But there are two other American ideas
that reality TV taps into: That everyone
should have a shot. That sometimes
being real is better than being polite.
That no matter where you start out, you
can hit it big, get lucky and reinvent
yourself. In her own way, Jwoww is as
American a character as the nobody Jay
Gatsby heading east and changing his
name. (Time magazine 2/2010)
For Thursday with the quote:
1) Locate it; understand its context
2) Be able to discuss its significance
and meaning – how it connects to
character development or a theme,
conflict, relationship, symbol, etc.
You will be expected to provide one
minute of insight on your quote
Chap 1
Chap 2
Chap 3
Chap 4
Chap 5
Chap 6
Chap 7
Chap 8
Chap 9
end
good B+N book 06
5
1
27
23
43
39
65
61
86
81
103
97
119
113
154
147
171
163
189
180
In your reading…
Reread Chap 1 + 2 by Tuesday and
Note/Highlight:
* the quote you pulled
* Time references
* Nick’s narration or descriptions are
funny (dry humor)
*Nick’s shifts in his relationship with
Gatsby and Tom/Daisy
Read the book slowly, like poetry,
savor and contemplate each sentence
Francis
Scott
Fitzgerald
(~1925)
* September 24, 1896 - born in
St. Paul, Minnesota
* Attended Princeton University
* 1917-1919 - served in army
* 1920 - married Zelda Sayre
* 1940 - died of a heart attack in
Hollywood, CA
Major Novels
This Side of Paradise (1920)
The Beautiful and the Damned
(1922)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Tender is the Night (1934)
The Last Tycoon (1940) – never
finished
Personal Issues
F. Scott – became alcoholic but
never wrote drunk
Income: 1919 = $800
1920 = 18,000
Zelda – had a mental breakdown
in 1930
Possible Labels
- the drunken writer
- the ruined novelist
- the spoiled genius
- the personification of the Jazz
Age
- the sacrificial victim of the
Great Depression
But note he was a big American dreamer
(like Gatsby) in his visions of football
glory at Princeton or war glory as a
soldier
He learned from his father’s business
failure to avoid that fate (like Gatsby and
his father) and sought after his goals with
an unwavering drive (connect to Gatsby’s
drive towards his ideal self or “Platonic
conception of himself” – pg 104)
The Great Gatsby Issues
and Themes
- the use of first person semiinvolved narrator
- the commentary on 1920’s life
- the delusions of fantasy versus
reality
- Gatsby as American creation
- old versus new money (class
divisions)
- love and betrayal
- the use of time and reflections
on the past
- the challenges of the American
dream
1920’s Culture
Prohibition
18th Amendment (1919)
illegal to distribute, sell, or drink
alcohol
created secret “speakeasies” –
night clubs
-World War I (1914-1918)
- 1920s created time of looser
dress styles (flappers) and looser
morals
- Auto Industry boomed with 4.5
million cars produced by 1920s
Background for The Great
Gatsby
- Written in France in 1924-1925
- They lived on Long Island in
1922 summer (see pg 206)
- ZELDA had an assumed affair
with a French aviator, Edouard
Jozan
Ginerva King – first love around 1915,
“rich girls don’t marry poor boys”
- Famously beautiful, socially successful
- Shaped his desire for an enchanting,
careless and essentially superficial
female (all his females have this – the
golden girl, pg 127)
*Potentially Read his short story, Winter
Dreams and compare it to Gatsby.
Fitzgerald’s Dream: A Parallel to Gatsby
“When I was your age I lived with a great dream.
The dream grew and I learned how to speak of it
and make people listen. Then the dream divided
one day when I decided to marry your mother after
all, even though I knew she was spoiled and meant
no good to me. I was sorry immediately I had
married her, but being patient in those days, made
the best of it and got to love her in another way.
You came along and for a long time we
made quite a lot of happiness out of our
lives. But I was a man divided – she
wanted me to work too much for her and
not enough for my dream. She realized too
late that work was dignity, and the only
dignity, and tried to atone for it by working
herself, but it was too late and she broke
and is broken forever.”
- Letter to his daughter, 7/7/1938
“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.” (Fitzgerald, beginning of
short story “The Rich Boy”)
“He thought the rich were a
special glamorous race and when
he found they weren’t it wrecked
him just as much as any other
thing that wrecked him”
- Hemingway on Fitzgerald in
“The Snows of Kilamanjaro”
Fitzgerald’s Experience
“That was always my experience--a poor boy
in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy’s
school; a poor boy in a rich man’s club at
Princeton. . . However, I have never been able
to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has
colored my entire life and works.”
--Excerpt from Fitzgerald’s letter to Anne Ober, the wife of his
literary agent.
Preface:
Fitz in 1922: “I want to write
something new – something
extraordinary and beautiful and
simple + intricately patterned”
(end pg vii)
Fitz in 1920: “An author ought to
write for the youth of his
generation, the critics of the next,
and the schoolmaster of ever
afterward” (pg ix)
Preface:
• The Great Gatsby = “Great American Novel” (?)
– It has become popular to refer to it as such as:
• It it a great work of fiction with defining American
thematic qualities
• James Gatz/Jay Gatsby is the great American character
• Gatsby is the American self-made indeed SELF
INVENTED man
• He believes in “the orgastic future,” he fulfills it, and –
sadly- confuses it with Daisy and is betrayed by it.
• “Great” = Irony
• Gatsby is ostentations, though one must differentiate the
ostentatious Gatsby from the admirable….
x - xi
Preface:
• Gatsby is made convincing by means of narrative POV.
– Gatsby is the hero BUT Nick is the central figure from whom
the reader must rely.
– Nick is a partially involved narrator.
• Is he reliable?
• Serves as a trustworthy reporter, and, reluctantly (??) judge.
• Frame story, but NOT chronological. It is up to the
reader to piece the information together. *There are
chronological issues, though this works with the theme
of time.
xii
Preface:
• Reader must reorder the lies and truths of Gatsby to
make sense:
– Chp III: Nick hears rumors about Gatsby at party
– Chp IV: Gatsby tells Nick a mostly false autobiography during car ride to
NY; Jordan briefly narrates about Gatsby’s courtship of Daisy (1917)
– Chp VI: Nick relates bio of Gatsby’s youth; though impressionistically, not
in Gatsby’s words.
– Chp VII: Gatsby proves he went to Oxford; Tom reveals Gatsby’s
bootlegging activities
– Chp VIII: “It was the night he told me the strange story of his youth with
Dan Cody…”; also recounts Gatsby’s falling in love with Daisy and the
consummation, his war record, Daisy’s unfaithfulness (no source given),
and his return to Louisville after the war.
– Chp IX: Wolfshiem tells Nick of his partnership with Gatsby; Mr. Gatz
shows Gatsby’s boyhood schedule to Nick
xii -xiii
Fitz wanted The Great Gatsby to
be a “consciously artistic
achievement” (195)
The novel’s sales were
disappointing. The first printing
of slightly over 20,000 copies
sold slowly. The second printing
of 3,000 copies were never fully
sold before Fitzgerald’s death 15
years later. (203)
Current:
Connect to
Dr. T.J.
Eckleburg…
To understand the cover art go to:
pg 196-198
and last paragraph on pg 85
Francis Cugat’s Dust Jacket Design
(Scribner)
• Fitzgerald pleads in an August 1924 letter, "For
Christ's sake don't give anyone that jacket you're saving
for me. I've written it into the book."
• "Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl
whose disembodied face floated along the dark
cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl
beside me, tightening my arms” (81).
Text Support
• Gatsby’s Car: “Circus Wagon” (by Tom)
• Gatsby’s Party-goers: “conducted themselves according to
the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks”
• “Coney Island” and “World’s Faire”
• Step right up to see “the Great Gatsby” (some irony in
statement--like carnie)
• Eyes: T.J Eckleberg “blue and gigantic and their retinas are
one yard high.
• They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of
enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent
nose.”
Text Support…
•
•
•
•
“Unlike Gatsby. . . “ End of Ch. 4
“Eckleberg” Begin of Ch 2
Begin thinking about eyes and perception
Wilson: “when he saw us a damp gleam of
home sprang into his light blue eyes.
• Tom: “Arrogant eyes”
• Ash gray men “stir up and impenetrable cloud
which screens their
• Obscure operations from your sight”
Explanatory Notes:
• Begin on pg 207 (the map is on 206)
– Refer to your text…
– ALSO, don’t forget to read Max Perkins (Fitz’s editor) letter to
Fitz on needed revisions pg 199-202
xv
OLD
Cover
Poem?
Paradise to Gatsby: A meta-connection?
=> Thomas Parke D’Invillers: Pen name for F. Scott
Fitzgerald and character in This Side of Paradise that
was poet and friend of Amory
Then Wear the Gold Hat
Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her,
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!”
Naming Conventions?
• Fitzgerald considered several titles for the text:
(Consider if “The Great Gatsby” is the most
effective of them.) pg 207
• Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires
• On the Road to West Egg
• Gold-Hatted Gatsby (pg1)
• The High-Bouncing Lover
• Under the Red, White and Blue
• Trimalchio in West Egg (119)
• Trimalchio
Who is Trimalchio?
•
•
•
•
Character in Petronius’ Satyricon (60 AD)
Chapter titled “Trimalchio’s Feast”
Acquires great wealth and taken to extreme excess
Known for throwing excessive dinner parties and
serving lavish delicacies.
• At parties, inebriated guests talk crudely about money
and possessions
• T.S. Eliot begins The Waste Land with an epigraph by
Trimalchio from the Satyricon.
Trimalchio
“I’ve shifted things around a good deal to make people wonder.”
--Gatsby to Nick, Trimalchio, Ch. VIII
“It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest
that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday
night--and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as
Trimalchio was over” (113).
Trimalchio
“I’ve shifted things around a good deal to make people wonder.”
--Gatsby to Nick, Trimalchio, Ch. VIII
“It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest
that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday
night--and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as
Trimalchio was over” (113).
East Egg/ West Egg [8.12/10/6]
• The novel is set on Long Island (New York)
• West Egg can be considered as a
fictionalized Great Neck, where Fitzgerald
lived.
• East Egg is Sands Point, the tip of the Port
Washington peninsula (just across
Manhasset Bay).
Wilson’s Garage &
The Ash Heaps [27.4]
• The trip to New York City has them pass
through Flushing (in the borough of
Queens) which is the basis of the setting for
Wilson’s Garage.
• The Valley of Ashes was originally a dump
in Corona.
El Greco’s “View of Toledo”
• Tone & Mood
• Colors
• Subject Matter
• Style
El Greco’s Style
(1541-1614)
Manerism:
• Style that avoided realistic portrayals of the
physical world in favor of a more “subjective
view.”
• Point of view that exists in the mind rather than
in nature.
• Space was compressed, colors were bizarre, and
figures became elongated and were intertwined
in complex poses.
THE END
Nick Carraway
•Nick is the glue linking the assembly
of characters, allowing him to be the
perfect observer narrator – he is also
a REAL human being)
~ part of both worlds, but doesn’t
belong to either~ Consider his
interactions with both East and West Egg
•Very honest and harmless
(unwilling to act on the flaws he
sees in the other characters)
•He thinks of himself as higher
than everyone else (irony – says he
doesn’t judge people, but judges
them the entire book)
•Is a reliable narrator (reader comes
to trust him and share his values)
•His realism keeps the reader from
over-romanticizing the lives of the
wealthy
•Turns 30 - (a symbolic shift he
recognizes from youthful idealism
of 20s to sad realism of life and
moral responsibility in his 30s)
•By the end admires the essence
of Gatsby’s quest for Daisy
Jay Gatsby
•Does not develop over novel (static)
•symbol for the whole of the American
experience (adopts materialism to
achieve his goals, only leads to
corruption; everything becomes empty)
•heroic figure (?) ~ Consider the 5 characteristics
of a tragic hero/character…
•Creates own identity from his
“Platonic conception of himself”
(trying to create the ideal vision
of man in himself) ~ Consider what a
platonic ideal is…
•His demise is ironic in that he
dies at the hands of another very
loyal character (Wilson)
•“Can’t repeat the past – why of
course you can.” ~Time as a MAJOR
theme in the text~
•Last paragraph of book – he is the
one trying to beat back into the
past [that was his whole point in
desiring Daisy; that he could
reestablish the past]
Tom Buchanan
(Fitzgerald thought he was the “best” character he
ever created)
•Aggressive, argumentative =
Power (physical, sexual, social)
[represents the brutality and moral
carelessness of established rich]
The American Dream (for Myrtle
• Contrasts Gatsby’s idealism and
Nick’s personal integrity
•The antagonist (?); highly immoral
an “old sport” – a former athlete
for Yale; went to college with Nick
• Total inheritance of wealth, but is in
the bond business
• Wife = Daisy
•Mistress = Myrtle Wilson
• Hypocrite:
Criticizes others for disrespecting
the sanctity of marriage
Criticizes Gatsby as bootlegger,
but takes advantage of that
constantly
Daisy Buchanan
• Gatsby’s ideal vision of woman
• Beautiful, enchanting, hollow (voice
gives the illusion of sincerity ~see chp 1,
and the quote that her “voice was full of money.”)
• Graceful, romantic, but childishly
selfish and destructive
• Light, thin, and immaterial (in contrast
to Myrtle who is solid and fleshy)
•Is cynical, unfaithful, selfish (not
worthy of Gatsby’s devotion – irony)
•Has charming, meaningless gestures
(this is the nature of upper class)
•Is the wealthy “golden girl” (connect
to Zelda and Ginierva)
•Nick’s second cousin
• Desire for daughter to be
“a beautiful young fool” which is “the best
thing a girl can be in this world”
• Cracks under the pressure (see Plaza hotel
scene)
•FIRST WORDS – “I’m p-p-paralyzed…”
An excuse for her not to get up and
move…
 Consider that like Zelda, the affair
with the other man (Edouard/Gatsby),
is stopped when the husband steps in.
Jordan Baker
• Name = combination of 2 different
cars
• Professional golfer (formerly a
man’s profession)
• An image of the “NEW WOMAN”
of the 1920s generation
• Cool even cold character who enters into
a world once reserved for men (and plays
by their rules; win at all costs)
• Identified with Daisy in her appearance
and personal irresponsibility
•*A bad driver* (proves the concept that
the rich think that everyone should get our
of their way; they have a right to drive bad
because it won’t be their fault)
COMMENTS ON THE DIAGRAM
• The AUTHOR creates a fictional world with a location,
characters and a sequence of events. This is THE
FABULA. The fabula is a result of moral, political,
intellectual, psychological, and aesthetic concerns of the
author. Many of these concerns are conscious, but there
may also be unconscious concerns that "sneak" into the
narrative. The author also creates a NARRATOR to
report the events, characters and setting to the reader.
This is the voice in which the author chooses to speak.
Sometimes it may be almost neutral and sometimes it
may express moral and aesthetic judgments. But it is a
creation of the author, and it is part of the narrative sometimes as an external "voice" and sometimes as
an internal voice or the voice of a character in the
fictional world itself..
More COMMENTS ON THE
DIAGRAM
• The sequence of events as reported by the narrator is THE
STORY. It is only the story as reported by the narrator that is
available to the reader, and the narrator may choose to report
the events out of the order that they occur in the fabula. (The
term "flashback" describes a case of the narrator reporting past
events late in the story.) The reader receives the story through
THE TEXT and that is where the narrator makes his moral and
aesthetic judgments, if he chooses to make them at all.
• Note that the arrows connected to the author are one way. THE
READER can only work "backwards" along the arrows to infer
the concerns of the author and to infer from the story and the text
the order of events in the fabula and the characters.
• Note that the author and the reader are transcendental (outside)to
the text while the narrator and the fictional world are immanent
(within or present) to the text