1. The Great Gatsby
Background & Context

2. World War I
War ended in 1918 – brutal carnage (trench warfare, chemical weapons)
“Lost Generation” – no purpose in life
Two main characters (Nick and Gatsby) fought in WWI
New technologies were developed to make war goods (assembly line)
Industry boomed, thus the economy boomed

3. The Roaring Twenties Rise of stock market in aftermath of war
Increase in national wealth
Materialism

4. The Roaring Twenties Consumerism
Clash between “Old Money” (inherit from family) & “New Money” (develop it on their own)
Desire for money and pleasure

5. The Roaring Twenties

6. The Jazz Age The decade (1920s) is also known as the Jazz Age
Jazz music swept up from New Orleans to capture the national imagination
Improvised and wild, Jazz broke the rules of music, and provided a soundtrack to the 1920s

7. The Jazz Age

8. The New Woman Women’s Right To Vote 19th Amendment passed August, 1920
“League of Women Voters” campaigned for social reform

9. The New Woman Women rebelled through fashion Refused to wear corsets
Started wearing lipstick
Women cut their hair into a boyish “bob” and bared their legs in the short skirts of the fashionable twenties “flapper”

10. The New Woman

11. The New Woman
Behaved in more unconventional ways because of adjusting to more rapid changes than previous generations
Smoked in public
New ideas about family life: marriage, contraception, divorce, money

12. Prohibition
18th Amendment to the Constitution ( ) banned the public sale of alcoholic beverages
“Speak-easies” that sold liquor were often raided, and gangsters made fortunes as bootleggers, smuggling alcohol into America from abroad

13. Prohibition

14. Gambling Another “gangland” activity was illegal gambling
“Black-Sox” Scandal of 1919: eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted for accepting bribes to throw baseball’s World Series.

15. Gambling

16. The Automobile Status symbol
Brought America together, changed family life & recreation
Advertising – automakers took advantage of new roadways to create billboard advertisements
Both the automobile and a bizarre billboard play important roles in Gatsby

17. The Automobile

18. Other Inventions Radio-brought music into homes
Moving Pictures-grew in appeal & sophistication. Sound was added in 1927.

19. F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
Born 1896 in Minnesota
Princeton Class of 1917-on academic probation & later dropped out
Enrolled in Army near end of WWI-became a 2nd lieutenant and was discharged in 1919

20. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Met Zelda Sayre & fell in love - but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delay their wedding until he could prove a success
Married in The couple fought regularly, often spurred by alcohol
Zelda suffered a breakdown & died in a hospital fire in North Carolina

21. F. Scott Fitzgerald

22. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wanted to be a writer but had a playboy reputation. Not taken seriously by critics.
Wrote sober, although an alcoholic
Even though he earned money from novels & screenplays, he was unhappy
Died in 1940, considering himself a failure

23. The Great Gatsby
Written in 1924, addresses different classes of society, money, and scandal during the Roaring 20’s
Fitzgerald wrote many of these details from his early life into Gatsby

24. The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway (narrator) is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota who attends an Ivy League School and moves to New York after the war.
Jay Gatsby is a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a WWI military camp in the South.

25. The Great Gatsby Set on Long Island
“East Egg” – Manhasset – symbolic of old money
“West Egg” – Great Neck – symbolic of new money

26. The Great Gatsby

27. The Great Gatsby
“In my younger and more vulnerable years…”