1914~1918

1917.2.3 President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in official relations with Germany

1917.4.19“Wake Up America Day” parade, New York

A group of fresh American recruitsDoughboys saying farewell on their way to Europe

A moment of thought among the horrors of war

The First World War

1929~1940s

Crowd gathering on Wall Street after the 1929 crash

Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression.

The Great Depression

The Jazz Age

1918~1929

The Jazz Age

“ It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess,

and it was an age of satire."

—— F. Scott Fitzgerald “Echoes of the Jazz Age"

•The term “the Jazz Age” is put forward by F.Scott Fitzgerald in

his essay "Echoes of the Jazz Age" in 1931.

•Literary historians also refer it to “the roaring twenties”, which

was a decade of “roaring” excitement, “roaring” confusion and

“roaring” changes. It was marked by political ignorance and

wild pursuit of material wealth.It lasted from 1919 to 1929. The Jazz music as the symbol of youth rebellion. The young listened to Jazz music, showing their breaking away from traditions.

What does the age look like?

1.Young men and women in the 1920s had a sense of reckless confidence about money and 1ife. They were lacking in responsibility and felt excused from seeking the common good.

2.They could plunge themselves into persona1 adventures and engage themselves in casual sex and heavy drinking. They spent money extravagant1y. All that they kept in mind was to seek fun. They could throw themselves at parties, singing and dancing till early in the morning.

3.But beneath their masks of relaxation, there was only sterility and meaninglessness. In fact the age was an era of decayed social and moral values and empty pursuit of pleasure.

in a speakeasy

people dancing changes in women’s style

The First World War

The Jazz Age

The Great Depression

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Spokesman of the “Jazz Age”

a representative of the Lost Generation

Early Life and Influences

• Fitzgerald is best known for his novels and short stories which chronicle the excesses of America's 'Jazz Age' during the 1920s.

• Born into a fairly well-to-do family in St Paul, Minnesota in 1896 Fitzgerald attended, but never graduated from Princeton University.

• In the Northeast, he mingled with the members of high-class who so obsessed him for the rest of his life.

Early Life and Influences

• In 1917 he left Princeton University to join the army, but he never saw active service abroad. Instead, he spent much of his time writing and re-writing his first novel This Side of Paradise, which on its publication in 1920 became an instant success.

• In 1920 he married the beautiful Zelda Sayre and together they embarked on a rich life of endless parties.

Literary influences

• Fitzgerald followed his first success with The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), and The Great Gatsby (1925) which Fitzgerald considered his masterpiece. However, neither one of these books were as well-received as his first.

• It was also at this time that Fitzgerald wrote many of his short stories which helped to pay for his extravagant lifestyle.

Literary Influences

• In the 1930s when Zelda became increasingly troubled by mental illness. Tender is the Night (1934), the story of Dick Diver and his schizophrenic wife Nicole, goes some way to show the pain that Fitzgerald felt.

Content 01

This Side of Paradise(1920) 《人间天堂》The Beautiful and Damned (1922) 《美丽的和可诅咒的》The Great Gatsby(1925)《伟大的盖茨比》Tender Is the Night (1934) 《夜色温柔》The Last Tycoon(1940)《最后的大亨》

NovelsShort Story Collections

Flappers and Philosophers (1920) 《时髦女和哲学家》

Tales of the Jazz Age(1922)

《爵士也时代的故事》

All the Sad Young Men(1926)

《一代悲哀的年轻人》

Taps at Rellevie(1935)

《早晨的起床号》

Themes• Fitzgerald’s themes are very modern.

All of his books and short stories display the loneliness and misery of modern life.

• His books convey the idea that, “Money can’t buy happiness.”

Writing Style• flowery descriptive language Smooth, sensitive, and completely original in its diction and metaphors. Skill in

manipulating the relation between general and specific, bold impressionistic and colorful quality, competence to convey the vision of the author all reveal Fitzgerald' consummate artistry.

• melancholy and often tragic ending As one of products of the post-WWI lost generation, this is evident in the

representation of the decadence of the 1920's . His style , closely related to his themes , is explicit and chilly. provide the reader with a vivid sense of reality

• symbolic imagery

• first person narration Fitzgerald narrated much of what the characters think and feel, leaving much of the

narration to a character that shares more or less his ideas

The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby

“The first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James.”

-- T.S. Eliot

Plot

Themes

Symbols&

Contrast

Chapter three

Nick Carraway

Jay Gatsby

Daisy Buchanan

Jordan Baker

Myrtle Wilson

Tom Buchanan

rival in love

mistresshusband

wife

first lo

ve

friends

cousin

neighbour

dubious

friend

∟

∟

Plot• The entire story takes place in one summer in

1922. The novel describes the life and death of Jay Gatsby, as seen through the eyes of a narrator who does not share the same point of view as the fashionable people around him. The narrator learns that Gatsby became rich by breaking the law. Gatsby pretends to be a well-educated war hero, which he is not, yet the narrator portrays him as being far more noble than the rich, cruel, stupid people among whom he and Gatsby live.

• Gatsby’s character is purified by a deep, unselfish love for Daisy, a beautiful, silly woman who, earlier, married a rich husband instead of Gatsby and moved into high society. Gatsby has never lost his love for her and, in an era when divorce has become easy, he tries to win her back by becoming extravagantly rich himself. He does not succeed, and in the end he is killed almost by accident because of his determination to shield Daisy from disgrace.

• None of Gatsby’s upper class friends come to his funeral. The narrator is so disgusted that he leaves New York and returns to his original home in the provinces( 乡下 ).

Tom Buchanan Like Gatsby and Carraway, Tom also represents something of

the American character. He is vulgar, hypocritical racist and bigot . He is practical and non-idealistic, shallow and mistrustful of emotion. He never cares or takes responsibility.

Jay Gatsby: Gatsby in the novel represents the newly rich upstart, vulgar

（粗俗的） in his ostentatious （好夸耀的） wealth. He is “great”, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life.

Nick Carraway: Nick is both a narrator in this novel. He leads us to the dignity and depth of Gatsby’s character. But as a character, Carraway has his own likes and dislikes. Since Carraway himself is disillusioned, cynical, and somewhat pessimistic, As it goes in the novel, Nick increasingly distances himself from the eastern Buchanans and finally returns to the west.

Daisy Buchanan Like Tom, she also has an inner emptiness, marked by her

boredom and cynicism and moral irresponsibility. She is afraid of being alone, as though she has no inner self. But she has the power to charm. Daisy represents material wealth to Gatsby, but it also connects with physical attraction. She is cowardly and selfish.

Themes---the problem about money and wealth

• Gatsby believes that Daisy may come to a party some night. He thinks his wealth shown in those parties may gain his lover back. This is a sign of a corrupt way of 'winning' love through money and wealth.

All of his books and short stories display the loneliness and misery of modern life.His books convey the idea that, “Money can’t buy happiness.”

• The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, which was the period of the high growth of America, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had been corrupted by the pursuit of wealth.

---the decline of the American Dream

• The Great Gatsby is an examination of American myth in the 20th century. Fitzgerald deliberately depicts Gatsby as a mysterious person so as to achieve the effect that Gatsby is American Everybody. The death, or rather the murdering, of Gatsby poignantly points at the truth about the withering of the American Dream and the ironic effect it has produced upon the whole American myth.

Themes

• 　尼克从中西部故乡来到纽约，在他住所旁边正是本书主人公盖茨比的豪华宅第。这里每晚都在举行盛大的宴会。尼克和盖茨比相识，故事就这样开始了。 尼克对盖茨比充满探究的兴趣。探究的结果是：尼克了解到盖茨比内心深处有一段不了之情。 了不起的盖茨比

• 年轻时的盖茨比并不富有，他是一个少尉军官。他爱上了一位叫黛茜的姑娘，黛茜对他也情有所钟。后来第一次世界大战爆发，盖茨比被调往欧洲。似是偶然却也是必然，黛茜因此和他分手，转而与一个出身于富豪家庭的纨绔子弟汤姆结了婚。黛茜婚后的生活并不幸福，因为汤姆另有情妇。物欲的满足并不能填补黛西精神上的空虚。盖茨比痛苦万分，他坚信是金钱让黛茜背叛了心灵的贞洁，于是立志要成为富翁。几年以后，盖茨比终于成功了。他在黛茜府邸的对面建造起了一幢大厦。盖茨比挥金如土，彻夜笙箫，一心想引起黛茜的注意，以挽回失去的爱情。

• 了不起的盖茨比书籍图片 (5张 )尼克为盖茨比的痴情所感动，便去拜访久不联系的远房表妹黛茜，并向她转达盖茨比的心意。黛茜在与盖茨比相会中时时有意挑逗。盖茨比昏昏然听她随意摆布，并且天真地以为那段不了情有了如愿的结局。然而真正的悲剧却在此时悄悄启幕。黛茜早已不是旧日的黛茜。黛茜不过将她俩目前的暖昧关系，当做一种刺激。尼克终于有所察觉，但为时已晚。一次黛茜在心绪烦乱的状态下开车，偏偏轧死了丈夫的情妇。盖茨比为保护黛茜，承担了开车责任，但黛茜已打定主意抛弃盖茨比。在汤姆的挑拨下，致使其情妇的丈夫开枪打死了盖茨比。盖茨比最终彻底成为了牺牲品。盖茨比至死都没有发现黛茜脸上嘲弄的微笑。盖茨比的悲剧在于他把一切都献给了自己编织的美丽梦想，而黛茜作为他理想的化身，却只徒有美丽的躯壳。尽管黛西早已移情别恋 ,尽管他清楚地听出“她的声音充满了金钱” ,却仍不改初衷 ,固执地追求重温旧梦。人们在为盖茨比举行葬礼，黛茜和她丈夫此时却早已在欧洲旅行的路上。不了情终于有了了结。尼克目睹了人类现实的虚情寡义，深感厌恶，于是怀着一种悲剧的心情，远离喧嚣、冷漠、空洞、虚假的大都市，黯然回到故乡。

• Film- The Great Gatsby

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/ybt1mu7FSrE/