Francis Scott Fitzgerald

 Born in Minnesota, in
 the one who made big money on writing novels
 spend a lot of money on parties and lifestyle he described in Great Gatsby
 participated in the I WW – affected by the war, belonged to the lost generation
 his wife was an important person in his life - Zelda
 he published his first story at the age of 18
 wrote musicals and novels, screenplays – 178 stories
 the beginning of 20th century, 1920s - jazz age, jazz dominated the era – Roaring Twenties
 an alcoholic, struggled with depression

The Great Gatsby

 when: 1922, 1920s, set in times of prohibition

 where: New York, East Egg, West Egg, Valley of Ashes
 who: Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Tom, Jordan Baker
 what happens: Nick Carraway tells the story of Daisy and Jay, their love

Places – represent different classes, money status

 East Egg
- Tom and Daisy live there – people who are born rich
- Old rich, from generation to generation
- Daisy was married into them
- They had always had money – American aristocracy
- They do not work; Jordan Baker who is a tennis player
- They go to parties, enjoy themselves
 West Egg
- Rich people – newly rich people
- Gatsby has his mansion there – he wasn’t born rich, he did not inherit his money =
Gatsby earned his money through crime, smuggling and selling alcohol illegally
- Nick lives there
 Valley of Ashes
- “About half-way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the
railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain
desolate area of land. This is the valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like
wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses
and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who
move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”
- Myrtle and her husband – they own a car service; people who own cars and the working
class who fixes those cars, those with money and without money
- Myrtle and her husband’s marriage is destroyed
- A forgotten place
- Covered with dust, ashes – there is no ideology, there is nothing, as if everything was
destroyed, there is nothing to rely on

American Dream (how it is represented or misrepresented)

- On the one hand the characters do achieve American Dream, but only in the case of money,
and in an illegal way
 - Gatsby puts a mask, he is not real

The Eyes of Dr Eckleburg – a symbol, what does it says about

- ”a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of
ashes”
- Eyes of God watching the American society and judging the people, their actions
- God abandoned the Valley of Ashes – those eyes used to see, but they are blind now
- Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead”
- Deism, Benjamin Franklin – God exists but does not take part in contemporary events, does
not participate, but he is present

The Green Light on the other side of the bay

- Jay Gatsby watches the green light across the water

- It symbolizes the yearning for love, money and American Dream
- It can be seen as love for Daisy – not in Gatsby’s reach, far away; it is an unhappy love
- Gatsby tried to earn as much money as he could so as to impress Daisy and finally become
worthy of her love (before he was a poor soldier, he couldn’t marry her)
- Eventually, he struggles and fails
- This longing for the American dream belongs to the history
- Gatsby wanted to achieve things that belonged to the past

Lost Generation

- Everyone seems to be loves

- The families do not exist, everyone cheats, people don’t rely on each other
- People are lost
- Gatsby still believes into the ideals he knows from before the war – he wants to do sth in his
life, to achieve sth, he has a purpose and maybe that’s why he has to die
- There is no sense of purpose

*Gatsby to some extent wins, but Daisy eventually choses Tom – she has changed, she’s not the
same as she was before

Gatsby still believes into the ideals from before the war, and still believes that Daisy did not change

Symbolic colors: grey is associated with the poor; white and yellow – white as upper classes, power,
yellow as gold

Daisy – a delicate flower

Myrtle – overcomes everything, strong