What is MODERN? Romanticism Modernism

Modernism Art or writing that reflects a loss of hope after World War I Believes individuals are threatened and isolated by society and mass culture (culture spread via the media)

Modernism Modern life seemed radically different from traditional life -- more scientific, faster, more technological, and more mechanized. Modernism embraced these changes. In 1860 many people in the United States lived their entire lives without ever encountering a powered machine. By the 1940’s machines had made it possible to communicate, or travel, or destroy with much greater speed and efficiency than anyone had ever dreamed in 1860.

Themes of Modernism Stream of Consciousness - thoughts and feelings that pass through the mind Imagery - appeals to the 5 senses Destruction and Chaos - they signal a collapse of Western civilization's classical tradition. Modernist novels destroy conventions by reversing traditional norms. Social Evils – anything harmful or detrimental to society

the Modern Novel Modernist writers attempted to throw out Realism. Introduced a variety of literary tactics and devices - fragmented, non-chronological, poetic forms. Vision and viewpoint became an essential aspect of the modernist novel. The way the story was told became as important as the story itself. (Stream of Consciousness) Technological innovation in the world of factories and machines inspired new attentiveness to technique in the arts.

Introduction to the Time Period Understanding the times helps to understand the novel World War I The Roaring 20s The Jazz Age The New Woman Prohibition Gambling The Automobile

World War I World War I ended in Disillusioned because of the war, the generation that fought and survived has come to be called “the lost generation.”

The Roaring Twenties America seemed to throw itself recklessly into a decade of eccentric behavior and materialism, a decade that has come to be called the Roaring Twenties.

The Jazz Age The era is also known as the Jazz Age, when the music called jazz, promoted by such recent inventions as the phonograph and the radio, swept up from New Orleans to capture the national imagination. Improvised and wild, jazz broke the rules of music, just as the Jazz Age thumbed its nose at the rules of the past.

The New Woman Among the rules broken were the age-old conventions guiding the behavior of women. The new woman demanded the right to vote and to work outside the home. Symbolically, she cut her hair into a boyish “bob” and bared her calves in the short skirts of the fashionable twenties “flapper.”

Prohibition Another rule often broken was the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, or Prohibition, which banned the public sale of alcoholic beverages from 1919 until its appeal in Speak-easies, nightclubs, and taverns that sold liquor were often raided, and gangsters made illegal fortunes as bootleggers, smuggling alcohol into America from abroad.

Gambling Another gangland activity was illegal 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 Automobile The Jazz Age was also an era of reckless spending and consumption, and the most conspicuous status symbol of the time was a flashy new automobile. Advertising was becoming the major industry that it is today, and soon advertisers took advantage of new roadways by setting up huge billboards at their sides. Both the automobile and a bizarre billboard play important roles in The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald Published: 1925 Point of View: 1 st person limited

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Born September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minn. Scott was a distant relative of Francis Scott Key, the composer of our national anthem. Enrolled in Princeton in Withdrew from school in 1917 to enter Officers Training school in the army He never made it to Europe to fight in the war, nor did he graduate from college. Instead, he fell in love…

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Fell in love with Zelda Sayre at age 18. She broke off their engagement shortly thereafter, unwilling to live on his small salary. Fitzgerald was made famous by his This Side of Paradise. In 1919 his earnings totaled $879; the following year, following the publication of This Side of Paradise, an instant success, his earnings increased to $18,000. Zelda then married him. (In Gatsby, Jay Gatsby feels he needs wealth in order to win Daisy, likewise with Fitzgerald and Zelda.)

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald ◦ They had a “rich life of endless parties.” The two had a very volatile relationship; both alcohol and domestic rows played a large part in their marriage. ◦ Fitzgerald once said, “I don’t know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels.” ◦ Zelda decided to become a professional ballet dancer, but her intense exercise lead to her decline in health (both mentally and physically). ◦ She spent the rest of her life in sanitariums. She died in a mental hospital that caught on fire.

Newspaper Reviews Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby; it was received with mixed reviews. The Baltimore Evening Sun called the plot “no more than a glorified anecdote” and the characters “mere marionettes.” The New York Times called the book “neither profound nor durable.” The London Times saw it as “undoubtedly a work of great promise” but criticized its “unpleasant” characters.

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Fitzgerald’s reputation reached its lowest point during the Depression, when he was viewed as a Jazz Age writer whose time has come and gone. The Great Gatsby went out of print in When Fitzgerald died a year later, Time magazine didn’t even mention The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure.

Character Review ◦ Jay Gatsby: A racketeer and a romantic idealist; he devotes his life to amassing the wealth he thinks will win Daisy and thereby make his dream come true. ◦ Nick Carraway: Narrator of the book. He is “inclined to reserve all judgments,” and is “one of the few honest people [he has] ever known.” Tells the story of Gatsby. Nick is NOT purely an observer, for he participates in the action, yet he is not the central figure. This allows him not only to tell the story, but also to interpret and make comments on the characters, themes, and actions. (???Represents the outsider that Fitzgerald himself feels to be??)

Character Review ◦ Daisy Buchanan: Nick’s distant cousin and Tom’s wife. She is the “golden girl” of Gatsby’s dream. ◦ Tom Buchanan: Daisy’s husband. He represents the brutality and moral carelessness of the established rich. ◦ Jordan Baker: An attractive young golfer who becomes involved with the narrator. She is a compulsive liar.

Character Review ◦ Myrtle Wilson: Tom’s lover; a woman that is pretentious and vulgar ◦ George Wilson: Myrtle’s husband; the owner of a shabby garage in the valley of the ashes. ◦ Meyer Wolfsheim: Jewish gambler and blackmailer, who is Gatsby’s business associate. ◦ Catherine: Myrtle’s heavily made up sister; “a slender, worldly girl of about thirty.” ◦ Henry C. Gatz: Jay Gatsby’s father. A solemn, helpless old man who takes pride in his son’s prosperity.

The American Dream Questions to Ask… Has the American dream been corrupted by the desire for materialism? Does Gatsby become corrupt on his quest for the American dream? The American Dream: the idea that in America one might hope to satisfy every material desire and thereby achieve happiness. Fitzgerald believed the American Dream to be deceptive: proposing the satisfaction of all desire as an attainable goal, and equating desire with material acquisitions only leads to dissatisfaction