9 + 10 of study guide

The play tells the story of the Youngers, a family who lives together in a small Chicago

apartment. The patriarch of the family, Walter Younger Sr., has died, and his widow and

children await a $10,000 insurance payout. They dream of the ways that the money can

improve their lives (their own American Dreams). Beneatha, Walter’s daughter, wants to go to medical school. Walter Lee Jr. hopes to use the money to purchase a liquor store with two of his friends (something Mama is opposed to). Lena Younger, Walter Sr.’s widow (also known as Mama), puts a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood but allows Walter Jr. to manage the rest of the money as long as he saves a substantial amount for Beneatha’s tuition. When the family faces backlash from the so-called “Welcoming Committee” of their new neighborhood and Walter loses all of the remaining money, including Beneatha’s tuition, to a thieving investment partner, the Youngers are challenged to remain proud and strong in the face of racism and misfortune. Walter struggles with what he’s done and seems like a broken man, but with mama’s help (a nudging that involves his son Travis), Walter grows up and instead of taking the easy way out of the situation, he stays true to what he’s always been taught and is proud to turn away the get “rich” quick money from the “Welcoming Committee” and stands up to them saying we will be moving forward with moving into the home.



Make sure to look at the literary devices sheet – allusions, metaphors, similes etc.



F. Scott Fitzgerald – history

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Distant relative of Frances Scott Key – writer of the “Star Spangled Banner.”



Fitzgerald’s High-School Education

  • Because Fitzgerald was nearly failing out of school in St. Paul, he was sent away to a Catholic prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey, called the Newman School



Fitzgerald’s College Education

  • In 1913, Fitzgerald was admitted to and enrolled at Princeton University — where he wrote stories for the campus literary magazine. Almost immediately after graduating from Princeton in 1917, FSF joined the army.



Falls in Love - Zelda 

  • While training in Alabama Fitzgerald met and fell in love with the 18-year-old Zelda Sayre. Zelda hailed from a wealthy Montgomery family. (She was the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge). Zelda agreed to marry Fitzgerald if he agreed to move to New York. After Scott was discharged from the army in 1919, the couple moved to New York. However, Zelda was unwilling to wait for Fitzgerald to succeed in the advertisement business and unwilling to live on his small salary. She broke off their engagement. He moved back to Minnesota, where he ended up writing his first novel, This Side of Paradise. The novel was accepted for publication in September of the same year, and Fitzgerald was eventually able to win back Zelda. The novel was published on March 26, 1920, and one week later the couple was married. Fitzgerald was 24 years old, and the novel instantaneously made him a celebrity. 



  • This Side of Paradise created the prototype for the “flapper.” The book turned the good-looking and fun-loving Fitzgeralds into icons. Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, was published in 1922.



Move to Great Neck, New York (aka West Egg, the fictional town in TGG)

  • In the early 1920s, Scott and Zelda moved to a section of Long Island called Great Neck, where they were exposed to the lavish lifestyle of the American upper class — and to the status hierarchy internal to the upper class. They welcomed their only child, a daughter, Frances “Scottie” in 1921.



Fitzgeralds in Baltimore

  • The family moved to Maryland in 1932 so Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, could receive good psychiatric care at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Towson. They were forced out of their Towson home due to a house fire that was attributed to Zelda’s mental illness. In 1933 the family rented a home on Park Avenue in Baltimore’s Bolton Hill neighborhood; it remains a private residence today. Their time in Baltimore wasn’t necessarily happy. Years of drinking had dulled his talent. Despite that, while living in the home he finished writing his fourth and final novel, “Tender is the Night.” It tanked, selling only 13,000 copies to mixed reviews. On Dec. 21, 1940, at the age of 44, FSF died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. He is buried in Rockville, MD at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery alongside his father. It is also where Zelda and his daughter “Scottie” were eventually buried.


The Great Gatsby - It takes place during the 1920s “Jazz Age” of music.

Author – F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Difference between East & West Egg (New Money v. Old Money)

  • Characters – Nick, Jordan, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Wolfsheim, Myrtle Wilson, Mr. George Wilson

  • Ch. 1 – dinner party at Daisy & Tom’s, Nick meets Jordan

  • Ch. 2 – Nick goes with Tom and meets Tom’s mistress Myrtle in the Valley of the Ashes

  • Ch. 3 – Gatsby’s big party – we learn about possible ties to organized crime

  • Ch. 4 – we learn Gatsby and Daisy were once in love and Nick will help set up a meeting between them with tea

  • Ch. 5 – Gatsby and Daisy are reunited

  • Ch. 6 – We learn who Gatsby really is

  • Ch. 7 – Gatsby and Daisy’s affair is revealed and Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him. In an angry fit Gatsby and Daisy leave. On the way home Daisy, driving Gatsby’s car hits and kills Myrtle as she is running into the street

  • Ch. 8 – Gatsby tells Nick about dating Daisy in Louisville in 1917. He says that he loved her for her youth and vitality, and idolized her social position, wealth, and popularity. He adds that she was the first girl to whom he ever felt close and that he lied about his background to make her believe that he was worthy of her. Wilson goes to Gatsby’s house, where he finds Gatsby lying on an air mattress in the pool, floating in the water and looking up at the sky. Wilson shoots Gatsby, killing him instantly, then shoots himself.

  • Ch. 9 - Swarms of reporters, journalists, and gossipers descend on the mansion in the aftermath of the murder. Nick tries to hold a large funeral for Gatsby, but all of his former friends and acquaintances either have disappeared or moved away with no forwarding address (Daisy/Tom) or refuse to come (Meyer Wolfsheim and Klipspringer). The only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsby’s father, Henry C. Gatz, who has come all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is proud of his son. Nick decides to move back to the Midwest, breaking off his relationship with Jordan.



  • Make sure to look at the literary devices sheet – allusions, metaphors, similes etc.

  • Characterization sheets – know and understand each of the characters