1. The Great Gatsby

2. Facts
Published in 1925
Received mixed reviews and sold poorly (20,000 copies in the first year)
Experienced a revival during World War II
1998: The Modern Library voted it as the best twentieth century American novel
Contender for the title of “Great American Novel”
The book has now sold 25 million copies at a rate of 500,000 copies each year.

3. Setting
Time: summer 1922
Place: West Egg or East Egg, Long Island, New York

4. Historical context: 1920s Unprecedented economic prosperity Jazz music
Flapper culture
Bootlegging and organized crime

5. Characters
Nick Carraway: narrator, 29-year-old Yale graduate originally from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and a new resident of West Egg who is aged 29 (later 30). He is Gatsby's next-door neighbor and a bond salesman.
Jay Gatsby: a young, mysterious millionaire who lives on West Egg
Daisy Fay Buchanan: attractive, outgoing, shallow, and self-absorbed young woman from Kentucky. She is Nick's second cousin, once removed.
Tom Buchanan: a millionaire who lives on East Egg
Jordan Baker: Daisy’s friend who is into golfing and partying

6. Themes Resistance to change economically, socially, and ethnically
The decline of the American Dream
The hollowness of the upper class
Societal gender expectations

7. Modernism Period between World War I and World War II
Abandoning traditional literary techniques in order to express new ideas and worldviews
Loss of faith in traditional aspects of society like religion and patriotism
Questioning the future of humanity and a focus on decline rather than progress
Use of irony and satire

8. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key was his second cousin three times removed.
There are many similarities between Fitzgerald and both Gatsby and Nick.
The novel represents Fitzgerald’s conflicting feelings on love and the Jazz Age.
Fitzgerald died thinking that the novel was a failure.