Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Great Gatsby Context
SCOTT FITZGERALD
Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant
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She agreed to marry him, but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delay
their wedding until he could prove a success
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He falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp in the South
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Similarly, Gatsby amasses a great deal of wealth at a relatively young age
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Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolised everything he wanted,
even as she led him toward everything he despised
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Part of him longed for this absent moral centre
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Fitzgerald then tried to give up drinking and his experiences of alcohol withdrawal
were probably the basis of Gatsby’s choice from drinking
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Fitzgerald ridiculed materialism in the chase for the American dream
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GANGSTERS AND SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRES
Gangsters opened speakeasies/secret underground clubs where people go and drink, dane and
have a good time with their friends
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WOMEN - FLAPPERS
Had bob hair, short skirts, listened to Jazz, treated sex casually, smoked, drove and otherwise
flouting social and sexual norms
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Only illegal to posses alcohol in your own home in some states
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There became a demand for illicit supply and so many turned to buying alcohol from bootleggers or
attending speakeasies
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- this is where the Mafia arose from

HEDONISM
It was regarded as hedonistic because African-American artistic movements flourished, drugs and
flappers appeared
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MODERNISM
Modernism is a literary movement and style
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CHARACTERS
Gatsby has always wanted to be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his
love for Daisy Buchanan
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We do not find out about Gatsbys childhood or how he made his money until later in the book
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Gatsby has created his own character, changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to
represent his reinvention of himself
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As the novel progresses and Fitzgerald deconstructs Gatsby’s self-presentation, Gatsby reveals
himself to be an innocent, hopeful young man who stakes everything on his dreams, not realising
that his dreams are unworthy of him
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Nick represents another part of Fitzgerald; the quiet, reflective Mid- westerner adrift in the lurid
East
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He is tolerant, open-minded, quiet, and a good listener, and, as a result, others tend to talk to him
and tell him their secrets
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On the one hand, Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York
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This inner conflict is symbolised throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker
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After Gatsby’s death, he returns to Minnesota in search of a quieter life structured by more
traditional moral values
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At the start, his gestures and judgements
mark him as a character of moral integrity
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He starts passing moral judgement on Gatsby saying he “represented everything for
which i have unaffected scorn” but by the end of the novel he recognises the good in Gatsby
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She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic
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Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury
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In Fitzgerald’s creation of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the
aristocratic East Egg
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In greek mythology, Sirens were bird-women who lured sailors to their death with a beautiful song
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Her voice is “full of money” and creates an
image of her “high in a white palace
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She appears to be wealth personified
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Her voice is a song, and a “promise
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Myrtle
Myrtle personifies the desire for wealth
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She believes she can
taste this through Tom’s company
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Fitzgerald captures the changing american dream through Myrtles struggle to fulfil hers, she
aspires live in the same world as Tom which is another version of the american dream in the sense
that she is in the pursuit of happiness as much as anyone with less material goals
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Woman who sought fulfilment beyond the bounds of marriage and motherhood was a cause for
rejoicing amigos hose women for whom traditional female roles amounted to a kind of gender
enslavement
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Her complete “self-sufficiency” demonstrated by her distancing from any emotional
entanglement, creates an effective contrast in the novel with Daisy’s “bright and passionate
mouth”
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THEMES
THE HOLLOWNESS OF THE UPPERCLASS
Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces
and taste
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In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, shown by the
Buchanans’ tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker
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The East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who use money to ease their
minds and never worry about hurting others
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Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal activity, has a sincere and
loyal heart
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Ironically, Gatsby’s good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for
killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished
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THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its
overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure
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Nick and Gatsby, who both fought in World War I, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and
cynicism that resulted from the war
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As Fitzgerald saw it, the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the
pursuit of happiness
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The main plot line of the novel reflects this, as Gatsby’s dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the
difference in their respective social statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to
impress her, and the materialism that characterises her lifestyle
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They believe that new money don't have the same refinement, sensibility and taste they have
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Their concerns were just living for the moment, steeped in partying
Fitzgerald shows that the with no money, such as Nick who despite coming from a family with a bit
of wealth, has no where near the capital of Gatsby or Tom
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SYMBOLS
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colours used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts
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Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding
light to lead him to his goal
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Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early
settlers of the new nation
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The Valley of Ashes
The valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate
land created by the dumping of industrial ashes
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The valley of ashes also symbolises the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the
dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result
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GEOGRAPHY
Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomise the various aspects of the 1920s American
society that Fitzgerald depicts
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Additionally, the East is connected to the moral decay and social cynicism of New York, while the
West is connected to more traditional social values and ideals
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Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward; their love reawakens
just as the sun begins to come out
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Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill
in the air

COLOUR
Colours communicate the moral, social and spiritual dimensions of the work as deeply as any other
of the more obvious symbols in the novel
Green
envy, jealousy, colour of the dollar - material richness
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white typically symbolises innocence and purity - nicks struggle to remain innocent
Gold
the colour of old money and class
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indicates prosperity and wealth
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“With Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine”
Yellow
indicates the lack of refinement of the new rich and the pale imitation and mimicry of golds
richness
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“yellow cocktail music” , “the two girls in yellow”
Grey
Separation of classes and lack of realisations of dreams for Gatsby’s future with daisy
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Myrtle dresses in blue, Wilson works towards the new blue car, Myrtle works towards the owner of
the blue car
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J
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These eyes are
lifeless, visionless, they promise and see nothing
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Car crashes are signs of socio-economic moral collapse
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Fitzgerald himself always referred to cars
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