1. F. Scott Fitzgerald &
The Great Gatsby

2. Led mother to be overprotective
Born September 26, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota
lost 2 sisters to the flu
Led mother to be overprotective
Family was poor, but had some social status
Mother had high social ambitions for her son

3. Went to private Catholic school, then to Princeton
Developed fascination with the very rich
Writings from college show his self-conscious nature

4. Commissioned as 2Lt in the Army in 1917
Worked on revising his 1st book
At age 22, met Zelda Sayre, a local debutante
Got engaged, but broke it off after 2nd rejection

5. Published This Side of Paradise in 1920
praised for its originality
Hailed as “the story of the youth of our generation”
Zelda & Fitzgerald restarted engagement
daughter Frances Scott born in October 1921

6. Fitzgerald’s life in the ’20s was a mirror for what was happening nationally
Challenge to the established order
personal indulgence
self-destructive excess
Fitzgerald was self-proclaimed spokesman and symbol

7. Politics Woodrow Wilson – 28th President (1913-21)
Former president of Princeton
Reintroduced spoken State of the Union Address
Reintroduced income tax
Maintained policy of neutrality in WWI
Introduced Selective Service Act when America needed to enter the war
Helped conclude Treaty of Versailles
Remembered mostly for one failure: The League of Nations

8. Politics Warren G. Harding - 29th president (1921-23)
Immensely popular
Scandals
Teapot Dome
Justice Dept.
Veterans’ Bureau
Extramarital affairs
Not revealed until after death
Cerebral hemorrhage
Succeeded by VP Calvin Coolidge

9. Politics Calvin Coolidge – 30th president (1923-29)
Known as “Silent Cal”
Cleaned out corruption
Restored faith in the Presidency
Low taxes
Opposed farm subsidies
Supported civil rights
Not an isolationist, but reluctant to get involved in foreign affairs
Policies helped lead to Great Depression

10. Politics Herbert Hoover – 31st President (1929-33)
Believed strongly in the Efficiency Movement
Believed in a balanced budget
Many argue his policies led directly to the Great Depression
Started a few public works programs that would lead to Roosevelt’s New Deal

11. Social Atmosphere of Change
Prohibition
18th Amendment prohibited production & sale of alcohol
Still sold & produced illegally
Bathtub gin
Speakasies
Bootleggers
Rise of gangsters like Al Capone

12. Social Atmosphere of Change
Women’s Rights
19th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote
9 million women in the workforce
Women “bobbed” their hair
Could drink & smoke in
public
Liberated women called
“flappers”

13. Social Atmosphere of Change
The Jazz Age
Rise of jazz music
Tied into the Harlem Renaissance

14. A Time of Optimism Laissez faire economy Government deregulation
Rapid growth of industry and mechanization
Wide distribution of blessings of civilization
Electricity
Automobile
New “Golden Age” of America

15. Critics “decline and degradation”
Caught up in a “surge of materialism;” people failed to grasp the meaning and significance of life
Disillusioned, disenchanted, lost faith in life and possibility of social progress
Total lack of interest in politics

16. Expatriates Also known as “The Lost Generation”
Lived in Europe from end of WWI to beginning of Great Depression
Saw war, death, destruction on unprecedented scale
Became jaded, disillusioned in post-war society
Popularized by Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway
Broken generation where “… (v)irtuous behavior no longer existed, faith in religion was broken, and a connection to morality was questionable at best.”
Thought life in the cities of Europe was better than living in a country that was broken, and would never be repaired.

17. Fitzgerald and his wife had fallen to this lifestyle
Loose morals, and nothing left to believe in
Excessive drinking, partying, & spending
Well-known for their glamorous and “unsettled” lives
Wrote The Beautiful and the Damned, highlighting this lifestyle

18. The Great Gatsby
Wrote two collections of short stories; both critical failures
Changed focus to serious, even tragic works addressing broad historical and social issues
The Great Gatsby born of this
A quintessential story of not only the 1920’s, but the American experience, the novel chronicles the exuberance and the malaise of the decade
Shows how America’s fascination with
material things erodes values
shows ultimate failure of the American Dream

19. 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.”
These wishes were expressed in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
The concept of the American Dream is presented from two different POV

20. FAILURE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Poverty
Discrimination
Exploitation
Hypocrisy
Corruption
Suppression
The American Dream has totally failed to bring any kind of fulfillment, whether spiritual or material.
For all the progress and prosperity, for all the declaration of democratic principles, there are still poverty, discrimination, exploitation
As far as morality and values, there are also hypocrisy, cu=corruption and suppression.
The Great Gatsby also comments on this. Condition.

21. Later Life Alcoholic since age 22
earned dubious title “America’s Drunkest Writer”
as ‘20s came to a close, so did Fitzgerald’s
career
wife Zelda suffered many complete mental
breakdowns
4th book, Tender is the Night, based on his wife’s mental illness
Wrote short stories, magazine articles, screenplays to pay wife’s mounting medical bills
Died from heart attack December 21st, 1940, at age 44
Zelda died in hospital fire in 1948 at the age of 48
wasn’t until after WWII that Gatsby became popular

22. Fitzgerald and Zelda are buried together in St
Fitzgerald and Zelda are buried together in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.
The last sentence of The Great Gatsby is inscribed on their grave marker.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

23. Gatsby in film
1926 silent film version starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, Neil Hamilton

24. 1949 – starring Allan Ladd, Betty Field, Shelley Winters, MacDonald Carey.

25. 1974 – starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Sam Waterson. Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola.

26. 1995 – A&E made-for-TV movie starring Mira Sorvino, Toby Stevens, Paul Rudd.

27. - Dec. 21, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey McGuire, Isla Fisher. Blu-Ray, 3D, DVD
- 2 Oscar wins

28. Cover Art