THE AMERICAN DREAM

What does it mean to you?

• Take 5 minutes to do the following:

1. Think for a moment:• What is your American Dream?

• Why do you desire this?

• Is it unique to you, or can others have the same dream?

2. Draw a picture to represent:• What it looks like, what it includes

American Dream in Film

• The Pursuit of Happyness• What was Will Smith working for?

• The Princess and the Frog• What similarities do you see?

• Forest Gump• What does Forest accomplish?

• What does his true goal seem to be?

In Literature

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn• “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because

Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before” (279)

• Band of Robbers• “As for me, I figure I’ll keep my eyes open for something. Maybe a shot at

a family someday. Find some place where I truly belong, and it’s good and it’s right. Until then, I don’t know. I guess I’ll just wander on”

THE JAZZ AGEThe 1920s

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE 1920s?

New Technologies

Prohibition

The MobAl Capone

“The New Woman”

What do you know about the 1920s?

• WWI

• Finances

• Prohibition

• Power

• Social dynamics

• Role of Women

• America was relatively unscathed & developed new technologies, which became part of daily life

• New industries provided new job opportunities

• Illegal to sell & manufacture alcohol, so it went underground

• Rise of the mob, importance of work and wealth

• Middle class families, mass culture parties

• Right to vote, NO Cult of Domesticity, shorter hair & skirts

Cultural Tensions

• Continued rise of “Middle Class” families• Consumer goods, home technologies, & automobiles

• Prohibition = illegal to manufacture & sell liquor (not to drink)

• “mass culture” image of extravagant lifestyle• Expanded rights for women (1920 suffrage & flappers)

• Entertainment with radio stations, jazz music, dancing, movie theatres

• Racial & Political Ideologies• The Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance (urban African American life)

• Ku Klux Klan rose in rural areas

• Initial anti-Communism “Red Scare”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940)

• Born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Died of a heart attach at age 44.

• WWI – commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry but never served• Met Zelda Sayre while stationed at Camp Sheridan in Alabama

• Extravagant playboy lifestyle• 1st novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), launched him to fame

• Moved between Midwest, NYC, & France• Fitzgerald drank, & Zelda suffered from mental health issues

• Published 4 novels, variety of short stories, & worked as Hollywood screenwriter

OLD MONEY vs. NEW MONEY

What would you do?

If your cellphone was to ring during class (wait…that never happens!) and you were informed you had just won $500,000,000.00 dollars, what would you do? First reactions? First five years? Map it out.

With a partner… (7 minutes)

1. Read the article on Old Money vs. New Money

2. Take notes over important elements of each sidea. Goal is to understand different characteristics

React as if….

1. Decide who is New Money and who is Old Money.

2. Using that perspective, answer each of the following:• Which college are you going to?

• What is your favorite past time?

• What kind of store are you shopping in? What is your favorite brand?

• What kind of car do you drive?

• What is your relationship to society?

College?

Favorite Past Time?

Fashion?

What kind of car do you drive?

Society?

So…why is this important?

Why do you think it is more prestigious to come from old money? Should it matter?

Why do you think it matters to some?

ARCHETYPES& SYMBOLS

Let’s Review

• Symbols and archetypes allow authors to add layers of meaning• Connect between images and bigger ideas

• Connect among other authors and larger society

• We’re going to see some new ones in The Great Gatsby

With a partner…

• Find your Symbols sheet• (or get a new one, because Ms. Kenyon is nice)

• Locate:• Prophet

• Disembodied Face

• Identify:• Main characteristics

• Can you think of examples?

Prophet

• A character who can do all or some of the following:• Bring others truth or knowledge (often associated with light)

• Make others aware of beauty

• Have some power over life and death

• Act as confessors and/or grant absolution

Disembodied Face

• Indicates the Divine• Can indicate corrupted divine (comes from post-WWI & existentialism)

• Recognize it: • “indication of face” with missing parts

• OR the face is intact,

but it has a passive gaze or eyes

Review some more

• Look through your packet• Seasons/Times of Day

• Colors

• Other Symbols

• Literary Tools & Components

• What have we seen so far this year?

• What have we not seen yet?

Other Literary Components

• Unreliable Narrator • A narrator you can’t trust to provide a neutral perspective

• Mismatched Pairs• Romantically linked characters that are opposite from each other in

attitude, physicality, social or financial position, etc.

• The American Dream• personal connection, owning land or heading west, youth, working or

middle class

THE GREAT GATSBY

Important Terms to Know

• The Jazz Age – Jazz music rose to popularity, first with black communities through the Harlem Renaissance, then to white listeners

• The Boom Age – Economic stability post-WWI

• The Roaring 20’s – Prohibition (speakeasies, wild parties, The Mob) and Women’s Suffrage (images of The New Woman)

• The Lost Generation – Group of authors living in Paris & NYC. Term coined by Gertrude Stein, who published many stories in magazines.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• “What little I’ve accomplished has been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I wish now I’d never relaxed or looked back – but said at the end of The Great Gatsby; ‘I’ve found my line – from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty – without this I am nothing.’” – Fitzgerald

• “An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.” – Fitzgerald

• “He had many good, good friends, more than anyone I know. But I enlisted as one more, whether I could be of any use to him or not. If he could write a book as fine as The Great Gatsby I was sure that he could write an even better one. I did not know Zelda yet, and so I did not know the terrible odds that were against him. But we were to find them out soon enough.” – Hemingway