The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald an introduction Mr. Hughes English 3

F. Scott Fitzgerald Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald September 24, 1896 He attended Princeton University. 1917 joined the army. Met his wife Zelda. Published The Great Gatsby at 23 in 1925. Regarded as the speaker of the Jazz Age. He was a heavy drinker. His wife suffered from schizophrenia Died in 1940.

World War 1 World War 1 ended in 1918 Disillusioned because of the war, the generation that fought and survived became “The Lost Generation” After the war, however, the economy BOOMED!

The Roaring 20’s While the sense of loss was readily apparent among ex-patriot American artists who remained in Europe after the war, back home the disillusionment took a less obvious form. America seemed to throw itself headlong into a decade of madcap behavior and materialism, a decade that has come to be called the Roaring Twenties. It was a time of pleasure, social change, and excess: alcohol, frivolous sex, and social activity.

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.

What defines your “Age” Quickly, on a sheet of loose leaf paper, write down three things that are iconic of your age. Things that people looking back will say, “This defined the 2010s!”

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 repeal in 1933. Speak-easies, nightclubs, and taverns that sold liquor were often raided, and gangsters made illegal fortunes as bootleggers, smuggling alcohol into America from abroad.

Where all da booze at? If alcohol was illegal but still freely flowing, where was it all coming from? The answer is simple: Organized Crime. Al Capone and other famous gangsters filled the demand. It was profitable too. Capone made 60 million dollars in a single year (and this is pre-inflation values. In 2016, this is $750,873,015 and 87 Cents).

Fashion The end of the war allowed fashion to spread to the other classes. Women’s fashion began to look more liberated. Boyish figures and short hair was all the rage.

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.”

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.

Innovation?! What is the single most influential “new” piece of technology you use today? What direction do you think it is going?

What is the American Dream? It describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Spiritual and Material Movement Materialism achieved too quickly. Thus, lacking spiritual life/purpose. Gatsby is a character that represents this DREAM.

Generational abuse and loss What is something your generation just has too much of…to the point that it is harmful? What is something your generation has lost? What kind of thought, conduct, belief, or behavior has simply fallen away and how does that affect your generation?

How is this developed in the novel? Through the 6 central characters‘ actions Through certain dominant images and symbols Through diction.

Failure of The American Dream Poverty Discrimination Exploitation Hypocrisy Corruption suppression

Critical Review of the Novel

The 1920’s While fellow writers praised Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, critics offered less favorable reviews.

Newspaper 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.

The 1930’s 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 1939. When Fitzgerald died a year later, Time magazine didn’t even mention The Great Gatsby.

The 1940’s Interest in Fitzgerald was revived with the posthumous book, The Last Tycoon. A literary critic was the first to point out that Gatsby, despite its Jazz Age setting, focused on timeless, universal concerns.

The 1950’s Fitzgerald’s reputation soared with a new biography entitled The Far Side of Paradise. The London Times affirmed that Gatsby is “one of the best-if not the best-American novels of the past fifty years.”

It’s Reputation Today… The Great Gatsby’s place as a major novel is now assured. Most high schools teach this novel

It’s time for you to decide Old Sport but first let’s learn 26 cool phrases from the 20’s

“Ankle.” to walk

“Boozehound” - a drunkard

A wallflower or shy girl “Canceled Stamp” A wallflower or shy girl

“Drugstore Cowboy” A well-dressed man who hangs out in public areas and tries to pick up women

A person who lives a life of extravagance “Egg” A person who lives a life of extravagance

“Flivver” Any old broken down car

Going out to the club clothes “Glad Rags” Going out to the club clothes

“Handcuff” engagement ring

To reject someone; cold or hostile reception “Icy Mitt” To reject someone; cold or hostile reception

“Juice Joint” an illegal bar

“Know your onions” To know your business

“Let’s blouse” Let’s get out of here

bookish prude or uptight woman “Mrs. Grundy” bookish prude or uptight woman

“Nifty” Cool

“Oliver Twist” a really good dancer

“Petting Pantry” Movie Theater

“Quilt” Drink that warms you up

“Rub” a student dance party

“splifficated” to get very drunk

“Tell it to Sweeney” Tell someone who cares

getting sick from alcohol “Upchuck” getting sick from alcohol

An aggressive tease or flirt “Vamp” An aggressive tease or flirt

a wet blanket, kill joy, Debbie Downer “wurp” a wet blanket, kill joy, Debbie Downer

When you find someone really funny “You slay me!” When you find someone really funny

drunk, wasted, completely gone “zozzled” drunk, wasted, completely gone

Terms of your generation… What are some of the terms and phrases that might show up in this kind of power point about the 2010s? Make, and define, a list of five terms that are ubiquitous at this time and that define the speech of the culture.

“Type a quote here.” –Johnny Appleseed