Cultural Context of The Great Gatsby

Introduction You will soon be reading one of the greatest American novels ever written, The Great Gatsby. Understanding the time period in which it was written and in which the story takes place helps us to understand the novel.

World War I World War I ended in 1918. Disillusioned because of the war, the generation that fought and survived has come to be called “the lost generation.”

The Roaring Twenties While the sense of loss was readily apparent among expatriate 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.

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 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.

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.

Quick Synopsis of The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is set in the jazz age, the 1920's. It tells the fictional story of a mysterious and lonely millionaire named Jay Gatsby, who has been in love with the same woman for years and tries to win her back. The narrator is Nick, who lives across the lawn from Gatsby and becomes friends with him. This book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the greatest authors of all time, shows that no matter how rich we are, it cannot buy us love and can sometimes be the cause of our doom.

Major Characters Nick Carraway (narrator)—bond salesman from Midwest, a Yale graduate, a World War I veteran, and a resident of West Egg. He is Gatsby's next-door neighbor. Jay Gatsby—a young, mysterious millionaire later revealed to be a bootlegger, originally from North Dakota, with shady business connections and an obsessive love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he had met when he was a young officer in World War I. Daisy Buchanan —an attractive and effervescent, if shallow young woman; Nick's cousin; and the wife of Tom Buchanan.

Major Characters Tom Buchanan—millionaire who lives on East Egg, and Daisy's husband. Buchanan attended Yale and is a white supremacist. Jordan Baker—She is Daisy Buchanan's long-time friend, a professional golfer. George B. Wilson—a mechanic and owner of a garage. Myrtle Wilson—George Wilson's wife and Tom Buchanan's mistress.

Major Themes Wealth’s Consequences Women in the 20s East vs. West The Jazz Age The American Dream

A Few Symbols The Green Light The Valley of Ashes Eggs Automobiles The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg

So… GET EXCITED TO READ IT, “old sport!” To End… The Great Gatsby is truly a great and exciting American novel. It’s dramatic, interesting, and fun, and it reads like a soap opera. So… GET EXCITED TO READ IT, “old sport!” It’s the bee’s knees!!

RAFT – Writing Assignment Your family has just accepted a foreign exchange student to come live with you for a year. You, as an American citizen (role), have been assigned to write to them in order to better introduce the foreign exchange student(audience) to our American culture. In a letter (format) to your pen-pal, describe your version of the American Dream (topic). Remember, this person knows nothing about our country’s culture or beliefs, so be very descriptive! Must be at least 1 page in length, double spaced! Worth 20 points!