The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

1. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald Social and Historical Background The Context

2. The Great Gatsby • ‘In 1922 F Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write ‘something new – extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.’ Self made millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald’s and his country’s most abiding obsessions; money, ambition, greed and the promise of new beginnings.’ From review of The Great Gatsby The Lost Generation bookstore (online)

3. The Great Gatsby • Published in 1925 • Significantly sandwiched between WW1 and WW2 • An American novel

4. 1920’s America • Fitzgerald is renowned for chronicling the Jazz Age • This was the decade that followed the First World War • This time was also know as The Golden Twenties or the Roaring Twenties

5. 1920’s America • These years were full of pleasure seeking and reckless exuberance • Fitzgerald said “America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history and there was going to be plenty to tell about it.”

6. 1920’s America • Some people considered this age to be the ‘Lost Generation’ • A generation disillusioned by the senseless slaughter of WW1, they were cynical and disdainful of Victorian Notions and propriety of their elders • Ernest Hemingway captured the essence of this Lost Generation in his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926)

7. 1920’s Culture Charlie Chaplin Edward Hopper Nighthawks Picasso Silent Movies Matisse Kandinsky

8. Music/Jazz • Duke Ellington • Cole Porter • Gershwin • Maurice Chevalier

9. Writers • Ernest Hemingway • Gertrude Stein • Henry Miller • T S Eliot • Dorothy Parker

10. The Mass Market • Population of USA doubled 50yrs before WW1 • There was a problem with meeting basic needs • Solution – Mass production. Henry Ford was the first to use an assembly line to make Model T cars in 1913

11. The Mass Market • There was massive growth in commodities • There was standardization across the country • Everything was made available to everyone • Therefore most people wanted…

12. Advertising • As a result Advertising became big business • Brand names were more prominent • Advertising created the desire for purchasing • The taste of the nation was shaped…

13. Conspicuous Consumption • A term coined by an American social scientist • A response to the over whelming amount of rich businessmen with power in America • They showed off their wealth with ostentatious houses and extravagant behaviour

14. Conspicuous Consumption • Veblen called this ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ because he thought the lifestyle was wasteful and caused more poverty in the lower classes • People liked to announce their status, never caring about the effect on others

15. Prohibition and Organised Crime

16. Prohibition and Organised Crime • From 1920 to 1933, the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol was prohibited in the United States • It was intended to raise the country’s moral standards • It had the opposite effect! • Apparently in 1925 there were 100,000 speakeasies in New York alone

17. Prohibition and Organised Crime • Bootlegging became big business • Criminals, such as Al Capone made their fortunes producing and selling illegal alcohol • There was an illegal economy organised by powerful gangs • Money was made through gambling and protection rackets

18. Here is Hollywood’s view

19. Women • In the Jazz Age the Flapper was born • The typical Flapper was a young woman who was thought of as fast and maybe even a little brazen • She symbolized an age anxious to enjoy itself…

20. Again, a Hollywood interpretation, but listen closely to the words…

21. 1920’s America The End