The The Great Great GatsbyGatsby

Group 4

American DreamAmerican Dream

• The term “American Dream” was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream” is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.

• It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous（偶然的，幸运的） circumstances of birth or position."

Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.

• In Gatsby’s life, he was in pursuit of his American Dream, not for himself, but for his beloved Daisy.

Jazz age

The decade of the twenties is often referred to as the

“ Jazz Age’. However, the term has much as much to

do with the jazzy atmosphere of the time as with the

music!

The Roaring Twenties

Jazzy Sounds• Prohibition caused

many of the jazz musicians to migrate north from New Orleans to Chicago

• Joe “King” Oliver” was one of the best

• His claim to fame was hiring Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

• Louis Armstrong is the greatest single figure in the entire history of jazz.

• The “Hot Five” seen here was one of the hottest groups of the twenties.

Jelly Roll Morton• Jelly Roll Morton led

one of Chicago’s most popular groups

• He was a piano player, band leader, and show business personality

• He got the name “Jelly Roll” because he rolled his fingers and his music was sweet

Jazzy Duds• Flappers were typical

young girls of the twenties, usually with bobbed hair, short skirts, rolled stockings, and powdered knees!

• They danced the night away doing the Charleston and the Black Bottom.

Jazzy Talk -Twenties Slang• Flat Tire - a dull,

boring person• Gam - a girls leg• Gin Mill - A speak

easy• Hooch - bootleg liquor• Hoofer - chorus girl• Torpedo - a hired

gunman

• All Wet - wrong• Berries - anything

wonderful• Bee’s Knees - a superb

person or thing• Big Cheese -an important

person• Bump Off - to murder• Dumb Dora - a stupid girl

The “Great” Gatsby

Why is Gatsby great?

It lies in his permanent and irresistible love for Daisy. Once he fell in love with “golden girl”, “and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath”. She became his symbol of ideal. Though Daisy had already loved other man and he clearly noticed “her voice is full of money”, he still stick to his original pursuit and sought for repeating the past unchangeably.

As it was, as a result of his love, his clinging pursuit and devotion for ideal were also beyond mundane kind and enmity of men and women. In order to repeat the past, he did not hesitate to come into the material world in New York, which was dreggy. But actually he had no interest in wealth and luxurious life. His bravery and courage was great.

His soul suffered, but he never complained or regretted. He stuck to his ideal unchangeably. The narrator of this novel said he never praised or criticized a person easily from the beginning of the story. But when he was leaving Gatsby forever, he shouted: “They are a rotten crowd; you are worth the whole damn bunch put together.” So Gatsby is great.

The evaluation of Gatsby

He is mystifying because it contains so many contradictory qualities.

On one hand he is heroic, larger than ordinary men.

On the other hand he is trivial and common.

Gatsby is sensitive and idealistic, almost divine in his dedication his love and faith. But he is also minister, because of his criminal activities.

His inconsistent character, together with his uncertain background, is hard to define. All this, however, helps to create the impression of a remote figure, and this is in keeping with the unreal, fantastic atmosphere that surrounds him and his dream.

Significantly, however, in spite of all the inconsistencies and contradictions, Gatsby manages to hold the readers’ sympathy throughout. The whole-hearted dedication of Gatsby and his sincere belief in what he does makes him heroic, and this submerges the unpleasant details so that they do not seem important in the final outcome.

The real hero in the book

Hero usually means a character who dominates the action, in that everything that happens centers around him; it is he, in, fact, who gives rise to events that take place.

One opinion—Gatsby is hero Gatsby is the character who causes the

action in the novel. It is his dream of Daisy, his desire to re-establish their former relationship, that gives rise to Nick’s involvement. Tom’s hostility and the deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby himself. And it is Gatsby, with his idealism and unquestioning faith, who predominates in the reader’s imagination and wins his sympathy and awe. It would seem then that not only does the novel have a hero but that the hero is Gatsby himself.

A different opinion However, we must remember that Gatsby represents

only one side of the moral theme. He must always be seen against the Buchanans. The action does not merely involve the events that happen-the action concerns the balancing of two ways of life, two sets of values as represented by Gatsby and the Buchanans. And it is Nick Carraway, as he moves between these two groups of characters, who achieves a greater significance. Through his reactions and comments, she shows up the attractiveness and shortcomings of each way of life. In so doing he develops the kind of maturity towards which the whole moral theme of the novel is moving. And although Gatsby captures the reader’s imagination, it is Nick with whom he identifies himself. It is through Nick too that the reader is able to see Gatsby’s magnificence as well as his vulgarity. The novel’s hero, therefore, is not Gatsby but Nick Carraway.

The evaluation of Tom, Daisy’s husband

Tom is cast as Gatsby’s opposite in the novel. Right from the beginning, in Chapter 1, Tom’s physical power and athletic activities are made obvious. These, together with his wealth and material possessions, place him against Gatsby’s sentimental outlook. Whereas Gatsby yearns for love and beauty, Tom, as Nick puts it, seeks “wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”. If Gatsby is given to fantasy, Tom is absorbed in the very earthly pursuits.

The evaluation of Nick

It is true that Nick Carraway begins by merely recording events and keeping a distance between himself and characters such as the Buchanans and Gatsby. But he is soon caught up with the people and the events around him. Unlike Gatsby, whose personality remains unchanging and static, nick develops and matures. While Gatsby and the Buchanans guard their interests single-mindedly, nick learns to see matters from others’ point of view. Nick is not to be placed with Gatsby or with the Buchanans, for he stands alone and above them.

He indeed is the real protagonist in the novel, not Gatsby. For Gatsby and the Buchanans represent two kinds of extreme behavior, two distorted ways of life. Gatsby may dominate over the Bunchanans because his values are more appealing, but his view of life still remains one-sided and unreal. Nick, however, achieves moral insight and wisdom, which make him a more complete person. Indirectly then, the novel, traces Nick’s development, from detachment to participation, from passive unconcern to understanding, from a narrow, subjective outlook to a board indulgence.

How is the theme of love related to the theme of money in The Great Gatsby? Because of Gatsby’s love for Daisy, he

makes great effort to earn a fortune. In order to get in touch with Daisy, he holds lavish parties. It is his love that makes him to make money, and at the same time it is his money that enables him to find Daisy and express his love again.

. The concern with love and money makes up the main idea in the novel. How love and money are related to each other in the case of each of the characters will constitute the substance of the answer however, characters, for whom love is not related with money, must not be omitted. Nick’s sympathy for Gatsby, if it is not love in the sexual sense, is still relevant in that it is love seen in a wider aspect, meaning fellow-feeling. And if nick’s feeling for Gatsby is unrelated to money, this helps to mark a clear contrast between him and all the other characters for whom money must always affect ideas of love.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other works The side of paradise Flappers and philosophers The beautiful and damned Tales of the Jazz Age All the sad young men Tender is the night Taps at reveille The last tycoon The crack-up The stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald Afternoon of an author The pat hobby stories The letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald