1. The Great Gatsby

2. Roaring ’20s Economic boom Great prosperity–
Mass production industries and assembly lines
provides opportunities for investment (rich got richer)
Great prosperity–
Wages for working class increased 20%
Could afford mass-produced products
Technological advancements
Washing machines, radios, cars
Electrified households increased from 16% to two-thirds
Lively culture
Obsession with celebrity
Babe Ruth, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Advertising
Mass consumption promoted by billboards
Racism and Immigration
KKK revitalization
Breakdown of traditional mores
Changing gender roles, stereotypes; more promiscuity
Prohibition
Bootleggers and criminal activity

3. The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores “modern” America
Middle West represents a simpler time
East represents modern 1920s
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is thrust into a world of money and glamour, highlighting the sharp contrast of ideals during the 1920s.

6. Modernism
Begins just before WW1 (1914) and ends just before WW2 (1945)– described as a traumatic coming-of-age period
World War I destroyed the illusion that acting virtuously brought about good. What was the point?
Based on the disruption and destruction of WWI; lack of purpose and drive having seen rampant, pointless death
Political turmoil– Nazism, Fascism
WW1, new technologies, industrialization, and changing morals
The lives of the youth were very different from their parents’
Authors
John Steinbeck, E.E. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway

7. Focus
Alienation
Rebellion
Cynicism

8. Style/ Characteristics
Novels, Short stories, Poems
Experimental styles
Disjointed and nonlinear narratives (stream of consciousness)– often leaves the reader wondering: Where is this novel going?
First-person limited narrator-- often unreliable
Frequent, broken dialogue
Themes of loss and exile; alienated and lonely characters
Symbolism used to point out society's evils.
Heavy use of classical allusions

9. Philosophy
Civilization is in decline (disillusionment, materialism, “lost generation”)
Capitalism and industrialization isolate the individual
Collectivism is more successful than individualism
Traditional morals and virtues are no longer relevant (leaned toward experimentation, breaking away from the predictable)
The American Dream is an illusion

10. Comparison Realism Modernism
Shows how society dealt with the normality of life
Shows a society that was rebelling against traditions of the Realist generation
Accepted reality
Hoped to change reality
Critical of society
Even more critical of society
Conventional structure
Fragmented plots; experimental