Transcript The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald and
the 1920s
Background Notes for the Reading of
The Great Gatsby
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The 1920s
A time of great social change including
fashion, music, politics, attitudes, etc..
Forces clashed to produce the most
explosive decade of the century, a time when
most of the established rules of society were
broken.
World War I ended in 1918 setting the stage
for the Roaring Twenties, a decade in
America of madcap behavior and
materialism.
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Cultural Context of the Novel
Among the rules broken were the age-old
conventions guiding the behaviors of
women.
The new woman demanded the right to
vote and to work outside the home.
Symbolically, she cut her hair into a boyish
“bob” and bared her calves in the short,
sleek skirts of the fashionable twenties
“flapper.”
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Cultural Context of the Novel
Another rule often broken was the Eighteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, or
Prohibition, which banned the public sale of
alcoholic beverages from 1919 until its repeal
in 1933.
Speak-easies, nightclubs, and taverns that
sold liquor were often raided, and gangsters
made illegal fortunes as bootleggers,
smuggling alcoholic beverages into America
from abroad.
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Prohibition and Gangsters
Gangsters profited during
this decade by smuggling
alcohol and distributing it
to different illegal
businesses.
Al Capone was one of
these gangsters who made
$105 million a year on
smuggling alcohol into the
United States.
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The Black Sox Scandal
Another gangland
activity was illegal
gambling. Perhaps the
worst scandal involving
gambling was the socalled Black Sox
Scandal of 1919, in
which eight members of
the Chicago White Sox
were indicted for
accepting bribes to
throw baseball’s World
Series.
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Cultural Context of the Novel
It was also an era of reckless spending and
conspicuous consumption, and the most
conspicuous status symbol of the time was a
flashy new automobile.
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Advertising
Advertising was
becoming the major
industry that it is today,
and soon advertisers
took advantage of new
roadways by setting up
huge, often incongruous
billboards at their sides.
Both the automobile
and a bizarre billboard
play important roles in
The Great Gatsby.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald and
The Great Gatsby
Anticipation Activity
Directions: respond to the following anticipation
questions for The Great Gatsby. Be prepared to
support your response.
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Question #1
Would you marry someone for money?
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Question #2
Is a family with old money different
from/better than a family with new
money?
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Question #3
Does a college degree make you more
socially acceptable?
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Question #4
Is there a circumstance in which
adultery should be allowed?
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Question #5
Are people with money happier than
people without money?
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Question #6
Do you think that you can be in love
with more than one person at a time?
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Question #7
When one comes by wealth illegally,
do you believe he or she is very likely
to pay for it in the end?
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