The Great Gatsby Background Notes

Great Gatsby Published in _____ by ___________

1925, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The ______, AKA _______ was a time of…

Roaring Twenties, The Jazz Age, challenge to est. order, personal indulgence, self-destructive excess

Frequently called ....

"The Great American Novel,"

The jazz age was a reaction to what?

death/destruction/loss of innocence caused by WWI (post war prosperity)

Effect of the 19th Amendment (1920)

Women sufferage

The _________ (1919-1933): With 1919's implementation of the US Constitutions' 18th Amendment, the making, selling, or transportation of _____ became "strictly" ________

Prohibition Era, Alcohol, Prohibited

Title character of the novel

Jay Gatsby

About Jay Gatsby

mid-westerner, moved to New York. Very wealthy, reputation of "New Money," = social outcast

narrator of the novel

Nick Carraway

About Nick Carraway:

Midwesterner, moved to New York. Cousin of Daisy Buchanan. Midwestern sensibilities give us an outsider perspective on how wealthy socialites like the Buchanans lead their lives

Tom Buchanan

Daisy's hulking brute of a husband, old wealthy Chicago family, takes pride in rough ways

Jordan Baker

professional golfer, questionable integrity, Daisy's friend, represents women of elite social class, used to being admired by women

New Money

someone who has broken through barriers to achieve the American Dream, not as respected in 1920s

Old Money

Money from family wealth, born rich, most well-respected people in the 1920s

West Egg

New money; Gatsby and Nick live here.

East Egg

old money; Daisy and Tom Live in, more fashionable area

Present-day__________-New York suburbs

East and West Hampton on Long Island

"The City," NYC Manhattan

Central characters escape to for work and debauchery

Valley of Ashes = Queens

industrial area between "The City" and West Egg, Tom Buchanan's mistress lives with her husband

Valley of Ashes = Queens