.
One distasteful aspect of New York City to many of the members of East Egg was the incredible diversity. With a population of over
350,000, those of wealth and the impoverished walked the streets together. Over half of NYC residents were foreign-born or had foreignborn parents. Many immigrants came into the city as soon as they passed through immigration on Ellis Island, located just off the coast of
Staten Island. The majority of the population was Roman Catholic, but over 15% was Jewish. Many of the citizens were African American
partially due to the fact that Harlem is a division of Manhattan. Racism was at its peak all over the country, but the Harlem Renaissance
was earning African Americans some respect in the city.
As it is today, New York City in the 1920s was on the cutting edge. The new electric lights lit up the city, earning Broadway the
nickname of "the Great White Way." Broadway shows were also a new development in American culture. By the mid 1920s, over 250
shows were playing as the theater and cinema were becoming more and more prominent in society.
New York City, in Fitzgerald's time, was the Mecca of society. As a Harlem jazz musician put it, "There are a lot of apples dangling from
the tree of America, but there's only one Big Apple."
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Long Island
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Long Island is a suburb of New York City. Bordering Queens and directly across the Long Island Sound from the Bronx, Long Island
provided a suburb with easy access to the city while being nestled away in its own quiet corner of the state. Although Queens is
technically on the island, what is actually known as "Long Island" begins where Queens ends at the border of Queens and Nassau
County.
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The majority of the novel takes place somewhere in the vicinity of Long Island, which is an island off the coast of New York. Divided
into the fashionable East Egg and the more common West Egg in the novel, these geographical divisions occur on Long Island today
though with different names. West Egg is known now as the Great Neck, and East Egg is commonly known as Manhasset Neck. As far as
we can tell, the terms East Egg and West Egg were made up by Fitzgerald and completely fictitious. Jutting into the Long Island sound,
the "Eggs" are located on the eastern part of the island.
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NYC/Long Island
In The Great Gatsby, action is divided between the East and West Egg, but Long Island as a whole is divided into East and West Long
Island. (2 counties are Suffolk and Nassau) West Long Island, where the Eggs are located, is a suburban area while East Long Island is
primarily rural.
Although the average summer temperature in Long Island is only 73 degrees, Long Island is known for its miles of ocean beaches. In
the 1920s, prominent members of society began to build mansions and summer homes all over the island. Mansions were particularly
common place in the towns of Sand Point, Port Washington, Glen Cove and Mill Neck, all of which neighbor the East and West Eggs.
Although portrayed as tasteless and gaudy in the novel, those that lived on the West Egg were still generally well-to-do members of the
middle class.
Themes in The Great Gatsby
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Identity
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The American Dream
Repeating the Past
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Is God dead? Cover art – “Celestial Eyes”
Materialism/Excess
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Nothing bad will ever happen to me
Spirituality
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Get back to things they way they used to be
Immorality
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Become other than you are (create a new self)
Broken men
Money=identity
Rumor/reputation
Multiple identities
What is important is related directly to money
Failure
Main Characters
• Narrator: Nick Carraway
– Holds himself to high
esteem, but does envy
Gatsby
• Protagonist: Jay Gatsby
– Rich, majestic
– Unclear how he made
his money (1919
World Series)
– Motivated to earn
money to impress
Daisy (the girl that got
away)
• Nick’s cousin: Daisy
Buchanan
– Material girl
• Antagonist: Tom
Buchanan
– Comes from money
– Yale graduate
Things to look for
1. What does it mean to be GREAT? The title has that word in it.
2. How does Gatsby represent the American Dream? What does
the novel have to say about the condition of the American
dream in the 1920s? In what ways do the themes of dreams,
wealth, and time relate to each other in the novel’s exploration
of the idea of America?
3. Compare and contrast Gatsby and Tom. How are they alike?
How are they different?
4. “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.”
Look at the alliances…both romantic and plutonic. Who likes
whom for what reason?
5. What about the color green? A green light is an important
image. Notice it and interpret it.
6. Look out for imagery that might seem religious.
7. How is this novel the quintessential “Jazz Age” novel?
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