• The American Dream is the idea held by many in the United States of America
that through hard work, courage, and determination one can achieve financial
and personal success. These were values held by many early European
settlers, and have been passed down to subsequent generations.
• What the American dream has become is a question under constant
discussion, and some believe that it has led to an emphasis on material
wealth as a measure of success and/or happiness.
• The American dream is a concept for all Americans despite racial, religious,
and socio-economic diversity. This dream also serves to connect Americans to
the nation’s historical past as well as to the generations of the future.
• The decade of the twenties is often referred to as
the “ Jazz Age’. However, the term has much as
much to do with the jazzy atmosphere of the
time as with the music!
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106,521,537
people in theprosperity
United States
Financial
2,132,000 unemployed, Unemployment 5.2%
Life expectancy: Male 53.6, Female 54.6
343.000 in military (down from 1,172,601 in 1919)
Average annual earnings $1236; Teacher's salary $970
Dow Jones High 100 Low 67
Illiteracy rate reached a new low of 6% of the population.
Gangland crime included murder, swindles, racketeering
It took 13 days to reach California from New York There
were 387,000 miles of paved road.
Financial
prosperity
• Boom in consumer goods (cars, radios, phones,
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refrigerators, etc.)
People were encouraged through advertising to buy these
goods, and could now afford to
Mass production methods made products more
affordable
A car in 1908 cost $850 & in 1925 cost $290
Because of assembly lines, one Model T car was produced
every 10 seconds
Money was available to more people
Jazzy Sounds
• Prohibition brought many
jazz musicians north from
New Orleans to Chicago
and New York
• Joe “King” Oliver” was one
of the best
• Jazz became the
soundtrack of rebellion for
a younger generation
Jazzy Sounds
• George Gershwin wrote
both classical and
popular music
• He was the first
composer to combine
jazz and classical music
with Rhapsody in Blue
in1924
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.
• No more Victorian Values
• Flappers
• Collegiate Students
• Independent women
• Gaiety
• Increasing wealth
• Social mobility
• Alcohol consumption
EveningDress—1920s
The Charleston dress—embroidered
with glass beads
“The Flapper”
by Dorothy Parker
The playful flapper here we see,
The fairest of the fair.
She’s not what Grandma used to be,-You might say, au contraire.
Her girlish ways may make a stir,
Her manners cause a scene
But there is no more harm in her
Than in a submarine.
She nightly knocks for many a goal
The usual dancing men.
Her speed is great, but her control
Is something else again
All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.
Her golden rule is plain enough-Just get them young and treat them rough
• “Speakeasies”—secret, illegal bars
Entertainment
• Vaudeville acts—singers,
jazz artists, and dancers
performed at music halls
• Number of radio stations grew
• “Age of the Cinema”
Black and white silent films
Charlie Chaplin—very famous actor from 1920’s
By the end of the 1920s, sound and color were
added on a small scale
Gambling
• Perhaps the worst scandal involving gambling was the
so-called Black Sox Scandal of 1919, in which eight
members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted for
accepting bribes to throw baseball’s World Series.
The Modernist Era
• Rejection of Romanticism and the advent of moral uncertainty
– the catastrophe of World War I
– (the wasteland and valley of ashes)
• Embracing the new i.e. mechanization and industrialization
– (Gatsby’s car)
– new (replaceable) fashions
– mass entertainment
• Using new means of Representation
– the development of cinema,
– the mass media and advertising
Fitzgerald and Modernism
• Modernists mistrusted the possibility of absolute
truth and idealism.
In modernist literature “loose ends” were
embraced rather resolved clearly. What does this
suggest about the truth?
Point of View
• Nick Carraway narrates the book both in first and
third person
• He presents only what he himself observes
• Nick alternates sections where he presents
events objectively, as they appeared to him at
the time, with sections where he gives his own
interpretations of the story’s meaning and of the
motivations of the other characters
“THE GILDED AGE” 1865-1901
INDUSTRIALISTS AND FINANCIERS SUCH AS CORNELIUS
VANDERBILT, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, ANDREW CARNEGIE,
HENRY FLAGLER, AND J.P. MORGAN. THEIR CRITICS CALLED
THEM "ROBBER BARONS", REFERRING TO THEIR USE OF
OVERPOWERING AND SOMETIMES UNETHICAL FINANCIAL
MANIPULATIONS
ROARING 1920’S
“THE JAZZ AGE”
3. WEST EGG
IS LIKE GATSBY, FULL OF GARISH
EXTRAVAGANCE; SYMBOLIZING THE NEW RICH
SPRINGING UP OUTSIDE THE ESTABLISHED
ARISTOCRACY OF THE '20S.
4. EAST EGG
IS LIKE THE BUCHANANS, WEALTHY,
POSSESSING HIGH SOCIAL STATUS, AND POWERFUL,
SYMBOLIZING THE OLD UPPER CLASS THAT CONTINUED TO
DOMINATE THE AMERICAN SOCIAL LANDSCAPE
5. VALLEY OF ASHES
IS LIKE GEORGE WILSON,
DESOLATE, DESPERATE AND UTTERLY WITHOUT HOPE, SYMBOLIZING
THE MORAL DECAY HIDDEN BY THE GLITTERING SURFACE OF UPPERCLASS SOCIETY. GROTESQUE SYMBOL – REPRESENTS THE
CONSEQUENCES OF UNBRIDLED GREED, MATERIALISM,
INDUSTRIALIZATION
• 6. NEW YORK CITY
IS SIMPLY CHAOS, AN ABUNDANT
SWELL OF VARIETY AND LIFE, MOST PERFECTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THAT
"QUALITY OF DISTORTION" NICK PERCEIVES IN THE EAST. New York –
acts as a magnet to both social classes, those possessing
established wealth and those eagerly in pursuit of it
• East vs. West
• Reality vs. Illusion
• Haves vs. Have-nots
• Urban vs. Rural
• Knowledge vs. Ignorance
• Apathy vs. Action
1. JAY GATSBY (JAMES GATZ): BORN JAMES GATZ IN
NORTH DAKOTA, FROM AN EARLY AGE HE IS DEDICATED TO MOVING UP
IN SOCIETY AND BECOMING WEALTHY AND RESPECTABLE. HE CHANGES
HIS NAME TO JAY GATSBY AFTER MEETING DAN CODY, A WEALTHY OLDER
MAN WHO MENTORS HIM. BEFORE GOING TO EUROPE FOR THE GREAT
WAR, GATSBY MEETS DAISY FAY, WITH WHOM HE BECOMES
INFATUATED, FOR SHE REPRESENTS THE GENTEEL SOCIETY HE WISHES TO
JOIN. AFTER THE WAR, GATSBY BUILDS HIS FORTUNE PARTIALLY
THROUGH ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES, YET DEDICATES HIS LIFE TO ATTAINING
DAISY. HIS DEVOTION TO HER IS HIS MAJOR FLAW: HE IS ATTENTIVE TO
HER AT THE EXPENSE OF ANY CONCERN FOR OTHERS
2. NICK CARRAWAY:
THE NARRATOR OF THE STORY,
WHO COMES FROM A WELL-TO-DO MID-WESTERN FAMILY AND
COMES TO NEW YORK TO ENTER THE BOND BUSINESS, AND
BECOMES INVOLVED WITH THE AFFAIR BETWEEN GATSBY AND THE
BUCHANANS. ALTHOUGH SEEMINGLY RESPONSIBLE, HONEST AND
FAIR, NICK CARRAWAY, NEVERTHELESS, SHARES SOME OF THE
LESS DESIRABLE TRAITS OF HIS ACQUAINTANCES. HE CAN BE
EQUALLY CARELESS WITH OTHERS' EMOTIONS. YET,AMONG THE
CHARACTERS HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO REALIZES THE GREATNESS
OF GATSBY COMPARED TO HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
3. TOM BUCHANAN: A BRUTAL, HULKING MAN, AND IS A
FORMER YALE FOOTBALL PLAYER WHO, LIKE NICK AND DAISY, COMES
FROM AN ELITE MID-WESTERN FAMILY. DESPITE HIS PHYSICAL
STATURE AND HIS HIGH STATUS, TOM IS AN INSECURE AND PARANOID
MAN, PERPETUALLY IS CONCERNED WITH WHAT HE SEES AS THE
DOWNFALL OF SOCIETY AND THE LOSS OF HIS OWN HIGH STATUS. HE IS
A THOROUGH HYPOCRITE, CONDEMNING HIS WIFE AND GATSBY FOR
THEIR AFFAIR WHILE HAVING NO QUALMS ABOUT HIS OWN INFIDELITY.
4. DAISY FAY BUCHANAN: BORN DAISY FAY, SHE IS
A COUSIN OF NICK. DURING HER YOUTH, SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH JAY
GATSBY, BUT BROKE OFF HER ATTACHMENT WITH HIM DURING THE
GREAT WAR BECAUSE HE WAS POOR. SHE SUBSEQUENTLY BECAME
THE SYMBOL OF EVERYTHING GATSBY DESIRES; YET, SHE IS LITTLE
MORE THAN A SYMBOL. DAISY IS INSUBSTANTIAL AND VAPID, A
CARELESS WOMAN WHO USES HER FRAIL DEMEANOR AS AN EXCUSE
FOR IMMATURITY.
5. JORDAN BAKER: A LONGTIME FRIEND OF DAISY,
JORDAN BAKER IS A PROFESSIONAL GOLFER WHOSE REPUTATION HAS
BEEN TARNISHED BY ACCUSATIONS OF CHEATING. HER CYNICAL, ICY
DEMEANOR DRAWS THE ATTENTION OF NICK CARRAWAY, WHO
BECOMES MOMENTARILY INFATUATED WITH HER. YET, SHE REJECTS
HIM WHEN SHE BELIEVES THAT HE IS AS CORRUPT AND DECADENT AS
SHE IS.
Jordan Baker
6.MYRTLE WILSON: AN EARTHY, VITAL AND VOLUPTUOUS
WOMAN, MYRTLE IS THE WIFE OF GEORGE WILSON, A MECHANIC
WHOM SHE DOES NOT LOVE. SHE HAS BEEN HAVING A LONG-TERM
AFFAIR WITH TOM BUCHANAN, AND IS INCREDIBLY JEALOUS OF DAISY
7.GEORGE B. WILSON: THE HUSBAND OF MYRTLE WILSON,
HE IS A GLUM, IMPOVERISHED MAN CONTENT IN HIS EXISTENCE UNTIL
HE SUSPECTS THAT HIS WIFE IS HAVING AN AFFAIR.
8. MEYER WOLFSHEIM: A NOTORIOUS UNDERWORLD
FIGURE INVOLVED IN ORGANIZED CRIME.
BUSINESS ASSOCIATE OF GATSBY
WOLFSHEIM IS A
9. CATHERINE: THE SISTER OF MYRTLE WILSON WHO
LIVES IN NEW YORK CITY.
1. THE GREEN
LIGHT TO GATSBY IT
BECOMES THE EMBODIMENT
OF HIS DREAM FOR THE
FUTURE, AND IT BECKONS TO
HIM IN THE NIGHT LIKE A
VISION OF EVERYTHING HE
HAS EVER WANTED.
2. THE
EYES OF
DR. T.J. ECKLEBURG
GEORGE WILSON
DECIDES THEY ARE THE EYES OF GOD, REPRESENTING A MORAL IMPERATIVE
ON WHICH HE MUST ACT. THEY ARE SIMPLY AN UNSETTLING, UNEXPLAINED
IMAGE, AS THEY STARE DOWN ON THE VALLEY OF ASHES. THEY TEND TO MAKE
OBSERVERS FEEL AS THOUGH THEY ARE THE ONES BEING SCRUTINIZED. THEY
SEEM TO STARE DOWN AT THE WORLD WITHOUT THE NEED FOR MEANING THAT
DRIVES THE HUMAN CHARACTERS OF THE NOVEL
• 3. CLOCKES HIGHLIGHT
THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME IN
THE NOVEL. GATSBY
BELIEVES HE CAN TURN
BACK TIME WITH MONEY
AND RE-CREATE HIMSELF.
Motifs
• 4. Geography—places and settings epitomize aspects of
the 1920s American society
• 5. Weather—the weather in the novel matches the
emotional and narrative tone of the story; Rain (melancholy), sun
(love reawakens), hottest day (confrontation)
• 6. Cars
• Industrialization, status symbol, carelessness,
recklessness
• Cars provided transportation, but also a symbol of
modernity, wealth, social status, and social mobility.
They allow for self expression, but can also conceal
identities.
• blue: dreams
grey: industrialization, dreary, bleak, lifeless
death, lifelessness (people &land)
• green: hope, new life
• lavender: indulgence
• pink: dream colliding with reality (red)
Red: brutal reality beneath dream; abuse,
violence, destruction
wealth
• white: For Gatsby, innocence; For others,
implies corruption under the surface
• yellow: imitation of gold
• corruption of the American dream
• Gatsby appears to be the embodiment of this dream – he has risen from being a poor
farm boy with no prospects, to being rich, having a big house, servants, and a large
social circle attending his numerous functions. He has achieved all this in only a few
short years, having returned from the war penniless.
• Gatsby is never truly one of the elite – his dream is just a façade.
• Fitzgerald explores much more than the failure of the American dream – he is more
deeply concerned with its total corruption. Gatsby has not achieved his wealth through
honest hard work, but through bootlegging and crime. His money is not simply ‘new’
money – it is dirty money, earned through dishonesty and crime. His wealthy lifestyle is
little more than a façade, as is the whole person Jay Gatsby.
• The society in which the novel takes place is one of moral decadence. Whether their
money is inherited or earned, its inhabitant are morally decadent, living life in quest of
cheap thrills and with no seeming moral purpose to their lives. Any person who attempts
to move up through the social classes becomes corrupt in the process.
• Sight and Insight
(Many images of blindness/No one seems to see
what is really going on)
• The meaning of the past
(holds something for Gatsby and Nick; a simpler,
nobler time; when people believed in the importance of
the family and church)
s
• discrepancy between Gatsby's dream
vision and reality
• the cultural rift between East and West
– clash between new and old money as symbolized in
the geography of the novel
•East Egg represents the established aristocracy
•West Egg consists of the self-made rich
•Gatsby’s fortune relates to that of organized crime and
bootlegging
• The Hollowness of the Upper Class
• The Education of a Young Man
– The Great Gatsby, a story of Nick’s initiation into life
– Trip East gives him the education he needs to grow
up
– He hits 30, he realizes his youth is over, and he
needs to reevaluate his choices
– Nick, writes The Great Gatsby to show what he
learned
• Is The Great Gatsby a period piece, or does the
novel step outside its time and address universal
themes?
1. FITZGERALD CONCLUDES THE NOVEL WITH A FINAL NOTE ON
GATSBY'S BELIEFS. IT IS THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF HIS
CHARACTER HIS OPTIMISTIC BELIEF IN ACHIEVEMENT AND
THE ABILITY TO ATTAIN ONE'S DREAMS THAT DEFINES
GATSBY, IN CONTRAST TO THE COMPROMISING CYNICISM
OF HIS PEERS.
YET THE FINAL SYMBOL CONTRADICTS AND DEFLATES THE
GRAND OPTIMISM THAT GATSBY HELD. FITZGERALD ENDS
THE BOOK WITH THE SENTENCE "SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS
AGAINST THE CURRENT, BORNE CEASELESSLY INTO THE
PAST," WHICH CONTRADICTS GATSBY'S FERVENT BELIEF
THAT ONE CAN ESCAPE HIS ORIGINS AND REWRITE HIS
PAST. WHAT IS THE LITERARY TECHNIQUE OF THE QUOTE?
1.FLAPPER - A stylish, brash young woman with short
skirts and shorter
2. FLAT TIRE - a dull, boring person
3. HOOFER - Dancer
4. SWANKY - Ritzy
5. TALKIE - A movie with sound
6. WHOOPEE - Boisterous; convivial fun
7. CAT'S MEOW - Something splendid or stylish
8. HEEBIE-JEEBIES - The jitters.
9. HOTSY-TOTSY - Pleasing
10. KISSER - Mouth
11. RITZY - Elegant
12. SHEBA - A woman with sex appeal
13. SHEIK - A man with sex appeal.
Jazzy Talk -Twenties Slang
• 14. ALL WET - wrong
• 15. Bee’s Knees - a
superb person
• 16. Big Cheese -an
important person
• 17. Bump Off - to
murder
• 18. Dumb Dora - a
stupid girl
• 19. Gam - a girls leg
• 20. Hooch - bootleg
liquor
• 21. Torpedo - a hired
gunman
A FEW NEW WORDS OF THE 1920'S –
(A)MOTEL, (B) ROBOT, (C) FAN-MAIL, AND
(D)TEENAGE
• “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne
back ceaselessly into the past.” –the last line of
the novel
Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington
Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he
walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the
bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.