Background and Characters

Background and Characters

“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, September 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minnesota

Distantly related to Francis Scott Key, author of the United States National Anthem

Father, Edward, was from Maryland, an unsuccessful furniture manufacturer and a salesman for Proctor & Gamble. Mother, Mary “Mollie” McQuillan, was the daughter of a wealthy Irish immigrant. After Edward’s failed business attempts, the family lived comfortably off of Mollie’s inheritance.

First short story – a detective story – was published in his school newspaper when he was 12 or 13.

Attended Nardin Academy in Buffalo, NY; St. Paul Academy, St. Paul; Newman School (prep), NJ; Princeton University.

Early Life

Dated Chicago heiress Ginevra King while at Princeton, who is thought to be the woman Daisy Buchanan is based on. “Poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls”.

Left Princeton to serve in the army in WWI, but the war ended soon after he enlisted.

Became engaged to Zelda Sayre, daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge, who broke off the engagement when she thought he couldn’t support her working at an ad agency and writing short stories.

1920: This Side of Paradise was published, and Zelda reconsidered their engagement. They were married in 1920. Their only child, Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald, was born October 26, 1921.

Leading to Success…

His short stories became a staple of The Saturday Evening Post, where he wrote about independent young American women and young love.

He and Zelda enjoyed an early life together of celebrity, travel, and extravagance, especially as his first novel brought him almost instant fame.

Travelled frequently to Europe, where they became friends with many American expatriates and Ernest Hemingway, although Hemingway did not get along with Zelda.

Second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, 1922. The Fitzgerald’s moved to Long Island that year, where Fitzgerald began work on The Great Gatsby, published in 1925.

The Good Life

The Fitzgeralds’ marriage began to crumble, with his alcoholism and her eventual schizophrenia – as well as a decadent lifestyle they couldn’t really afford - causing schisms in their relationship and constant arguing. Zelda was hospitalized in 1932. She would spend the rest of her life – until her death in a fire in 1948 – in and out of hospital and sanitariums. Fitzgerald’s fourth novel, Tender is the Night, in 1934, reflected his struggles with Zelda’s health, and was not well received. “The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs”.

In debt, ill and drunk, he spent the late 1930’s in Hollywood working as a screenwriter, where he fell in love and lived with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham.

December 21, 1940: F. Scott Fitzgerald died from a massive heart attack, following a first heart attack earlier that year. His fifth and final novel, The (Love of the) Last Tycoon, was published posthumously in 1942.

The Beginning of the End…

F. Scott and Zelda Lie Together Forever

His popularity began to peak in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, and solidified by the 1960’s. Today, he has a secure place among America’s most enduring writers.

Fitzgerald coined the term “Jazz Age”, to describe the Roaring 20’s.

“Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children's party taken

over by the elders”.

“Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.”

“There are no second acts in American lives.”

His Legacy…

“For some reason, I just loved it. There was a sense of optimism and joy in the 1920’s”

~ Sandy Wilson

“The Roaring Twenties”

Also known as “The Roaring 20’s”, “The Jazz Age”, or “The Golden Age”.

Post WWI, “The War to End All Wars”.

A period of economic prosperity and hedonism (decadence, indulgence); Pre-Stock Market Crash

The 1920’s…

The 1920’sJanuary 16, 1919: 18th Amendment, Prohibition throughout the entire decade, spawns organized crime, gangsters (Al Capone, Chicago), illegal sale of alcohol (moonshine, bootleg), back alley speakeasies, and disdain for authority.

1924: Restriction on immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and some Latin American countries; Klu Klux Klan grows and seems to be largely accepted, even being run for a time by a woman minister. Despite the prominence of African Americans on the Jazz scene, racial tensions run high.

Flappers, i.e. Daisy Buchanan. A new crop of young women defying convention, dancing, bobbing their hair, smoking, driving, wearing revealing clothing, heavy make-up, and flaunting promiscuous behavior. Danced the Charleston, which was considered immoral and provocative.

An entire generation rebelling against society…

The Charleston: Originated in Charleston, SC. Extremely popular during the 1920’s. Could be danced alone or with a partner. Considered somewhat scandalous.

Jazz: A form of music which became popular in the 1920’s, has origins in West African tribal music. Seen as immoral by older generations, who feared that Jazz promoted the decadence and hedonism associated with the younger generation.

The 1920’s

Automobiles became more commonplace as people had more money to spend.

Women: The role of women, thanks in part to the Suffragettes and the Flappers, was beginning to change. In 1920, women in the US were granted the right to vote, and begin to enter the workforce in larger numbers. Across the world, many countries grant women the right to vote in the 1920’s.

The 1920’s…

1920: First commercial radio station goes on air in Pittsburgh, and radio quickly spreads across the globe as a means not only of communication and information, but especially entertainment. Motion pictures improve, gradually adding sound, length and color during the 20’s. The television is also developed during this decade.

1920’s

Social Classes: A new crop of wealthy Americans struggled for acceptance and dominance against the “old money bluebloods”, who considered them to be “nouveau riche”, or new money. This phrase was meant to draw a clear distinction between those who had always been rich and therefore of a higher social class, and those who only recently acquired wealth and who had previously been of a lower social standing.

The American Dream…

The American Dream: “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”; “All Men are Created Equal”; the opportunity for any American to create a better, richer, happier life for themselves, to rise above their current social standing and financial situation, to seize every and any chance for greatness; The idea of having no restrictions based on race, religion, culture, etc., i.e. Of Mice and Men.

The American Dream…

-Phrase coined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams: “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”.

- This American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you will, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it” –Al Capone.

The American Dream…

“I have to see a man about a dog” = Going to buy whiskey.

“Handcuff”, “manacle” = Wedding or engagement ring.

“That’s the Bees Knees”, “That’s the Cat’s Pajamas” = Approval

“Big cheese” = Important person. “Bump off” = Murder. “Baloney” = Nonsense, ridiculous. “Hooch” = Liquor.

Phrases of the 1920’s…

Introduction to the Characters ofThe Great Gatsby

The narrator of the novel, Nick is a young man from the Minnesota who, after attending Yale and serving in WWI, moves to New York to join the “bond business”. Nick is honest and generally non-judgmental, and befriends the elusive Gatsby after moving next door to him in “New Money” West Egg

Jay Gatsby is the Protagonist of this novel. He is a resident of the “New Money” West Egg, and throws lavish parties, yet he is very much a mystery, with fantastic rumors of his past circulating. Gatsby is a flawed character, a tragic hero who, while dishonest and vulgar, possesses an eternal optimism and the power to make his dreams a reality. Gatsby was willing to do anything to make money and achieve social position to obtain his greatest love…Daisy Buchanan

Daisy is a frivolous, cynical socialite cousin of Nick’s who lives in East Egg, home of the “Old

Money”, with her wealthy husband and daughter. Daisy desperately needs to be loved, and with her husband carrying on with an affair he makes little effort to hide, Daisy turns to her long lost love of

childhood, Jay Gatsby

Tom is the arrogant, racist, hypocritical husband of Daisy. He is a bully towards his wife – and most women in general – and thinks nothing of having an open affair with Myrtle Wilson. His he holds those around him, however, up to a much stricter moral code.

Jordan, cynical and self centered, is a friend of Daisy’s who winds up dating Nick during the duration of the novel. Jordan is beautiful but dishonest, a professional golfer who has cheated in the past.

Myrtle is an incredibly vibrant women who, despite her zest for life, is trapped in a lifeless marriage to the owner of a garage in the “Valley of Ashes”, a flat, colorless area of Long Island. She has an affair with Tom, who, while showing her the finer side of life, treats her with little regard, as a possession to be played with.

Lifeless and exhausted, George idealizes and loves his wife Myrtle, practically to the point of worship, and allows her to walk all over him. He owns a garage in the “Valley of Ashes”, where Tom is a customer of his who manipulates him and uses his wife.