1. The Great Gatsby Take Notes

2. Background Discussion  Prohibition  Speakeasies and Bootlegging  The Jazz Age  Suffragette Movement and Sexual Freedom  Rise of the Stock Market and Speculation  Movie Industry  Organized Crime  Industrial Magnates and High Society  The Lost Generation and Roaring Twenties  Long Island  Southampton

3. About Gatsby  Tom: dictator/bully  Daisy: clinging vine  Myrtle: clinging vine/weakling  Gatsby: calculator  Nick: nice guy/judge  George: nice guy/protector  Jordan: calculator

4. Themes  The corruption of the American Dream  Sight and Insight (Many images of blindness/No one seems to see what is really going on)  The meaning of the past(holds something for Gatsby and Nick; a simpler, nobler time;when people believed in the importance of the family and church)  The education of a young man (Bilungsromen: German for Initiation theme: growing up. Nick writes the Great Gatsby to show what he has learned.)  Illusion vs. Reality

5. Color Symbols  Gray: death, lifelessness (people &land)  Green: money (light at end of Daisy’s peer), Gatsby’s goal  Blue: dream (eyes of Dr. Eckleburg-rep’s. sightlessness)  White: corruption is underneath-wedding cake, Daisy’s and Jordon’s clothes(airiness and fairylike)  Darks & Lights: Gatsby’s world is deceptive  Gold or Yellow: wealth, materialism  Red: violence/violent death  Pink: violence underneath

6. Other Symbols  Valley of Ashes: The Wasteland-T.S. Eliot  Daisy: wealth, position, status, “golden girl,”  Eckleburg: represents capitalistic profit(He is the God of the Wasteland.)  Ashes: gray, lifeless, wasteland, death, True Reality  Apartment: on outside, a beautiful wedding cake; inside, there is corruption, greed & selfishness  Gatsby’s house: white: garden: blue Chauffer’s uniform:blue

7. More Symbols  Buchanan’s house: red and white/carpet crimson  Nick’s boats: red & gold: dream stained by violence  Myrtle: wears brown when in Valley of Ashes; changes to ecru or cream dresses; she becomes unreal and someone else.  Sunday: Most people worshipping/ people at Gatsby’s house partying: un-God-like  East and West: represent old and new wealth, names of people who go to Gatsby’s parties are listed: reader knows the difference between the old and new wealth(the new have acquired wealth by ruthless means.)