Tidbits F Scott Fitzgerald 18961940 Named after great uncle Frances Scott Key From the midwest St Paul MN Married to Zelda Sayre m 1930 The dominant influences on F Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration literature Princeton Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and alcohol ID: 700492
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "By F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
ByF. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great GatsbySlide2
Tidbits
F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940
Named after great uncle Frances Scott Key
From the
midwest
: St. Paul, MN
Married to Zelda Sayre - m 1930
The dominant influences on F. Scott Fitzgerald were aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol.
Coined “The Jazz Age”
The Great Gatsby was published in 1925
Scott Fitzgerald died at the age of 40 from heart failure as a result of his alcoholism – he died thinking he was a failure as a writerSlide3
Title
Significance of the title, The Great Gatsby:
Focus on the “Great” as in a magician trying to perform magic, “The Great…”
There is irony in describing Gatsby as GreatSlide4
Setting
1922 New York
Each setting reveals characters/values/personalities
East Egg – old money
West Egg – new money
Valley of the Ashes – working class, poor
New York City – used to define social status, moneySlide5
Answers
Each setting reveals characters/values/personalities
East Egg – old money: Tom and Daisy Buchanan
West Egg – new money: Jay Gatsby
Valley of the Ashes – working class, poor: George &
Myrle
Wilson
New York City – used to define social status, money: Tom and Myrtle’s apartment, trips with Gatsby, wild immorality of the Roaring TwentiesSlide6
Themes
Outward appearance can be deceptive
Wealth/love can breed careless and reckless behavior
The attainment of a dream may be less satisfying than the pursuit of that dream
The “American Dream” is corrupted by the desire for wealth
The blind (total, obsessive, all-consuming) pursuit of a dream is destructiveSlide7
Chapter OneSlide8
Characters
Nick
Carraway
: narrator, cousin to Daisy and college friend of Tom’s
Tom Buchanan: married to Daisy; wealthy business man
Daisy Buchanan: unhappy wife of Tom
Jordan Baker: pro golfer, friend of Daisy, will become love interest of NickSlide9
Nick Carraway
Single, 30 something, well to do, Yale graduate 1915, from the
midwest
, fought WWI, went to NY for his first job - stockbroker
Lives next door to Gatsby
Sees himself as non-judgmental and a keeper of confidences
Some vague references to a fiancé
Will become involved with Jordan BakerSlide10
Tom Buchanan
Married to Daisy; extremely wealthy, “sturdy, straw haired, man of thirty,” former college football player
“hard mouth”, supercilious manner,” “shinny arrogant eyes,” “great pack of muscle,” “cruel body”
“gruff husky tenor,” has an attitude of “ I am stronger and more of a man than you are”
“I’ve got a nice place here.”
Tom is a racist, “if we don’t look out the white race will be-will be utterly submerged.” “It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things.”
A two-timer, “got some woman in New York.”Slide11
Daisy Buchanan
From prominent St. Louis family
“Low, thrilling voice,” “her face was soft and lovely”
“bright eyes, bright passionate mouth,”
Daisy is distracted at dinner, she has, “an
unthoughtful
sadness
Knows her husband is cheating but doesn’t know what to do about it. Her way of dealing with unpleasantness is to feign ignorance. Her first words when told she had a daughter, ‘I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Daisy has “an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.”
Slide12
Jordan Baker
“slender, small breasted girl with an erect carriage”
“grey stained eyes” “wan, charming discontented face”
“Autumn-leaf yellow of her hair” “slender muscles in her arms”
“Time for this good girl to go to bed”
“I thought everybody knew”
Something unpleasant in her pastSlide13
Jay Gatsby
“Only Gatsby…was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.”
“…it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”
“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short winded elations of men.Slide14
Jay Gatsby con’t
At the end of the evening, Nick spots Gatsby standing outside “with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars.”
Nick stops short of meeting him because he seemed “content to be alone-he stretched his arms toward the dark water in a curious way”
“Involuntarily I glanced seaward –and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.”