“April is the cruelest month” -from “The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot The Jazz Age, The Lost Generation, and The Great Gatsby

The Jazz Age: ● a period of U.S. history in the 1920s noted for general prosperity, financial speculation, Prohibition, the emergence of organized crime, profound social, cultural, and literary change, and the influence of jazz ● a period of carefree hedonism, wealth, freedom, and youthful exuberance, reflected in the novels of writers such as F. Scott FitzgeraldcarefreehedonismyouthfulexuberanceScottFitzgerald ● F. Scott Fitzgerald was the first to refer to this period of American history as “The Jazz Age” The 1920s The Lost Generation: ● The phrase "Lost Generation," as coined by Gertrude Stein, refers specifically to ex-patriot writers who left the United States to take part in the literary culture of cities such as Paris and London during the 1920s. ● The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation from a U.S. that seemed to its members to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. ● This group, including Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot, was skeptical about out-moded traditional values and forms of literary and artistic work, but optimistic about the potential of new forms. Its members were prolific writers and many produced classics.

● Advancements in technology and the devastation of WWI caused a shift in cultural, political, and artistic sensibilities. ● The Jazz Age generation began to question and reject the formal values of the Victorian Era. Literary Modernism emerged as a result of this shift in values. ● In order to create stories that reflected the changes in the world around them, writers began to experiment with time, perspective, point of view, and form. These experimentations resulted in ○ fragmented plots without clear beginnings, middles, and ends; confusing stories that jumped around. ○ stream of consciousness and angsty confessionals which replaced the distant and formal third person narrators of past literary movements ● Many Lost Generation writers such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, E.E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway are associated with this movement. Modernism

Ernest Hemingway is credited with pioneering The Iceberg Theory (also known as the Omission Theory) which was one of the most significant changes in writing style during the modernist movement. The Iceberg Theory grew from Hemingway’s distinctive writing style which is characterized by short, simple, declarative sentences. This sentence structure conveys a very stark and surface account of the characters, settings, and events in his stories. Because of his conservative use of words and details, one must look for the meaning that lies underneath the seemingly shallow details presented by the dialogue and narration in order to fully analyze one of Hemingway’s stories. The Iceberg Theory

In other words, just like only 10% of an iceberg's mass is above the surface of the water, only 10% of the details and messages in Hemingway’s stories are expressed through narration and dialogue. The other 90% is implied. Therefore, when reading a story written using Iceberg Theory, it is important to pay attention to not only what is said, but what is not said as well. "If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing." -Ernest Hemingway

● What is being spoken about that isn’t ever said out loud? ● What clues lead you to infer what isn’t said out loud? ● What motifs are present in the short story? ● What can you infer about the “Lost Generation” from the text? Like Hills for White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

The Fitzgeralds: The King and Queen of the Jazz Age F. Scott Fitzgerald ● From Minnesota, mid-west ● Privately educated and then attended Princeton, but failed out ● Enlisted in the army during World War I, but the war ended before he was deployed ● His alcoholism affected both his relationships and his ability to write Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald ● Rich, southern belle from Alabama ● Only agreed to marry Fitzgerald after he had achieved literary success ● Artist, writer, and popular-culture icon ● Struggled with mental illness ● The inspiration for many of the characters in Fitzgerald’s stories ● The Fitzgeralds spent time abroad, mainly in Paris, France where they spent time with artists and writers of the Lost Generation. ● They lived a high, empty, legendary life which embraced the freedoms and excesses of the 1920s Jazz Age. ● They also had a very public and tumultuous relationship.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway ● Fitzgerald and Hemingway met in 1924 and were close friends until Fitzgerald’s alcoholism drove them apart. ● Fitzgerald did a lot to help start Hemingway’s career, including editing Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, which is widely considered one of the best debut novels ever written. ● Fitzgerald idolized Hemingway and his talent and was thus heavily influenced by him. ● Elements of the Modernist literary movement and the Iceberg Theory can be seen in The Great Gatsby.

Important Elements of Naturalism: ● Aimed to diagnostically scrutinize the ills of society with a scientific and detached tone ● Sought to depict believable everyday reality by excluding the emotional and fanciful embellishment typical of the Romantic movement ● Depicts a surface reality of human interaction ● Suggested that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character Along with elements of Modernist writing, The Great Gatsby also contains characteristics of the previous literary movement, naturalism. John Steinbeck was a naturalist writer and these characteristics are easily seen in Of Mice and Men.

Modernist Elements Found in The Great Gatsby: ● reflects the changes in the cultural, political, and artistic sensibilities and values that occurred in the years before, during, and after World War I ● fragmented plot without clear beginning, middle, and end; plot jumps around ● stream of consciousness and angsty confessional instead of the distant and formal third person narrators of past literary movements

Naturalist Elements Parodied in The Great Gatsby: The Great Gatsby is a criticism of the Jazz Age, and the narrator, Nick Carroway, believes that he is speaking with a detached and unbiased tone that realistically depicts the actions and events of the story he is telling. Naturalist Elements Found in The Great Gatsby: The Great Gatsby supports the belief that that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character.

The Epigraph of The Great Gatsby ● a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter ● intended to suggest its theme Epigraph:

“Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce high for her too, Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!” -Thomas Parke D’Invillers Below is the epigraph to The Great Gatsby: 1. What does the quote mean? 2. What does the quote tell us about the story? What should we expect to read about based on this epigraph?